Why is it important to respond to a phone call?

You are going about your life with your mind jumping leaps and bounds ahead of you, preoccupied with all the things you need to do next. Then your phone rings. You are not in the mood to talk to anyone. You have too much going on. Too much to do and too much to think about. Too much to plan and too much to prioritize. The continuous shrieking sound of ringing interrupts your thoughts. Your hands freeze as your brain tries to decide whether to answer the phone. The ring stops.

After a few days, you call back that friend. She tells you that her car had broken down and she had called you to see if you could help her out. You feel embarrassed and regret not attending to the phone.

You are walking your dog and the phone in your pocket rings. You are about to reach home and its difficult to reign in your energetic dog with only one hand. You decide to wait till you get home to see who it is that called. You reach home and find out that a bomb has detonated near the transit station that your husband had disembarked at. As you thank god that your husband is safe, you regret not stopping your walk to see who had called.

You are coming home from work and are stuck in traffic. Your child will be home soon. You want your neighbor to take in your child until you get back. You call them. The phone rings and rings, but there is no answer.

These sound like rare possibilities, but they are all real. These are instances where you wished that either someone had answered your call or you had answered theirs.

People may be trying to reach you for plethora of reasons.

They may be in trouble or someone they know maybe in trouble,

Your family and friends may be in trouble and they may be trying to 
inform you about it,

They may be going through a low point in their life and need someone to
 talk to,

They may be sick and may have run out of medications,

They may have something joyous that they want to share with you,

They may be calling to find out about your well-being and if you do not 
respond, they may get concerned.

and so on and so on.

While it is true that most times people are calling to chat ideally, whether the call holds more importance can only be determined once you attend to the call.

If you are busy and cannot talk, a suggested response is that you answer the phone, let the other person know that you are in the middle of something and if it’s not anything important, that you will call them back. If you are in a work meeting or in an auditorium watching your child’s performance or any other event where you are unable to answer the call, message them that you will call them back. While not the most optimal, at least the channel of communication stays open.

But if someone calls you multiple times, successively at the same number in a short span of time, you need to excuse yourself from a meeting or the auditorium and attend to the call.

A missed call comes with a warning – “Not answering calls on more than one occasion may result in a downgrade of a relationship. While most people are not into deep relationships and try to keep their expectations low, there are some who look for more than fair-weather friendships. And these are the people you want to hang on to, for they will be with you through thick and thin. And who does not want that”.

• Uncategorized