Maybe you recognize the following situation:
You are working on a project, either with internal or external persons, and most of your communication is being done by email. But there is this one single person that always calls you instead of sending you a mail. Not only does this person use the phone for every single issue/task that needs to be discussed/solved, but he/she also never replies to the mails you send, but calls you back. If you don't take the call, the person usually leaves a message on your answering machine, just to ask you if it is possible to call him/her back.
I don't know what it is that makes those persons acting in that way, but it definitely does not increase my productivity - and I doubt it helps their. Exchanging a few emails to get a task done doesn't cost me a lot of time and energy. But being interrupted in my work flow by a phone call, discussing the issue, working with it, following up with another phone call, listening to my answering machine, calling back without reaching the person, having to remember to call again later etc etc turns a small task into a much bigger case. And while sitting there and getting a lot of things done with email-only communication, I'm spending a total of 30 minutes or so on some single, tiny tiny item on my long todo list. Leaving me with the big question: Why?
I'm not saying that there are no scenarios when it is better to talk to each other instead of using written communication. There are, for instance when you have several open questions to discuss where one question is depending on another answer. Or when you have a crisis situation that needs to be solved.
But as long as you are dealing with simple tasks consisting of a easy questions, an information inquiry or a request for getting some kind of approval, I don't see any reason to go through a situation like the one described. Maybe it feels different for the persistent caller. It has to, otherwise he/she wouldn't act that way, right?
So what can you do to convert the persistent caller into a straight forward emailer? My strategy is to not take the calls, instead sending a short mail noting that I'm busy (which I usually am) and asking if it is possible to summarize the matter in a short mail. That usually works, at least for a few days. After the, the phone is ringing again.
What would you do?
