When the Phone Rings, My Soul Leaves the Room
Since the pandemic, one silver lining has been the quiet migration of most client and team communication to chat apps.
I am eternally grateful for this forced digital transformation, because, quite frankly, I hate phone calls.
“I’ll call you at 1 p.m.” — The Day Is Over Before It Begins
The moment someone says, “I’ll call you at 1 p.m.,” my day is done.
In fact, it’s over before it even starts.
That 1 p.m. appointment sits on my mind like a boulder.
I keep glancing at the clock, unable to focus on anything.
And then there are the surprise calls.
They always seem to come at the worst possible moment — when I’m mid-task, half-distracted, and already juggling five things.
I answer anyway, because I’m a professional.
Well… except for those rare times I pretend to be busy and let it ring out — only to realize that putting it off is its own special kind of hell.
Why Phone Calls Are Pure Hell
- They steal your time You stop what you’re doing, dig the caller’s project out of your brain, mentally organize the status, and simultaneously pull up the right files, notes, and schedules. All while listening, talking, and taking notes at the same time. Congratulations — you’ve just been thrown into the Olympic sport of multitasking.
- The news is rarely good
- “The manuscript is running late… how long can you wait?”
- “Can we get just this one section earlier?”
- “I’m a bit lost on this…”
The Trap Hidden in ‘How Long Can You Wait?’
This question is never innocent.
It really means: “We’re already late, so could you please adjust your schedule to make up for it?”
Even if you answer, “I’ll do my best,” in this bizarre phone-call universe, that somehow gets translated to: “Absolutely, I’ll meet the deadline!”
And just like that, their stress — and your resentment — spreads through the receiver like airborne germs.
The Worst Offender: The ‘Just Calling to Discuss’ Call
The hardest calls are from people who haven’t organised their thoughts.
They start with: “I’m a bit confused about something…” and then proceed to wander from point to point with no clear direction.
You end up summarising their problem for them: “So, you mean X, right?”
They respond with: “Hmm… not exactly… well… maybe… no, wait…”
You don’t get a “Yes” or a “No” — you get silence, uncertainty, and eventually… blame.
By the end, you’ve reorganised their requests, rebuilt the schedule, and even proposed design alternatives.
At that point, you’re not a project manager anymore — you’re a professional thought translator.
They call it “part of the communication process,” but really, it’s just emotional dumping disguised as work.
When Outsourcing Turns into Outsourcing Your Thinking
Don’t get me wrong — I’m not against phone calls in principle.
I agreed to manage the project.
What I didn’t agree to was: “I can’t think this through, so I’ll just talk at you until you sort it out for me.”
Please, I beg you — if you’re “a bit confused,” write it down first.
Try to make sense of it yourself.
If you still can’t… call a therapist.
Because if I’m supposed to be your project manager and your emotional organizer, we need to renegotiate my contract.
And so, my phone vibrates again.
Exactly at 1:00 p.m.