[bsder]

Um, yes?

Email WORKS JUST FINE. You know what else works fine? A PHONE.

I know that actually calling someone on the phone seems to be traumatic for anyone under 35, but hey.

If it's really important--call. If it's not that important--why am I being interrupted? Send me email.

Chat--all the expressiveness of text with the interruptiveness of a phone call.

[techsupporter]

> I know that actually calling someone on the phone seems to be traumatic for anyone under 35, but hey.

First off, this is needlessly hostile and ageist. Please stop it. I am over 35 and we do not need to keep on with this "well if you're young you are too stupid to understand the One True Ways of doing things." Age discrimination is unfair regardless of direction.

> Chat--all the expressiveness of text with the interruptiveness of a phone call.

For me, chat is far less intrusive than a phone call yet still has the back-and-forth that doesn't easily happen with an e-mail. If you send me a chat message, that's more than just "hi," I can look at it and formulate a brief reply and we can keep going back and forth as needed. We may also migrate the conversation to voice (and video!) or we may drop to a rate more like e-mail.

Either way, I do not need a ringing phone 15 times per day any more than I need 300 e-mails or daily chats that start with "hi" and nothing more.

[dorkwood]

What industry do you work in, exactly? I think it would be a very odd thing if I were to ask my co-workers for their phone numbers. They'd probably ask why I needed it, and I'd say "so that I can call you if there's a problem". They'd say "why don't we just use Google Meet, like we do for everything else? Is there something wrong with your mic? I don't understand."

[bsder]

> They'd say "why don't we just use Google Meet, like we do for everything else? Is there something wrong with your mic? I don't understand."

Okay, that's the first real, valid argument I've seen against a phone call. I had no idea that these services had penetrated so far that they are normalized.

However, not all of us operate in "developer-only" land. People external to the company (at least, prior to Covid) would have phones but almost certainly not a "conferencing app". So, giving out your number would be a fairly normal thing to do in the course of business so giving it to colleagues would not be considered unusual--at least in the US.

[ktal]

If something's broken or if someone needs some info/action to be unblocked, I want a notification. I'm less likely to check email for something time sensitive, but I sure as hell don't want 20 phone calls a day.