*$%#* phone

I have a love-hate relationship with my office phone. That's not true. I hate it. Somebody somewhere has flipped a switch, and I'm getting more calls than ever. It's driving me crazy. If I was smarter, I would have figured out what to do about it by now. People call who want to rent the church, present their ministry to the congregation, run a seminar. They need money because they're in a tight spot, or they just want an appointment to talk. They want someone to conduct their wedding ceremony, or they want to see how something works. Most of them are complete strangers to me. Some of the phone calls are easy to deal with; some are important; most take time. (All of them used to take time, but I sometimes decide to ignore those along the lines of "God loves you and I have a wonderful plan for your life"). And don't get me started on the phone stalkers, who call back every five minutes just in case. Sometime soon I'm going to figure out what to do about this problem. I think part of the solution will be better screening, so I deal with more of the people-related calls and less of the administrative ones. Let's just hope I haven't ripped the phone from the wall and thrown it out the window by then.

Comments

[Ian]

I hadn't seen a blog entry from you in several days .. now I have an idea why '-) I should also say I have never read a blog entry from you where your frusttration has rung out so loud .. when it gets to be too much (if it isn't already) the call forward button (if you have one) is very handy as well as working from home for part of the day. The good news is its Friday so time in the office is almost done for the week ;-)

[Steve]

I know exactly what you mean. My solution has been to push "Do not disturb." (I don't even hear it ring) and tell my secretary that I am unavailable to take calls until after lunch - she doesn't tell them I will call back only that they can call back if they like. It's worked pretty well - except that I have a stack of messages when I get back from lunch. Some people have been offended - what else is new? :) I keep my cell phone on so my wife can get thru...

[kevin]

I just don't answer the phone. If the secretary isn't in, it goes to voicemail. If I don't know who it is or don't want to deal with it, I have her send it to voicemail. If a call comes in to my cell and I either don't want to talk to you right now or don't know who you are or why you are calling, you go to voicemail. I don't like telephones. I don't like talking on the telephone. Tell me what you need in the message. I'll call you back later with what you need. If we really need to talk about it, schedule an appointment.