Pet Peeves

I find it quite irritating when I call a colleague’s work extension and discover that I cannot leave a message because the voicemail box is full. This is beyond unprofessional. It says, “We don’t value our customers, our employees, or our business partners.” It speaks poorly of the person who cannot keep up with their incoming calls as well as for the company.

If you are so buried under your workload that you cannot check your messages, you have three choices:

1) Work with your manager to assess and redesign internal processes or systems to make your position duties more manageable.
2) Evaluate your time management skills and take steps to improve your ability to prioritize your workload.
3) Get out of dodge. Your professional reputation is at stake. When people cannot leave messages, they will blame you, not your employer for the situation.

We ultimately have to decide for ourselves how we want to present ourselves to the world. You are to blame if your mailbox is full. You don’t get to blame the boss.

One more phone related pet peeve: people who talk on the phone while trying to check out at the grocery store.

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