I have about had it.  What has happened in this world?  People don’t return phone calls anymore.

Am I the only one that has this happening?  Or, are you experiencing the same thing?  And, if so, does it bother you?

Well, it really bothers me.  It bugs the hell out of me.

It is so rude.  So insensitive.  So thoughtless.  So demeaning.  So infuriating.

The person not returning your phone call is essentially saying to you one of the following, or some combination of the following:

• You are not worth my time
• You have no value to me
• I could not be bothered to return your call
• I don’t recognize you as a person
• F___ you

Am I being too harsh?

Possible reasons for not returning a phone call.

• The person forgot
• The person is overwhelmed
• The person is so busy

Or the person could be a member of the younger generation that is into texting only.  Not only do they not use their phone for communication, but they don’t even check their voice messages.  I am familiar with this because I have some kids that are in this generation.

Why is returning a phone call so important, you may ask.  Over and above it being a personal affront, during this post Covid era, we need to do everything we can to connect with others.  People, all people, need connection.   There are many ways to make a connection – in person, zoom, text, email, a handwritten letter or note and by phone. Phone is one of the key ways that we have to connect with others.

In addition, I would argue that it is particularly important in this day and age for government offices to return phone calls, or for that matter, answer phone calls.  The reason being that many citizens are beginning to lose confidence in their governmental agencies at all levels of government.  Now, more than ever, governmental offices should be as accessible as possible, as customer friendly as possible, and as responsive as possible.

Instead, all too often these days government websites don’t even list a phone number to call.  if they do have a number, invariably you do not get a person to answer.  Rather you get a never ending message saying something to the effect that “please listen carefully because our menu has changed.”  that is then followed by “we are experiencing a higher than usual call volume.”  Then that is followed by “to get you to the right department, choose from the following options.  Press 1 if…”  bottom line, you are on the phone for seemingly forever and more often than not you never actually reach a live human being.

As with every problem, there is always an opportunity to improve the situation.  Here is what I would do.

First of all, I would make sure that the agency values the importance of a live human being answering a constituents’ phone call.  I would show this by having a human being answer the phone on the first ring.  Yes, the first ring.  This is possible.  Amazon does it.  Our government agencies can do it.

If the human being cannot answer on the first ring, then have a message which says that “we want to answer your call right away but we are temporarily busy.  We want to give you a choice because we know that your time is valuable.  If you would like to hold, your wait time is expected to be xxx minutes.  If, however, you would like us to call you back at this number, just press 2.”

Then, I would add “we realize that you have taken the time to place a call to us.  We want to honor that by answering your call immediately or getting back to you as quickly as possible.  We want you to feel that you can reach us on any issue or concern that you may have.  We want you to feel that we are open and accessible and responsive to your attempts to reach us for whatever reason.”

But, it is one thing to outline what government agencies can do to remedy the situation.  It is quite another thing to identify what can be done to get individuals that you call to return your phone calls.

The fact that this is occurring a lot more now than I can ever remember says a couple of things to me.

One, obviously it says something about the individuals that don’t return the call.

But, two, it says something about the societal standard that we hold ourselves to, both individually and as part of a community.  Clearly the standard that you return a phone call has slipped from what it once was.