How to Make Your Outgoing Voicemail Message Not Suck

Why would you tell me your phone number if I just dialed it and got your voicemail?? I agree that folks generally put too much into their messages. I would just be careful that this doesn’t come off as too terse or abrupt – I got this comment in response to my email auto-responder ala 4 hour workweek.

@david

Theoretically, I could have reached your voicemail through a series of forwards or connections from other people. Of course, in this situation, you might have good reason for not giving out your direct phone number.

Your voicemail message sounds like it sucks. This article seems completely off-base to me, like you had to write an article but didn’t have any real ideas. Try again.

As a caller, I prefer a slightly longer greeting, which give s me a few seconds to compose my message in my head. I think the Rockford files had a lot to do with spreading the “standard” greeting: “This is Jim Rockford; at the tone, leave your name and number and I will get back to you.”

GREAT post! I am amazed at how often terrible messages are offered and given via VM. Keep up the good work,
Mike

Excellent! With caller ID text messaging, I’m sure it wont be long until we see nothing but little red lights or little green lights…

Great post. My dad’s voicemail greeting feels like fifteen minutes long. Drives me batshit. I’m all for the shorter the better. I do agree that hearing the persons name in their own voice (not an auto-responder) is a good idea.

And “dalas v”: you suck. Try again.

There are reasons to break these rules. I once had a situation where I lost my wallet and it had my phone number inside. Someone then decided to phone the number and leave a voicemail. I didn’t check it for a few weeks, because I do not get mobile phone service at my home. Next time I left the house, I got all my voicemails and had a two-week old message from a very helpful person. Voicemail is expensive on my network, thus I try my hardest to discourage people from leaving messages on it.

Instead, I use something like this:
“Hi, this is Tom Morris. Please can you not leave a message on my voicemail unless it’s absolutely necessary. Instead, please text me or send an e-mail to [address]. I will respond quicker that way.”

Not necessarily user friendly, but it gets the point across.

@Tom

Of course, there are exceptions to just about every rule. My point is that the average, garden-variety voicemail box belonging to Bill in accounting doesn’t justify a 20-second monologue telling me a bunch of stuff I already know.

I agree with brevity in VM as well as your list of pet peeeves. Brevity and efficientcy are key.

The one point I don’t agree with is not saying “leave a message.” Especially with bare bones VM, people will wonder whether or not you’re even taking messages and just not using your message to explain why you’re not around. I just say “you may leave a brief message” and the words “may” and “brief” seem to do the trick for those who decide they need to reach me.

The message you suggest is just too short. I’ve tried similar in the past and here is what I’ve learned: a very short voicemail message simply doesn’t give the listener the time they need to realize that, yes, they’ve reached voicemail, and yes, they must think quickly of what they need to say after the tone. It is a courtesy to leave a voicemail prompt just long enough to allow your caller realize the situation and gather a thought. When I had the super short voice mail message, there was an obvious increase in voicemail messages starting with several seconds of confused silence (sometimes with a hang-up) and/or a stuttering start. I’ve since decided that just a second or two is helpful to the caller. (I’m pretty sure if you have a small enough circle of callers they will learn how to deal with your super-short voicemail prompt as it becomes familiar to them, but strangers can be caught like deer in headlights.)

Geez… just hit “*”! If you don’t like waiting through the message, just bypass it by hitting the star key.

Another thing: I don’t owe anyone trying to call me (except my wife and my daughter) anything… if I don’t want to answer the phone right now, that’s my business. At least people CAN leave a message… we only have to rewind about 20 years to reach a really frustrating part of history: BUSY SIGNALS and NO ANSWER.

Truly I HATE all forms of voicemail and in fact have gone so far as to cancel all voicemail services associated with my phones. If I don’t answer….I’m not available. …”If you don’t reach me…SMS or email me”

Why? Because I refuse to live life at the end of a communication’s leash tethered to someone Else’s blathering stream of consciousness or marketing campaign.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no curmudgeonly Luddite …at 42 year’s of age I’m a still a HUGE computer and gaming enthusiast….and have 3 computer’s on between my residences on both coast’s. It’s just that I grew up at the cusp of the information age…and I can remember a time before voicemail, cell phones and email. A time when polite people saved their call’s for business hour’s or waited till after dinner and called between 7 and 9PM.
Happily… that gives me an anachronistic advantage…I still consider my phone as a mean’s for MY communication.

Obviously I’m crazy…aloof…. maybe even “communicatively challenged” … by other people’s standard’s…but I certainly live a much more peaceful life than people with voicemail.

[...] long greetings drive you nutso, there are ways to skip long greetings and get right to the beep.) How to Make Your Outgoing Voicemail Message Not Suck [The Cranking Widgets [...]

Nelson James: plurals aren’t formed with apostrophes. Look into it.

I love voice mail and will work on reducing my greeting; I’ve long wondered why we keep telling callers what they already know.

What’s frustrating is people who phone me and leave nothing on voice mail. When I return their call, what they end up telling me could easily have been left in a 30-second voice mail (or indeed e-mail), without the superfluous chitchat they subject me to in the live call. Live calls are for something that requires negotiation, or of course for something that needs to be said instantly or is a showstopper of a bit of news.

Brett, I love ya man, but I’m leaning towards Nelson’s communications philosophy. What I hate is people who drone on and on in their outgoing message and I have to wait to leave my voicemail. On Sprint, you can press “1″, to bypass outgoing messages, I guess it’s “*” on others.

Another Voicemail Hater!…

Woohoo! One of these days the utopian world of no voicemail will be upon us! And then I shall exact my revenge! Let’s all save the world a collective 2 million seconds a day, and follow these guidelines….

Auliya has it right. Plus, when I’m available, I answer the phone, “Christopher…” So, using just “Christopher…” for my outgoing message would make it a perfect imitation of me answering the phone myself. I’m sure I would have a lot of people staring to say hello before realizing that they had my voice mail, and who doesn’t hate it when that happens?

What a grievous imposition it is to endure common pleasantries in a voice mail greeting of average duration! What countless moments are lost waiting for the tone!

Yeah, I wouldn’t rush to answer his calls either.

My voicemail message goes something like this:

This Is [namegoeshere], please leave a VERY SHORT message and your phone number and i’ll get back to you.

I hate it when people leave long winded voicemail. It’s my money and they’re wasting when i have to listen to that on my cell phone.

On family phone: “You’ve reached the …..’s. Please leave a message.” click

You’re spot-on here. And while we’re at it, why do the verbal instructions from the mobile phone providers have to be so long? JUST GET TO THE BEEP!

And “Nelson James,” what’s with all the unnecessary apostrophes?

I’m assuming you are being silly about being upset with people who choose to spend time away from their phones once in a while. If you aren’t kidding, then I disagree with you there.

I do agree with the idea that outgoing messages don’t need to be long/silly/cutesy; they just need to get the job done. In my experience making it more than a few words does give the caller a bit of time to think of what to say (meaning they aren’t listening to the message anyway, so it can just be the standard stuff). My personal greeting is usually: “I’m sorry I was unable to answer your call. Please leave your name, number and message after the beep.” Yes, I am lying with the initial apology because I don’t really mind missing calls when I’m engaged in other activities, but I do make a point of not promising to call back because who knows if I will really want to.

One reminder about people assuming everyone has caller ID and that it always records your number so you don’t have to leave it in a voicemail… Don’t assume your friend’s caller ID will always work (or that they even have it). Leave your number if you would like a call back.

How about a tutorial on how to leave a message?
Personally, I leave my name (except when calling immediate family, but even then I still do occasionally), time of day, reason for calling, whether or not I’ll be around the phone if you call back the same hour/day, and my phone number (even if I know that person has me in the address book).
I *hate* the “Hey Joe, it’s me. Call me back” message. If that’s all you wanted to say, send a text message so I don’t have to waste 6 minutes listening thru menus and your meaningless message.

I live in France but have both French-speaking and English-speaking contacts, so my voicemail greeting must be bilingual. The repetition effectively doubles the length of my greeting and so I must keep it short by default. Since I feel uncomfortable giving “wrong-number” callers my full name, my greeting is:

“C’est le [my number]. Veuillez me laisser un message. This is [my number]. Please leave a message.”

It allows people to be sure that they have reached the correct number, but without giving out my name unnecessarily. I know that “please leave a message” is unnecessary, but it seems more professional and less sterile.

As for *leaving* a voicemail, I also like to keep mine efficient. Typically:

“Hello, this is [my name]. I’m calling about [subject]. Please call me back within [desired time period--I'll add my number if I think the person doesn't have it]. Thank you.”

Sounds like he has issues to me, there are worse things to worry about.

@Robert – There’s never been a question about my having issues

People under thirty do not leave voice mail messages.

As I get older and more curmudgeonly, I’m increasingly of the opinion that I got the phone for my convenience, not anyone else’s. I’m not looking for ways to be more accessible from directions I can’t control.

I screen almost all of my calls [my family claims I screen their calls; they're right]. I’m on the state and national Do Not Call lists. I’d stick myself with a rusty nail sooner than pick up a call from a blocked number. Wherever possible, I let the answering machine get the call so I can listen to callers whose numbers I don’t recognize etc., and retrieve it later from voicemail only as Plan B. [I have a land line that I forward to my cell as needed--so I know all this is not everyone's cup of tea.]

That sounds kind of harsh, so I suppose I should add: I don’t do it because I’m a stickler about efficiency, or because I’m not a reasonably friendly fellow; it’s just one of my buttons.

For many years I’ve used the standard “Rockford Files” format, but I have a friend whose message simply says “Hello–please leave a message.” and it seems to work fine. I’m sorely tempted. Sorely. If they don’t already know my name and number, why [and how!] are they calling, anyway?

I do agree that longer messages will give the smart caller a chance to collect their thoughts before the beep, but I’m not sure the trade-off gets either of us that much.

I got my first answering machine in the early 1980s, back in the primeval days of busy signals and no-answers, and I experimented with different messages. Basically, I found you got back the tone you set: Long out-going messages apologizing to the caller for them getting the machine got long in-coming messages that commiserated about the depersonalizing pressures of technology…and then ran out of time before they finished the actual message. Meandering out-going messages got meandering in-coming messages; terse out-goings got terse in-comings, and attempts to be clever got the same back [those were usually the worst].

Of course, that was 25 years ago. I think those patterns were largely driven by the novelty of the experience for the caller; voice mail and answering machines are so utterly commonplace now, I doubt if there’d be much of a difference effect.

bn

p.s. Nice blog. I found you through Lifehacker.

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I disagree, saying just your name and then going straight to the beep is unfriendly and unprofessional.

As a recruiter I interview over 100 people every week. I have to make a lot of calls to setup interviews from the phone numbers on resumes. I can tell you that what you say on your voice mail is a reflection of you.
First I hate these ringback tones (is that what they’re called?) Instead of hearing a ringing sound instead I hear a recorded voice that says “please enjoy the music while you wait for your caller” Then I hear 15 seconds of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” or “Gold Digger” by Kanye West. This is juvenile. I want to hear the phone ring.
Also, those pre-recorded messages that are done by celebrities are stupid.
I hate to say it but these kinds of things are a reflection of your intelligence. We don’t like to think so but trust me, it’s true. This isn’t just MY thinking, it’s how most potential employers, clients, and bosses think.

Also don’t use your nickname. If I’m calling to reach Michael Smith I don’t want to hear “Hey it’s” mick, skip, Boston Mikey, or even Mike. Just say your full name.

I do agree that you should never have music in your voice mail greeting. Also having your kid leave a hard to understand message for you isn’t cute, it’s annoying. And don’t try to get creative. I’ve heard messages where the person has set-up a recording that sounds like they’re answering the phone “Hello? (pause) Hello? (pause) HaHa! I got you! I’m not here…” Find a more appropriate time to do your practical jokes.

So what do I WANT to hear? I want to hear that you are both personable, friendly sounding, and professional. You can’t do this by just saying your name (as the author of this article suggests). Those seemingly extraneous phrases that we all use ARE needed. It gives you a chance to leave an impression, and (as someone else here mentioned) it gives the caller a moment to gather their thoughts and think about what they’re going to say when they leave their message. Saying just your name is rude.

Here’s an example of a good message.
“Hello, you’ve reached Michael Smith. I’m not available to take your call at this time. Please leave your information and I’ll return your call as soon as I am able. Thank you and have a great day”
How long did that take? 10 seconds?
If waiting ten seconds for a message annoys you THAT much then maybe it’s time to take a long vacation, meditate, or check yourself into a “facility” for some rest because you’re way too high strung.

The message above seems simple but consider HOW you say it. There’s nothing worse than hearing someone mumbling or hearing someone rush through their message like they’re in a race.
Take your time, speak clearly, and as silly as it sounds SMILE while you’re leaving your message. You can actually hear a smile over the phone.

Just remember that you receive calls on your cell phone from people other than your best friends. Or at the very least the potential is there that at some point you will be receiving a call from someone as important as your boss, a potential boss, college admissions, important clients, and potential clients. And you ARE being judged. A bad voice mail message may not be a deal breaker but it does leave an impression. Make it a good one.

I’m only in my office at certain hours and I prefer to leave that on my outgoing message. But I don’t want people to suffer through it needlessly. So my outgoing message begins: “You’ve reached Brian Ogilvie. To leave a message, hit pound at any time. My office hours for Fall 2007 are…” This gives callers time to mentally compose a message before hitting pound, and if they keep listening they get the information that many of them are calling for in the first place.

Great idea,

I agree with you on the messages. Man it is so irritating when people leave those long messages particularly when they are trying to be funny. When I try to call someone and do not get through, I am certainly not in the mood to hear some sad attempt at being funny. Make it as painless as possible.

Paul

I agree with the people who say you need to leave a brief introduction in your voice mail greeting. Mine is “Hi, this is Eric, you’ve reached my cellular voice mail. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” I specify cellular voice mail since I give clients my home office number too (on my business card) and I want people to know that they’re calling my cell.

It’s 10 seconds, tops, people. Anyone who thinks that 10 seconds of pleasantries and a polite outgoing message is too long shouldn’t bother calling me in the first place. There is something to be said for common decency in conversation. If my outgoing message just said my name, it is awkward. If I just say “leave a message” then it doesn’t tell the caller who they reached. I’ll stick with my short, polite message, thank you very much.

As an example of rudeness, my niece has an outgoing message that just says “You know the drill.” Which is followed by the beep. Most people are thrown by that and don’t leave a message, she has found. Or they call back because they think the voice mail system made a mistake, or they got the wrong number.

Just keep your outgoing message straight to the point and under 10 seconds, and no one — except the author of this blog article — is going to feel their time is being wasted. Brett, your blog comment also comes off as being a bit pompous or at least presumptuous: “…a 20-second monologue telling me a bunch of stuff I already know.” You are making the assumption that you actually know what I am going to tell you, or that I somehow know what *you* already know like I’m part of the freakin psychic friends network, and that your time is more valuable than mine by thinking that. When people approach you for the first time and say “it’s nice to meet you”, do you respond “of course it is”?

Bottom line: I’m going to continue to ask people to leave a message, and tell them I’ll get back to them when I can, because that’s just the polite thing to do.

Tell you what — don’t call me, and I won’t call you.

If you choose to use vm as a tool, I think refreshing the date every morning is an essential for a very short vm. That way the caller knows that you actively use it.
“This is Rob at extension 39. Today is November 18. I will return calls by the end of business today [or whatever your normal timeframe is].”

Great point. Never thought about the relevance of the extraneous stuff. I always thought leaving the phone number in the message was pretty redundant since I just dialed it. I like giving people hope that I may return the call in a reasonable manner and try to give timeframes during the day that I return calls (Between 11:30am and noon, or between 4:30pm and 5pm).

I believe it is important to identify the phone number that has been reached. If a new person is calling you they can verify they have reached the correct telephone number and not have doubt if they might have misdialed.

For a message I use the KISS (Keep it simply simple) principle along with politeness. It doesn’t have to be long. Probably the most important thing I’ve learned is to write out a script so you know what you are going to say and rehearse it so you can speak quickly. If you call my phone you get a eight second message “Hi, this is (first name) (last name) at ###-###-####. You may leave a message. Have a nice day.” This simple message identifies me both by name and number, lets the caller know they can leave a message and I’ve used basic courtesy. By giving both first and last names people can use directory assistance to locate you in an emergency.

If people are concerned about the time they spend listening to a recorded greeting, then they should have already learned that with most answering systems you can skip the message and go right to recording mode by pressing the Hash/Pound (#) key though a few do use asterisk * instead.

PS The shortest greeting I’ve used for my personal cell phone is “Tag, you’re it.” Totally acceptable for my friends who recognize my voice and know my sense of humor.

I love standard messages: they give me a chance to regroup my thoughts to leave a nice concise message. Also, I will never tell you I’m away from [date] to [date] as that will clearly indicate my house is empty! No way, so if you’re not close enought to know that I’m away on holidays, tough luck. I think you’re totally off-base with your comments. There is a place for routine. I agree with you that music in a voicemail message is WRONG, so is having your toddler blather a message, and other “funny” things. But I love a standard “Hi this [name], I’m not available, please leave a message after the beep” kind of stuff. I exect such a message, it’s familiar, I can think while waiting for the beep. Your message is abrupt and IMO not courtious as your putting people on the spot.

My message is like this.

You have reached the office of Tony K at ext 1234. I will be in the office during the week of August 23. Please leave a detailed message at the tone.

It’s long enough to give a person some time to compose, it gives wrong numbers enough info to know if I am the person they want to reach and it says something about my availability. There’s nothing worse than leaving a long detailed message, wondering why the jerk doesn’t have the courtesy to respond, only to find out that he’ll be out of the office for three weeks.

I also state DETAILED message. Because I hate playing phone tag with someone without having any idea what it’s about. Leaving detailed messages, we can get the job done sometimes in virtual time.

And yes. I do update my phone message every week, It takes a few seconds and Ithink the availability part is key.

Tony K

Maybe if you thought of an “outgoing voicemail message” as a greeting, you’d put less of a premium on efficiency at your callers’ expense. There’s a difference between being brief and being terse. As others here have noted, the boilerplate “Rockford Files” greeting gives callers enough time to shift their frame of expectation from talking to you directly to leaving a message, and allows them to compose their thoughts.

In my “efficiency is everything” days, I set my voice mail to skip the greeting entirely, so that the caller would here nothing but a beep. It took less than a week to realize that all of those seconds of bewildered silence that preceded each message sprang directly from preempting the callers’ expectations. So now I just use the Rockford greeting.

I really agree with this – your greeting should be as short as possible, but not shorter.

Personally I like it to be a little longer than just my name as sometimes there is a little interference or noise just as the message starts, and also if the person has called from their desk using hands-free they might miss the name as they pick up the hand piece.

Another tip: when you’re recording your greeting, smile – people can hear it in your voice and it puts them in a good mood, even if they don’t know why.

I am forwarding this link to a friend whose voice mail goes something like this
~hey wats up…….hold on one sec ..jus hold on…………… (45 seconds of silence)………………………… *BEEP*

FLIPPING ANNOYING AND I ALWAYS FALL FOR IT..

12 kostenlos filme downloaden…

Wo kann ich filme downloaden?…

This article avoids the OBVIOUS pain in the ass that is the automated message on nearly every cellphone, “To leave a voicemail, just wait for the tone…. To leave a callback number… blah blah blahblah….”.
These messages are the real shame. I can’t fathom why society tolerates them. Think of how many collective man-hours are wasted each day listening to these messages, when everybody knows what they already say. And who the hell leaves a callback number but not a message?

LOL! This blog was perfect. My 11 year old started a business and we used your tips to help her with the office voice mail message. Thanks a bunch.

Max: I found your message googling to see if anyone else had pondered this very subject. I can’t imagine how much time is wasted listening to the “to leave a call back number…” thing on practically every cell vm. I make 100-200 calls a day to our field staff informing them of their assignments. It is a pain listening to this, to say the least. Our office is usually pretty noisy with folks on the phone leaving messages and talking with employees. Everyone in a while there is dead silence and you can hear the outgoing message coming from a couple peoples ear pieces: “if you would like to leave a message… you may press pound… if you would like to leave a call-back number…”. It is a tremendous waste of time. But then so was typing this post

I found your blog online too while googling to see if anyone else had recommendations for a nice standard greeting, since I’m setting up on out of office VM message.

But I disagree with your example! I like hearing a somewhat lengthy VM message to give me a chance to organize my thoughts for the reply message. I like hearing a standard greeting, it’s familiar and I’ve come to expect it now. I think hearing a terse greeting like the one you provided above is way too short and a bit rude.

At least show a little of your personality and some consideration for the other caller to gather their thoughts!

This article was very helpful for me, since I’m setting up my voicemail for my new job! *happy dance* I really appreciate the comments, especially the one from the recruiter – the opinion of someone who knows what they’re looking for in a voicemail in a professional setting is always appreciated.

Do people really need the time to compose their thoughts so they leave an effective message? I don’t know about any of you. But if I am calling someone I already know why I am calling them and usually have an idea of what I plan to say. If the VM picks up it really shouldn’t take so long to switch gears. You’re relaying the same information, just tailored to VM instead of the live person.

If you have no clue what to say then one has to wonder what you were planning to say when the other person answers.

this is really bad advice. at least the first few points are really bad.

1. some people don’t tell others to leave a message. the result is that some people (yes, there are such people) will then not know they are on voice mail. and begins to talk to you, then after a few seconds to a few minutes realize that they are on voice mail and starts to curse you. yes, i’ve seen this happen, as recently as last month. you really can’t shave this part.

2. same reason as above.

3. some people tell you NOT to leave a message. you guess whether they’ll ever check their voice mail. telling them they’ll reply IS some assurance.

7. i would say it depends. choose between a single beep and music for a few seconds then beep. at least the music alerts you that you are talking to a machine.

Hi, This pocket PC is so complicated that I don’t even know how to pick-up my own phone. So I’ll tell you what… as soon as I figure this state of the art telephone, I’ll call ya right back. Thank you for your patience and can’t wait to hear from you. Yours truly, Bri

Costanza’s is definitely the best voicemail.
Only singing voicemails for me!

Because everyone in the world wants to make sure Brett Kelly is not annoyed by their outgoing messages.

I do tell people to email me, or text me, because I seldom have pen and paper to jot down their long-winded voice messages, and would seldom care to even if I did. I also return calls to recognized numbers on the missed calls list.

Oddly enough, several comments were more helpful and informative than the original post. Go blogging!

Or you could choose to not be a slave to your phone like me and use it when YOU want to. Sometimes, leaving me the f**k alone is better than talking to me. But I do agree that automated s**t at he end of the message is quite annoying. Who pages people anymore?

I wouldn’t advertise vacation days on my voicemail to the world for the same reason I wouldn’t put a sign infront of my house saying. “I’m on vacation for 2 weeks so nobody is home.”

This website sucks. Really, if you feel the need to appear to be smart, write about something interesting. Is this your true aspiration? Is this what you dreamt of doing as a child? “hmm, a firefighter? Why do that when I can write about stupid, pointless stuff?” Tell me you didn’t waste your parents money in college on this.
If I were you, I’d close this site down before your friends find out about it!

Hi Jessica!

I’d like to thank you for your incredibly insightful commentary on the above post. While I understand that, certainly, there will be people who disagree with the things I write, it’s always nice to hear an eloquent dissenting opinion – one that fosters discussion. Isn’t that, after all, why blogs allow comments?

Hope you have a great day – and rest assured, many of my friends know about this site and find it to be an absolute hoot!

[...] you cannot answer your phone, make sure you re-record your unprofessional voicemail greeting, especially if it sucks. I’ve called a few prospective applicants where voicemail greetings left a bad taste in my [...]

i'd probably avoid you too if i knew you were this insane. how's your newspeak dictionary coming?

i love u

Yes, let's tell people how long we will be gone so they have enough time to schedule a way to rob my place before I come back home. Idiot!

You are brain dead!!

why in the Hell are you leaving your phone number on the voice mail?

Lets see i am person A calling Person B… Person B's voicemail with person B's name answers.. so i know i called the right number.. why do i need to hear the number i just freekin' called????

Stupid!

I used to just give my name as a voice mail. What I found was that people need a few seconds to formulate their message before speaking. The “blah blah” message serves that purpose.

Imagine calling somebody and their phone is switched off. I have probably said my name before they have even registered that they are on voice mail. and you get some long waits, confused “er er”s and then a message.

So… given that people need a few seconds to build their message, what would make for more useful message than ““Hello, this is [name]. I’m not able to get to my phone right now, but please leave a message and I’ll call you back as soon as I can. Thanks! *BEEP*”.”

any suggestions?

I agree with nearly everything written here regarding voice mail messages. I personally find email or SMS to be MUCH more effective way to communicate and am trying to find a way to get people to STOP leaving me voice mail messages all together. It is not acceptable to talk on your cell phone most public places. Email or text works much better, especially when someone (including me) is at the bar, wondering where I or someone else is. Either it is too loud to actually speak to someone or I'm not in a place or environment to have a conversation. (on a date, library, meeting, dentist office). If an email or SMS is sent, I can respond with the appropriate answer immediately rather than having to wait to pick up the phone or return a call until I get get somewhere where actually talking on your cell phone is acceptable. If you need to speak with me to coordinate something, say that in the email or text message. With blackberries and Iphones so prevalent today, most people have easier access to text driven dialogue.

I really wonder, do these messages also suck? LOL, all I can do is laugh, it really kind of funny when I think of the same.

Emma

I don't always leave the ringer on because sometimes I just don't want to be disturbed…for example, when I'm driving, or shopping, or having a meal. Why should cell phones mean we have to be at everyone else's beck and call? My phone is for my convenience, no one else's.

For business phones it makes sense to leave your number or extension if people get sent to your voicemail by a directory or another person and don't know how to reach you. Similarly telling people when you'll be back at work is helpful. For a home number this could be problematic.

However I've often had messages where people didn't hear the voicemail greeting properly and thought a human had answered the phone. That's why a standard “leave a message” prompt is good: it gives people a second to switch from “talk to a human” mode into “leave a message on the machine” mode.

There’s nothing wrong with short cordial outgoing messages. If you don’t like them, hang up and nobody has to put up with your peevishness.

Govenment buildings don’t allow cell phones so they are left in the car. It really is OK not to be at your beck and call.

Good blog post for an alternate opinion on phone use.