I Hate Voicemail

When I had my first phone, all set up with a plan, I never started up a voicemail service. I knew that I was never going to check my messages anyway. It was completely urgent, someone can reach me by text, or a quick Facebook message would suffice as well….actually, I’m terrible when it comes to my phone in general. Ask my parents and sister, and they can attest to that.

Since I started an office job in Toronto for my co-op, it made me COMPLETELY DEPISE VOICEMAIL.

There are many aspects of this position that I detest and find non-fulfilling, but the one thing that I loathe THE MOST is seeing the red light on the office phone obnoxiously lit up, reminding you of the messages waiting for you. Unlike on a personal phone where you are not condemned by a higher authority if you don’t answer your voicemail (because there’s really nothing else to do), I do not have a choice in the office. When most of the clients are middle-aged and elderly people, the easiest thing they can do is pick up the phone and call. Most of the time, I am busy dealing with assholes on the phone, or doing paperwork so I can’t be reached at the moment.

Checking my voicemail is the first thing that I get out of my way in the morning, usually to find out I have 5–7 new messages (if I’m lucky, 10+ messages). I find 2 distinct types of people when they leave messages:

1. The person that rambles on, where only 30% of what comes out of their mouth is relevant. It sucks even more when you have to listen to the whole speech again if you didn’t make out the phone number. It’s not much help when the number that they called from under “Properties” doesn’t match with the few numbers that you have made out in their message either.
2. The person that doesn’t give enough information. Now I have to call you back to find out the information that you failed to give, on top of hearing your inquiry. I’m already trying to limit the time I spend on a call to 10 minutes, this method is very inefficient and time-consuming.

Phone calls with the homeowners of Toronto are stressful for me (maybe that’s another tale to tell), and I get super annoyed when I have to make one call after another, each lasting about 10 minutes. Even though calling our office is the only way that you can reach me in real time, I can’t help but think that everyone that leaves a message is super needy and desperate.

Because of my detest for voicemail, I tend to get rid of any pending messages and return calls as soon as possible so I don’t see that damned light again. I want to throw the phone across the room when I just finished returning the last message from voicemail, and the red light appears AGAIN.

I also reluctantly play what a person called “voicemail tag” where I receive a message, I return the call but no one picks up, I leave a message with my number to call back, the client calls back but I couldn’t be reached so they leave a message. Rinse and repeat until one of us “catches” the other for the call.

I really wish I didn’t have to answer my voicemail, but I also don’t want this to take a toll on my work term evaluation. If only everyone knew how to use email to contact the office.