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Oops!! Missed Your Call - Phone Etiquette One Can Follow

Updated on November 16, 2012

What is the most annoying thing you can experience while calling a person on the phone? Is it that the person on the other end is talking to someone else simultaneously? Or is there some music running in the background? There are certain things that annoy me more than these things. One of them is when the person on the other end simply doesn’t respond.

It is understood that people are extremely busy handling multiple things simultaneously in today’s time. However, it is extremely irritating when one simply doesn’t respond to your call even after dialing the number a few times and you know for a fact that the person is not on another call. What is more annoying is that they don’t even bother responding back to you after that, leaving you in an empty space with the thoughts of “What happened?? Is it something I said??” I certainly think that everyone should learn some basic phone etiquette when it comes to these kinds of situations.

1) Cut the damn call!!

As I said earlier, each of us are handling multiple things simultaneously. Alternatively, you may be in the midst of something more important such as a meeting or training. This may not give you enough room to take a phone call. A simple action of cutting the incoming call can give the caller a clear indication that you are busy at the moment. He/she will either call you back later or will ask you to call back when you are free.

2) Call back… for heaven’s sake!!

I certainly don’t believe that one’s memory is so bad at the age of 30 or even 50 that you won’t remember a simple call your friend or someone close to you made. And you have something called the “call register/log” in your cell phone. Of course, it is another matter if you have been handling a hundred calls a day or you work for 20 hours and the only time you get is to crash on a bed in the office itself. All you have to do is cut your gossip time at the water cooler for 5 minutes and call back.

By the way, you do remember that there are usually two days off on the weekend where you do all your unproductive activities, right? And please don’t tell me that you are too tired to talk to someone for 5 minutes. That is the lamest excuse I have ever heard. Now, is there is a specific reason why you are not calling back, unless you are avoiding them for some reason?

3) Switch on the answering machine

Remember that there is something called the answering machine? If not, a warm welcome to the 21st century. If yes, then you already know that you can switch on an answering machine so that the caller knows that you are unavailable at the moment. This will also let them know when you are available and they will call you back. If you are not using an answering machine for reason, do check out the next option.

4) Leave a text message

Can it get simpler than this? Please tell me how long does it take to type a simple message such as “busy at the moment, will call back”. Less than 30 seconds? Again, a simple sacrifice of 30 seconds of your unproductive time in office or something else you had to make. And please ensure that you call back later when you are free.

What other phone etiquette do you think one should follow when he/she is unable to receive a call? Do feel free to add them below.

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