World of Suck

Leaving a voice mail is not complicated. I know I've said this before, and I'm saying it again. Because it's an amazingly simple thing to do.

There are three critical components to a voice mail message.

Name. Contact info. Reason for calling.

Now, you can brush that a little with friends and people you deal with often. For example, when my friend Bill calls, he doesn't need to leave his name because I know his voice and speech habits. Nor does he need a phone number, as I have the standard ones.

That's fine. For close colleagues and friends. However, I work in a company with lots and lots of people. We interact with hundreds of people in our division, a few other divisions and all of our clients. Lots of people. That means that when "Jen" leaves a message, she NEED TO BE SPECIFIC!!!! If her name was Montambo, we could make a case for uniqueness. But it's not. It's fucking JEN! There are a billion people on the planet named Jen. The name is fucking worthless as an identifier. She asks me to call her back, but she didn't leave her number either. Nor the reason she's calling. All and all her message fails on on three counts. No useful name, no useful contact and no useful reason.

In short, die screaming Jen. I won't be calling you back.