Should I respond?

[TootsNYC]

Ceallach, you're her boss--I would think that you can say, "next time, leave a message--I don't want to have to do detective work, and neither does anybody else. That's not a good use of people's time."

[Ceallach]

Ceallach, you're her boss--I would think that you can say, "next time, leave a message--I don't want to have to do detective work, and neither does anybody else. That's not a good use of people's time."

Oh of course!  As I said in my post, some retraining to ensure expectations are clear.   Nothing formal, just pointing out what would work better.

I didn't say so to her at the time as we had bigger issues to sort out with the reason she actually needed to call, but when I see her in person tomorrow I plan to raise it.

[Sweettooth]

Actually, something I hate is that two people in my office will see that I rang their phone some time before and they are now calling back to see what I needed. I left no message. I didn't email or IM them. I work a busy desk and usually by the time they call me I don't even remember what I called about to begin with. If I can't get one of them, I immediately move on to someone else to find an answer and once that's done I don't dwell on it. So when I get a "Hey, you called? What do you need?" an hour after the fact it's wasting my time and theirs. It's very annoying and takes my attention away from the task at hand.

This is how I operate as well: if I need you to call back or if I need something from you, I'll leave a message. But some of my coworkers operate the opposite way: they don't listen to my voice mails which might sometimes save them a phone call, and they call back if I *don't* leave a message. Maybe eventually we'll work out a social standard--my way, of course, should be the standard. 

[veronaz]

Yeah, it's irritating to get a call like this:

"I see you called."
Me:  "Yeah."
(silence)
"What can I do for you?"
Me:  "Did you listen to my vm message?"
"No."
(So I have to repeat everything I said in the vm they didn't want to bother listening to.)   What a waste of time - for both of us.

[Hmmmmm]

I had the opposite problem today!   One of my newer staff called my phone and didn't leave a message.   I wasn't sure if it was her as her number is blocked (necessary due to some of the clients she calls from that phone, and fairly common at my company), but knew if it was her that it would probably be important.   I sent her a message saying "Hi I just had a missed call from a blocked number, was that you?  I am free now if you need to talk".   Sure enough, she replies that it was her and with what she needs from me.       I'm not sure what she hoped to achieve, perhaps she is one of those people who will just keep calling without leaving messages and then complain that they couldn't reach me?   I will definitely need to give her some retraining so expectations are clear.   (Although given I just demonstrated my psychic powers to her she may not see why it's necessary...)

I get that people have different understanding of the purpose of voicemail, but sometimes they are a little illogical.  In this case there was nobody else who could help her, and it was a fairly immediate need.   So she's lucky I broke my usual rule about not responding if there's no message left, and also that I guessed correctly that it was her!

In some corporate cultures, you don't normally ask a higher up to call you back. You might say "Hi, Boss. I tried calling you about such and such. I'll try you again later." And then the boss can call back if they want. But asking for a call back is considered bad form.

[Ceallach]

I had the opposite problem today!   One of my newer staff called my phone and didn't leave a message.   I wasn't sure if it was her as her number is blocked (necessary due to some of the clients she calls from that phone, and fairly common at my company), but knew if it was her that it would probably be important.   I sent her a message saying "Hi I just had a missed call from a blocked number, was that you?  I am free now if you need to talk".   Sure enough, she replies that it was her and with what she needs from me.       I'm not sure what she hoped to achieve, perhaps she is one of those people who will just keep calling without leaving messages and then complain that they couldn't reach me?   I will definitely need to give her some retraining so expectations are clear.   (Although given I just demonstrated my psychic powers to her she may not see why it's necessary...)

I get that people have different understanding of the purpose of voicemail, but sometimes they are a little illogical.  In this case there was nobody else who could help her, and it was a fairly immediate need.   So she's lucky I broke my usual rule about not responding if there's no message left, and also that I guessed correctly that it was her!

In some corporate cultures, you don't normally ask a higher up to call you back. You might say "Hi, Boss. I tried calling you about such and such. I'll try you again later." And then the boss can call back if they want. But asking for a call back is considered bad form.

Right, but she knew her number was blocked, so how would I know she'd called at all!  I don't expect anybody to demand a call back, but telling me what she needed is necessary in order for me to be aware of the need and assist her.

[DragonKitty]

At work, I try to be very specific in my voicemails.  "I'm calling about "specific problem", please call me back at ....".  I also am careful about the speed at which I leave my phone number, because I hate people who rattle off their number so fast, I have to rewind the voicemail 4 or 5 times to be able to get the number.

Also, if I return a call and get person's voicemail, then I do suggest that "If we are going to play phone-tag, please tell me what you need to know so that I can leave you a message about your concern".  And sometimes we never connect over the phone, but their question gets answered.

[SamiHami]

Oh! I have another one! The people in my office make a lot of outgoing calls. Students will see that a call came from the school and will call and the conversation usually goes something like this:

student: I got a call from this number.
me: Okay, who do you want to talk to?
student: I don't know; someone called me.
me: (ask a couple of questions to try to suss out who they might need)
me: Sorry, I don't know who called you; if it's important I'm sure they will call you back.
student: oh, well I guess I'll listen to the message and see who it was.
me: *headesk*

[Peppergirl]

^ Boy, do I HATE this too!

Worse, I work in an after hours call center.  We get people calling and without so much as a hello, "Someone just called my number". 

When I explain that it's a multi-line call center and that there's no way to figure it out, I often get cursed at.

[PastryGoddess]

Oh! I have another one! The people in my office make a lot of outgoing calls. Students will see that a call came from the school and will call and the conversation usually goes something like this:

student: I got a call from this number.
me: Okay, who do you want to talk to?
student: I don't know; someone called me.
me: (ask a couple of questions to try to suss out who they might need)
me: Sorry, I don't know who called you; if it's important I'm sure they will call you back.
student: oh, well I guess I'll listen to the message and see who it was.
me: *headesk*

I'm guilty of doing this a lot.  However, I realize pretty quickly when I've reached a call center or a front desk person and try to remove myself from the call ASAP. I usually say something like "I'm sorry, I thought they were calling from their personal extension.  I'll see if they left a message and call back"  Then I go and check my messages and call back with the right name or extension