"We Need to Go Over Things"

I have several peeves, and one of them is that person who calls me on the phone so that we can "go over things".  Nine times out of ten this conversation isn't really needed, and this post in no way is directed to anyone belonging in the ten per cent.  What this is directed at is someone who could obtain information by due diligence on their part.  It's also directed at that someone who can function independently without calling me up to "go over things".

Several years ago at work, I was dragged into a technical problem that had the attention of several people, including department managers and others who were aware of it but who weren't tasked in any way to help resolve it.  This one landed in my lap late one afternoon, and the very next morning I had my heart set on getting that one put to bed.

Five minutes after arriving at my desk, my phone rang.  It was from someone who wanted to "go over things".  That person could have read the email trail, and probably did, but still wanted to tie me up for twenty minutes so that we could "go over things".

I was done with that call, but within five minutes the phone rang again.  It was someone else who wanted to "go over things".  OK, this time it's another 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, so that I could "go over things".  I finally got dispensed with that, went for a bio break, came back to my desk, and the phone rang.

Now I've got a third person who wanted to "go over things".  I'm thinking, we engineers might not be the best of communicators, but why couldn't he call one of the earlier callers to "go over things"?  Well the drawback here was that I was thinking logically.  This is the third person who called me up so that we could "go over things", and I couldn't very well be rude to that person.

Once I got rid of that one, guess what?  The phone rang again!  I now had a fourth person who wanted to "go over things".  So I spend twenty minutes going over things, repeating myself for the third time, and then comes the question.  "What progress have you made?"

"None."

"What do you mean, 'none'?  How come you're not working on this?"

"I haven't gotten anything done on this because I keep answering the phone."

"You're answering the phone?"

"Yes.  You're the fourth person who called me this morning wanting to know where I was on [xxxx], and all of my callers want to go over things."

"Oh!  I guess I'd better get off of the phone and let you work on this!"

I guess you might be surmising that I hate telephones, and if you are you're accurate in that assessment.  I realize that from time to time you have to call up your insurance agent and "go over things".  Well the insurance agent gets paid to "go over things".

If you've hired a lawyer, you're going to have to "go over things".  The lawyer gets that, and is happy to go over things, and if you don't mind the legal bill then "go over things" with your lawyer.

But what about that co-worker who calls you up in the middle of your supper, so that he can "go over things"?  You know, that one person who can't understand why you're not good with your food getting cold because he/she wants to call you at random so that they can talk about work and "go over things"?

My suggestion:  don't be that guy.

And no, I did NOT answer the phone recently or replied to a text from a co-worker who called/texted at 6:30 PM so that we could "go over things".