The dark arts

My coworker spent 30 minutes trying to find another way to contact a vendor after I told her the easiest way to order the thing she needed was just to call and it would take 2 minutes. I hate calling too, but that's just dumb. Or maybe I just like efficiency more than I hate the phone.

It’s not so much that I can’t make phone calls, as much as I don’t want to. 75% of the time you just end up playing phone tag, and I’d rather just email so they can reply at their convenience and there’s no question about who said what

I'm a millennial. I'm nearly 41. I'm the director of department.

I am also a fun little trash goblin on the weekends.

We can be competent at work and fun friendly people.

I find all this generational ontology very tiring nowadays

Literally everything I learned in my high school careers class was useless because the world changed so much because of the internet getting more and more mainstream. Was told to keep calling and asking about applications; nobody actually answers the phone. Was told to collect and fill out applications in person; everyone moved to online-only applications. Was told to dress like I'm going to church for interviews; most interviews I've had were group interviews and 90% of the other applicants just wore jeans and t-shirts. Was taught to meet the higher ups so they would get to know me; the higher ups aren't even on site except maybe once in a blue moon because something went wrong.

No, millennials with rich parents will inherit the Earth.

Have you seen what they’re leaving us? No thanks.

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king

I'm a millennial and I'm fine at work with eye contact and whatnot (it's uncomfortable, but I'm a manager now and do it regularly), but I detest phone calls. I don't understand why, I'm fine going in to an institution to get stuff done, but the thought of calling someone is super intimidating for some reason. And I grew up with a landline at home and didn't get a cell phone (i.e. no SMS) until I went to college. So it's not like I was conditioned to avoid calls, I just grew to hate them for some reason.

That said, when I do call, I generally get things done much more quickly, so it's completely irrational. Yet here we are. I have to give myself a small pep talk before pressing the call button.

We already do now if they learn the dark art of not giving random people their entire lifesavings to a Nigerian prince via text....

Chiming to say I am also a millennial that doesn't break down over phone calls, shaking hands, and talking to strangers, even when the socialization is important to my livelihood

We had a new Engineer start, fresh out of college, and he was terrified to call people at first. Now, only a few months later, he much prefers it as a more effective means of communicating.

In boomer times, phone calls were expensive and were transferred over landlines. It had an impact on the quality of the conversation.

Today people call you with 1% battery while at the register of the supermarket and instantly launch into a monologue about how they know it's not a good time to call, and they might even cut off any moment, and they know you're usually busy at 10am on a work day, but they really need to know if they can call you "later" to discuss something really important. And before you can tell them anything, they cut off. At least it's over!

10 minutes later they call you from their car and it takes them a couple of minutes to get the audio working so they can repeat everything they said earlier. It's what you have to do if a call was cut off! Then they drive into a tunnel.

Dealing with this shit is a dark art fr

I'm on the youngest side of the millennials, when do I inherit, since I often like to phone in, as these days if you want something fixed quick, you're better off calling (in Australia at least).

Much better waiting on hold for 10 mins than who knows how many business days before the customer service inevitably copy pastes something from the FAQ that doesn't resolve your problem.

Also, I like to call friends, on the phone. And use SMS 0_0

Again, when can I get my inheritance, thanks haha

Yeah I can do this. And am not even 30 yet.

Nope.
It would probably help if phone calls still really existed as a method of getting stuff done but the amount of places not bothering / having automated / foreign staff for their call centers makes them basically pointless and a completely different skill set compared to old school charisma and phone etiquette.

Patience and stubbornness to deal with the bullshit and still keep the effort applied will win.

Not some skill that feels nostalgic and forgotten like phone calls or cursive will save you from the onslaught of time.

Im a millennial and my restaurant doesn't have a phone AMA

Something that has me feeling old as shit is youngsters use loud speaker in public, on the bus, in city centre, now this would make sense to me if they were in a group but nope its just one person and I hear the entire conversation from both sides.

I am extremely introverted, but working as a software engineer in a consultancy where the owner wanted engineers to be on the end of phones for clients was in many ways a godsend. The secret of calls is that everyone also hates it. The secret of eye contact is that the other person hates it too, so just do it enough to show that you've tried and that's the acceptable norm.

So...xillenials

Phone calls are a trap. Little good comes from answering them.

You want something done? You march into someone's office. And when I say march, I mean march.

"Based." Did I say that right, or was it cringe?

phone calls

Even Boomers know not to answer their phones anymore

when yall stop making eye contact, you've truly lost your humanity

Firm handshakes.

It's why there are a disproportionate number of Mormon CEOs and politicians. They train them from a young age to do missionary work.