Because it's an efficient way of remote working vs being at the beck and call of some aunt that thinks they can jump everything to the front of the queue. Historically you had a secretary or receptionist to invite people to fook off while in the middle of something, but apparently secretaries only make partners efficient so everyone else has to join the equivalent of the ramp down to the Waterloo & City line if they want admin done.
the worst is skill-free, pushy millennial paper-chasing choppers at sponsor-side firms responding to suggestions that a call would help with “we don’t think a call is necessary”
if anyone says this to me, I *INMEDIATELY* call them.
do you hire content-free, guileless process-chasing american firms or do you prefer a civilised and blue blooded city practice with a duly contemplative manner, like eg messrs macfarlanes
I miss proper conference calls where you all sit round the phone and occasionally mute it so you can talk about what a muppet the other lawyer is. Young lawyers will probably never experience the joy of hearing someone snoring at the other end or messing up the mute button and calling everyone khunts.
I will never forget when I was a greenhorn trainee I was on a con call with a senior project finance partner who out the phone on mute on a call, sat back in his chair with hands behind head, arrogant stylee, moving only to occasionally raise a stiff middle finger at the phone whenever our client was speaking. It was an object lesson in professionalism.
Guy, when the telephone was invented, the predicated business case was calling somebody simply to inform them that a letter or telegram from you was on its way to them.
But like the Beeching Cuts were predicated on people using cars to get to mainline stations, apparently nobody stopped to wonder what might happen if everybody simply carried on the telephone conversation or car journey.
Its worse than what Heff suggests. I have been asked by my parents to check out two friends who rent one of their flats. Neither of them will talk on the phone they insist on text or whats app only. So we have been playing ping pong whats app for three days when a call would have buttoned it down in a call or two. They are both early 20's
Ditto a couple in their early 20's in which I am trying to arrange a viewing of parents flat. Things can get resolved so much more quickly via phone.
Laz: we share the love, depending on what needs doing. where the take no prisoners approach is preferred we use US firms. where we are all a bit more cuddly and soft we use the like of Macs etc.
I'm with Marshall but now my work landline is routed to my work mobile so it's all the same really. I keep explaining this to people who ring my landline then immediately call my mobile if I don't answer. It's all the same phone so if I don't answer one number I'm very unlikely to answer the other.
“Young lawyers will probably never experience the joy of hearing someone snoring at the other end or messing up the mute button and calling everyone khunts. “
on the other hand they get the joy of stuff like seeing a lawyer attend a hearing remotely as a cat - so swings and roundabouts
i don’t really have an issue with picking up the phone or some1 phoning me
but the idea that it is better “cos it only takes 2 minutes” is a shit point. just schedule a 2-minute teams meeting then.
the gr7 advantage of calls scheduling on teams etc is that it has slowed down business which as others have point out above is a good thing generally, but has a number of other advantages - (eg and strictly eg, there r tons) it prevents the sort of tool who used 2 pick up the phone 4 a 2-minute charge and then call again 25 minutes l7er, then again 15 mins l7er etc etc, usually but not exclusively a gammony boomer who could not use their email and kept 4getting stuff, it means u can schedule properly nice things like exercise and a coffee without some tool (often the same as the previous 1) sending u an email saying “i tried 2 call but u weren’t at ur desk” and it allows u 2 invite wfh millennials who would have been overhearing in the office but now cannot unless u have a meeting
etc etc
basically complaining about the death of the “quick call” is bollocks
Plus I can't be arsed carrying both a work mobile and a personal one, and there is no way am I giving anyone my own mobile number if I can't trust them not to use it at other times.
So much easier using Teams for internal calls anyway.
There is something quite vicious about the phone. It sits there all unassuming and suddenly rings. It could be new work or distressed people out for my blood. It's no way to live. Wait for 4 rings. Maintain composure.
Dr M tells me that when he is on duty (to supervise) in the reporting room, the youngsters with a question two feet away dont come to his desk they bloody message him on screen. Ditto doctors elsewhere in the hosp, they email rather than phone, he ends up haring up and down stairs to talk to them in person
I did predict a decade ago teachers could retrain to give teach ppl to be able to speak face to face but no one was interested. £80 an hour per child. Chz.
I'm 47 and absolutely HATE when people ring me unannounced. Also these jolly lawyer types who refuse to answer a simple email and CALL instead all happy with their I thought I'd just call nonsense. F O
I much prefer the phone as you can actually pick up on the tone of what you're being told rather than misreading the tone of an e-mail and making a situation worse by responding in the wrong manner.
Minkie I worked in an open plan office where people did that and would make a point of turning round and answering them out loud especially when it all needed was a one word answer.
Part of the reason nobody uses the phone anymore is because computer based phone apps are sh1t and half the time they don't work.
The other reason of course is if you call someone who is 'working' from home they are probably cooking lunch for their kids or walking the dog or sleeping or having a little personal quality time with the internet so they won't answer anyway.
You shouldn't need to schedule a fvcking 2 minute chat though for god's sake!
lol I see donny is a EVERYONE BACK TO THE OFFICE SO I CAN EYE UP THE LADIES AGAIN ahem I mean so we can stop skiving around as everyone clearly does sort of a partner
heh, on the contrary I am very often to be found walking the dog or having a nap or playing ping pong with my son quite happily and not answering my phone as a result. Fortunately (because if anything status works better when WFH) people think I am on some terribly important call about terribly important things which is why I can't be reached. Or more accurately they are obliged to pretend that is what they think.
The other reason of course is if you call someone who is 'working' from home they are probably cooking lunch for their kids or walking the dog or sleeping or having a little personal quality time with the internet so they won't answer anyway.
As opposed to being in a pointless meeting, or chatting to the bod in the next-door office, or making a coffee, or popping out for a lunchtime pint, which is what people did when they were "working" from an office?
You don't need to spend a couple of mins faffing about with the App, waiting for a connection that sometimes falls, lose the connection during the meeting etc.
I still use my trusty desk-top landline phone - the reception quality is excellent and is very quick and efficient.
It's also the extra faff of people e-mailing to ask when you're available for a call. Just call me and if I don't answer leave a message and I'll call you back.
I pretty much never answer my work phone anymore. 95% of the time it's a recruiter, financial adviser, tailor or scammer. If it's a client and it's important they either leave a VM or send an email and I can call them straight back.
why would you talk on the phone when you can talk teams and see people's facial expressions etc...in a planned way too. phones are dead for business purposes. and for personal where whatsapp rules. I don't answer my phone and don't let people leave VMs
I still use the phone, but then again I often work on cases where people haven't used the phone and created disclosable evidence which fvcks them right in the tight one.
Wot Nexis said, I have always hated being ambushed out of the blue by phone calls. In fact my standard practice is not to answer and only call back if somebody leaves a message.
Ego there are times in my work where I don't want to hear a carefully prepared answer. I want to hear what someone says on the hoof when asked the question as it gives you a much better sense of whether they are trying to spin information that isn't good.
I have always hated being ambushed out of the blue by phone calls. In fact my standard practice is not to answer and only call back if somebody leaves a message.
Me too. Other lawyers who ring you and launch into some detail on a transaction expecting an answer there and then when my head is full of another transaction - do fvk off.
I probably answer a dozen phone calls a day and mostly clients and agents who immediately expect me to know what's going on with their property. The agents are particularly annoying launching in expecting me to know which transaction it is based purely on their name and which agency they're from. You can feel them taking offence as I say they're going to have to give me a client name or address as I can't possibly remember who the agent is on every transaction.
re being ambushed - I ask them to send me an email and I'll get to it asap. Often they don't, and using the phone is a way of getting me to draft an amendment or something for them.
I used to like putting my desk phone onto the wireless headset and walking around my office gesticulating wildly. I found picking up the phone quite helpful in unblocking problems and building rapport, but seems some people view a phone call as a micro aggression these days
I liked the desk phones. Some beanaunty non lawyer Ops person tried to eliminate them once and got a big wtf. Obvs most people bent over. Needless to say, I had the last laugh
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because it's better. i don't think most companies even have desk phone systems anymore.
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I wondered if people bemoaned people telephoning rather than writing letters in similar fashion in the early 20th century? Almost certainly.
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The last time I worked in an office with a desk phone system was around 2014.
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Do you mean the phone?
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We're all spending the morning prank calling heff's chambers now, right?
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I've sent him a fax.
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because the telephone suuuuuux
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Because it's an efficient way of remote working vs being at the beck and call of some aunt that thinks they can jump everything to the front of the queue. Historically you had a secretary or receptionist to invite people to fook off while in the middle of something, but apparently secretaries only make partners efficient so everyone else has to join the equivalent of the ramp down to the Waterloo & City line if they want admin done.
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Heffalump. STOP. Phones suck. STOP. Get with the 21st Century. STOP. ENDS.
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you can sort something out in a 2 minute call with the right person that could otherwise take six people 45 minutes on Teams
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Wot heff said.
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Wot Heff and Strutts sed.
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Wot Peter and Heff and Struts said
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no one wants to talk to the geezers any more :(
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word
the worst is skill-free, pushy millennial paper-chasing choppers at sponsor-side firms responding to suggestions that a call would help with “we don’t think a call is necessary”
if anyone says this to me, I *INMEDIATELY* call them.
I would never refer work to anyone under 40 tbh
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why are you inviting 6 people to the Teams call
Team is just a phone that works better
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No clergs, you don’t like people. There’s a difference.
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heff and strutter, the statler and waldorf of ROF
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Buzz and strutts, surely?
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you can be a threesome if you like
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clubbo
do you hire content-free, guileless process-chasing american firms or do you prefer a civilised and blue blooded city practice with a duly contemplative manner, like eg messrs macfarlanes
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Laz your 10.56 perfectly describes people in your own firm m5.
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In that case, you are deluded.
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I miss proper conference calls where you all sit round the phone and occasionally mute it so you can talk about what a muppet the other lawyer is. Young lawyers will probably never experience the joy of hearing someone snoring at the other end or messing up the mute button and calling everyone khunts.
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I will never forget when I was a greenhorn trainee I was on a con call with a senior project finance partner who out the phone on mute on a call, sat back in his chair with hands behind head, arrogant stylee, moving only to occasionally raise a stiff middle finger at the phone whenever our client was speaking. It was an object lesson in professionalism.
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Guy, when the telephone was invented, the predicated business case was calling somebody simply to inform them that a letter or telegram from you was on its way to them.
But like the Beeching Cuts were predicated on people using cars to get to mainline stations, apparently nobody stopped to wonder what might happen if everybody simply carried on the telephone conversation or car journey.
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Its worse than what Heff suggests. I have been asked by my parents to check out two friends who rent one of their flats. Neither of them will talk on the phone they insist on text or whats app only. So we have been playing ping pong whats app for three days when a call would have buttoned it down in a call or two. They are both early 20's
Ditto a couple in their early 20's in which I am trying to arrange a viewing of parents flat. Things can get resolved so much more quickly via phone.
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Laz: we share the love, depending on what needs doing. where the take no prisoners approach is preferred we use US firms. where we are all a bit more cuddly and soft we use the like of Macs etc.
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I speak with clients 100% using my landline.
1. Miles better quality reception
2. On every call I take, as I'm at my desk, I can see from the screen/file what is going on etc. and don't rely on my dodgy memory.
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I'm with Marshall but now my work landline is routed to my work mobile so it's all the same really. I keep explaining this to people who ring my landline then immediately call my mobile if I don't answer. It's all the same phone so if I don't answer one number I'm very unlikely to answer the other.
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I would rather not use the 'phone or Zoom. Email will suffice 99% of the time.
If pressed, I would probably prefer Zoom (but never "Teams" as it is far too unwieldy) as it more closely resembles a real-life interaction.
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It’s quicker to assess if you are dealing with a problem or an idiot over the phone. Blustering clearer than text.
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“Young lawyers will probably never experience the joy of hearing someone snoring at the other end or messing up the mute button and calling everyone khunts. “
on the other hand they get the joy of stuff like seeing a lawyer attend a hearing remotely as a cat - so swings and roundabouts
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To some extent Teams is a performance. It’s acting. Speak to someone over the phone and you get the real person.
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i don’t really have an issue with picking up the phone or some1 phoning me
but the idea that it is better “cos it only takes 2 minutes” is a shit point. just schedule a 2-minute teams meeting then.
the gr7 advantage of calls scheduling on teams etc is that it has slowed down business which as others have point out above is a good thing generally, but has a number of other advantages - (eg and strictly eg, there r tons) it prevents the sort of tool who used 2 pick up the phone 4 a 2-minute charge and then call again 25 minutes l7er, then again 15 mins l7er etc etc, usually but not exclusively a gammony boomer who could not use their email and kept 4getting stuff, it means u can schedule properly nice things like exercise and a coffee without some tool (often the same as the previous 1) sending u an email saying “i tried 2 call but u weren’t at ur desk” and it allows u 2 invite wfh millennials who would have been overhearing in the office but now cannot unless u have a meeting
etc etc
basically complaining about the death of the “quick call” is bollocks
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What Oracle sed.
Plus I can't be arsed carrying both a work mobile and a personal one, and there is no way am I giving anyone my own mobile number if I can't trust them not to use it at other times.
So much easier using Teams for internal calls anyway.
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The days of answering a phone like "Kensington 5974" are sadly way over.
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There is something quite vicious about the phone. It sits there all unassuming and suddenly rings. It could be new work or distressed people out for my blood. It's no way to live. Wait for 4 rings. Maintain composure.
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Dr M tells me that when he is on duty (to supervise) in the reporting room, the youngsters with a question two feet away dont come to his desk they bloody message him on screen. Ditto doctors elsewhere in the hosp, they email rather than phone, he ends up haring up and down stairs to talk to them in person
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Whitehall 1212, which service do you require?
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I did predict a decade ago teachers could retrain to give teach ppl to be able to speak face to face but no one was interested. £80 an hour per child. Chz.
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I'm 47 and absolutely HATE when people ring me unannounced. Also these jolly lawyer types who refuse to answer a simple email and CALL instead all happy with their I thought I'd just call nonsense. F O
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I much prefer the phone as you can actually pick up on the tone of what you're being told rather than misreading the tone of an e-mail and making a situation worse by responding in the wrong manner.
Minkie I worked in an open plan office where people did that and would make a point of turning round and answering them out loud especially when it all needed was a one word answer.
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is anyone lucky enough to work in a firm where the telephone system still actually works reasonably well?
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I'm getting new flooring at home shortly - will be ripping out the unsightly telephone cables that run along the skirting.
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Heffalump in his care home talking to a banana
Hello operator? Get me 514 Liverpool Street - immediately!
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Surely the only reasonable response to the OP is:
OK BOOMER!
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One moment caller
Putting you through
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Part of the reason nobody uses the phone anymore is because computer based phone apps are sh1t and half the time they don't work.
The other reason of course is if you call someone who is 'working' from home they are probably cooking lunch for their kids or walking the dog or sleeping or having a little personal quality time with the internet so they won't answer anyway.
You shouldn't need to schedule a fvcking 2 minute chat though for god's sake!
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lol I see donny is a EVERYONE BACK TO THE OFFICE SO I CAN EYE UP THE LADIES AGAIN ahem I mean so we can stop skiving around as everyone clearly does sort of a partner
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status doesn't really work when everyone WFHs tbf
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heh, on the contrary I am very often to be found walking the dog or having a nap or playing ping pong with my son quite happily and not answering my phone as a result. Fortunately (because if anything status works better when WFH) people think I am on some terribly important call about terribly important things which is why I can't be reached. Or more accurately they are obliged to pretend that is what they think.
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My landline has an original bell fyi
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In fairness to me people I give a sh1t about will generally have my mobile number (which I will answer to them).
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Does no one under 40 ever use the telephone nowadays?
Please enlighten me, just what is a 'telephone'?
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As opposed to being in a pointless meeting, or chatting to the bod in the next-door office, or making a coffee, or popping out for a lunchtime pint, which is what people did when they were "working" from an office?
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always using a contraction apostrophe on 'phone is my favourite 3-ducks affectation
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Put a call through for me please Mandy
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Phone is far more efficient.
You don't need to spend a couple of mins faffing about with the App, waiting for a connection that sometimes falls, lose the connection during the meeting etc.
I still use my trusty desk-top landline phone - the reception quality is excellent and is very quick and efficient.
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It's also the extra faff of people e-mailing to ask when you're available for a call. Just call me and if I don't answer leave a message and I'll call you back.
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I pretty much never answer my work phone anymore. 95% of the time it's a recruiter, financial adviser, tailor or scammer. If it's a client and it's important they either leave a VM or send an email and I can call them straight back.
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why would you talk on the phone when you can talk teams and see people's facial expressions etc...in a planned way too. phones are dead for business purposes. and for personal where whatsapp rules. I don't answer my phone and don't let people leave VMs
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People still listen to voicemail? How quaint.
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“why would you talk on the phone when you can talk teams and see people's facial expressions etc...i”
Pervert
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fvcking state of some of the dinosaurs on this thread - dialing up people on the landline, are you saving your contacts in a rolladex as well
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Actually Geoff, we do still use a Rolodex , mainly for Christmas cards and the like 👍
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I can't stand talking on the phone. Consign it to history.
Send me an email or a Teams link.
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I still use the phone, but then again I often work on cases where people haven't used the phone and created disclosable evidence which fvcks them right in the tight one.
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Wot Nexis said, I have always hated being ambushed out of the blue by phone calls. In fact my standard practice is not to answer and only call back if somebody leaves a message.
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Ego there are times in my work where I don't want to hear a carefully prepared answer. I want to hear what someone says on the hoof when asked the question as it gives you a much better sense of whether they are trying to spin information that isn't good.
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I remember having a 3-digit phone number.
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Me too. Other lawyers who ring you and launch into some detail on a transaction expecting an answer there and then when my head is full of another transaction - do fvk off.
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my favourite is 'bus
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I probably answer a dozen phone calls a day and mostly clients and agents who immediately expect me to know what's going on with their property. The agents are particularly annoying launching in expecting me to know which transaction it is based purely on their name and which agency they're from. You can feel them taking offence as I say they're going to have to give me a client name or address as I can't possibly remember who the agent is on every transaction.
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re being ambushed - I ask them to send me an email and I'll get to it asap. Often they don't, and using the phone is a way of getting me to draft an amendment or something for them.
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that's precisely why smart people don't answer calls SS
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A one liner email to a client to tell them I’ll call them at 4pm takes much less time than setting up a Teams/Zoom call.
It then takes 5 seconds to dial them at 4pm.
What’s the great problem?
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somebody answer the phone
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Younger readers missed out on the delights of phoning up the Test Match Line to find out the latest cricket score.
I remember vividly finding out we had won the Ashes in ‘85 in this manner.
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Wot Marshall said ffs. I don’t need to see your ugly mug
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At the third beep
The time sponsored by heffalump will be
The year 1922
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This is boomer central
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RIP the desk telephone, laid to rest next to their step-child, Skype, who met a tragic end while still so young.
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I used to like putting my desk phone onto the wireless headset and walking around my office gesticulating wildly. I found picking up the phone quite helpful in unblocking problems and building rapport, but seems some people view a phone call as a micro aggression these days
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bump for laz, roger and other old farts
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I liked the desk phones. Some beanaunty non lawyer Ops person tried to eliminate them once and got a big wtf. Obvs most people bent over. Needless to say, I had the last laugh
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lulz @ “because it’s better”
Teams remains as it has always been, shite
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