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I wish IM was more popular in our office but unfortunately, it’s not. I think it’s just me and two coworkers, who always have questions to ask me about their work. It’s much easier to answer their questions by IM or even email (though email takes more time), than by phone. I don’t have to stop everything else and listen to them.

I only rarely call vendors – email is better because I don’t have to worry about busy signals or getting transferred around as they figure out who can help me.

Our first choice is meeting directly with people. Our second is over the phone. And our third is email. Email is still used a lot – but it’s easy to mistake tone and intent in email, and to a lesser degree over the phone. So we try to mostly use email to document meetings and conversations after the fact as well as highlight points of concern, action items and responsible parties.

I get frustrated with many of my coworkers who default to email – for us, it makes more sense to meet, iron out any issues in person instead of squabbling over email, and then just document it after the fact. Far and away the most efficient use of everyone’s time. Also, it’s much easier to build a relationship in person than over email.

For what it’s worth, both my firm and our client are mostly engineers.

You can often get as much from a person’s e-mail as you can from a phone call. If you’re so keen to judge people by how they handle themselves on the phone, you can also judge them by how they handle themselves via e-mail. Are their e-mails concise and to the point? Or are they disorganized, rambling, include too much information, or not enough information. Did they pay attention to details or are there misspelled words and other grammatical errors?”

1.A long response, a personal response at that, to a blog posting is NOT the same as a work memo.

I get that we live in a world where most people don’t read “long” anymore. And frankly, I don’t care if anyone reads my comments here or anyone else based on length. That kind of person isn’t interested, based on length, so be it. Plenty of people don’t read today, either, whether newspapers or books (ebooks or print) and some people who read only read “short” books or articles.

That’s their business and their right and choice.

2. Yes, you can learn plenty from a person’s email, but my personal/professional experience is that sometimes people who aren’t great communicators via email are incredibly facile and adept in person and on the phone. I’ll STILL take a person with better interpersonal and phone skills over someone who prefers to email and doesn’t handle it well. My choice.

By the way, length alone is not a key factor in determining someone’s email skills. As I said, plenty of people do “short” emails. A lot of them are incomplete, confusing and inaccurate. Length alone doesn’t indicate, either in verbal or written output, whether you do it well.

Some authors write long, long, long sentences and still hold my attention. Others write “short” and say and convey nothing.

Same with people.

Having never been in a situation where I was interviewing someone who was deaf, I’ve never had to contemplate how I would handle it.

Discrimination against the deaf when I’m talking about methods used with those who are not deaf or otherwise unable to speak? Hardly.

Sorry that I didn’t point out that I was referring to people who were able to speak on the phone–I would think that was obvious. IF I was interviewing someone who was deaf, and could not be physically present with them, and someone who knew sign language to interpret for them, I would find a way to accommodate them–an interpreter can speak for them, for example, and if they don’t have one, there are other options. If I was interviewing anyone who had trouble speaking, I would work to find a way that worked for them.

But that is not the situation I was referring to in my comments.

In my personal life I rarely use the phone, and when I do, about 50% of the time it is text. Because: text does not interrupt someone and require their immediate attention the way a voice call does.

Also because: so many people will not leave a voice message! Or if they do leave a message, it’s not useful! They don’t say why they called or what information they may need from me, or they don’t answer the question I had for them.

Not only that, so many people do not respect work hours. I cannot believe how many personal calls I overhear in my office. I tell people that I will not and cannot receive or make personal calls during business hours, and I simply do not answer my cell phone.

People who really need to reach me can send me a text – or email – and I can reply without disrupting my workday – or theirs. I don’t just assume someone is available to take *my* call at a moment’s notice, either.

As long as communications are being answered in a timely and constructive way, I don’t see any functional difference between telephone, text, and email. Frankly, I’m amazed that “land-line” phones don’t routinely include text features already.

@ Mletta, what would you do if it was a deaf person? Some of your statements could be misunderstood as discrimination against the deaf, especially during a hiring process. I’m curious to hear how you would work around that? Would you be open to email or IM chat if it was a deaf person?

On the other end, in my professional communications, having a written record has served me very well. Not always to my immediate advantage — sometimes the record reveals my own imperfections — but it helps me judge accurately what the next step is.

I have found myself in a profession where email is vastly the norm, and phone contact is rare (usually with a vendor); even contact with overseas colleagues is usually managed with Skype. I’m as happy about this as a pig in a nice clean pen (my farmer friends tell me pigs actually don’t care that much for mud.)

Wow. I agree that phone skills are important in many professions, but you obviously place it way above other forms of communication. Your long response shows that you may need to hone your written communciation skills, because most people gave up reading less than halfway through.

You can often get as much from a person’s e-mail as you can from a phone call. If you’re so keen to judge people by how they handle themselves on the phone, you can also judge them by how they handle themselves via e-mail. Are their e-mails concise and to the point? Or are they disorganized, rambling, include too much information, or not enough information. Did they pay attention to details or are there misspelled words and other grammatical errors?

I am 44 years old, I read lips and am oral, and I do not know sign language.

Even with email and texting, we are still left out socially as so many people use phones as a way to cement friendships.

It’s also hard for us to do business. For example, try finding a plumber (or other business) in the Yellow Pages and using the Relay service to call, especially if urgent. Most plumbers (and other businesses) would hang up thinking the Relay is a joke being played on them.

One reason my graphic design business did not do well is because people would get frustrated in that they can not just pick up the phone and call me. I am excellent in responding nearly immediately to emails, texts, and faxes.