Pertinent to the IM post, Bert said:
It has been years now since I stopped giving my mobile number to clients. [...]
And, despite my refusal to be held on a leash, I have yet to experience a genuine emergency where being immediately available would have helped in any way.
It just feels to me like there is something disrespectful in assuming that one is (or should be) always available to answer "on the spot".
Indeed, phones are "worse" than IM. A few times in recent years I've given in to somebody who wanted to do business with me (always somebody who found me, not vice versa) and who insisted that we do it over the phone and not over email. And every time I found that the resulting phone call took over 90 minutes and yet did not tell me anything I could not have learned in an email it would have take two minutes to read. Basically I find the phone is only good for ordering pizza and talking to family or close friends.
And like Bert hints: unless you're an ER doctor on call, what can't wait a few minutes or hours? Really?
1 comment:
Can't imagine that even an emergency-room doctor could find utility in a cell phone. If they have to call him in, it's too late for him to get there in time, right?
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