Why it's time for office workers to pick up the phone again

Excellent article by David Hepworth at The Independent.

When I edited Smash Hits in the early 1980s we had a brilliant advertising manager. He liked to talk. In fact he did nothing but talk. He picked up the phone and talked to clients. We heard every word he said. I can still recite his shtick 30 years later. But here’s the thing. In two years of working with him I never saw him write anything down.

Offices were noisier places in those days. They were performance spaces. Typewriters clacked and dinged, phones rang, fax machines pleaded, while the biggest personalities built their phone conversations into extravagant one-man shows, often for the benefit of colleagues sitting across the desk. It’s a world away from the tappety tappety cubicles where today’s media drones sit emailing each other in a language designed to neutralise the power of personality, avoid conflict and above all cover their own backs...

Comments

[Neil]

I wouldn't say that phone is always the answer, but I do agree with the sentiment here. I also make a point of going to see people more know - for building a relationship, or simply getting things done, face to face is still king for me.

[Jaam Gans]

I do a lot of work with a variety of people in different countries and find that the best method of communication is a combination of phone calls and emails. They definitely both have their place.