There’s a fight for phone calls in the workplace — employers are hiring pros to combat Gen Z workers’ ‘telephonophobia’

Texts and Slacks and Teams, oh my! In the world of remote work, Zoom calls and digital messaging have long reigned supreme — and good old phone calls have fallen by the wayside.

According to the Wall Street Journal, some employers are attempting to revive the phone call to break up the monotony of staring at their screens — much to the chagrin of younger employees who have shirked the traditional means of communicating.

“I love technology, but it creates a cognitive load when you’re looking at 32 face boxes on a screen or clicking between multiple chat windows,” Seattle-based Bill Cox, vice president of corporate and product marketing at Lyra Health, told the Journal.

“When you jump on a phone call, it’s like, ‘Aaah. Relief!’”

Despite the 51-year-old’s best efforts to revitalize the phone call, his team sends voice memos via Slack.

But to younger generations — such as the aptly nicknamed Zoomers — phone calls are a petrifying prospect. Their phone anxiety, dubbed “telephonophobia,” has even resulted in a wave of young people keeping the “Do Not Disturb” function on all day long to avoid talking on the phone.

Epitomizing “This could have been an email,” workers, mostly under the age of 40, prefer digital messaging rather than chatting over the phone on an unscheduled call.

When making a cold call, Riley Young, 26, listens to “Boss Ass B—h” by Nicki Minaj to give herself a confidence boost before dialing.

The Plano, Texas, employee at NextAfter, where she works as an audience engagement manager, is comfortable walking up to people at their desks in the office, but the thought of picking up the phone when working from home is a no-go.

“If I can’t see their facial expressions, I’m fearful that I might say the wrong thing or they’ll take something the wrong way, and I won’t be able to tell,” she told the Journal, adding that she prefers instant messaging or email for their efficiency.

But bosses may prefer an employee who answers the phone over someone who excels in their role.

At least that’s true for Scott Eastin, 56, who runs a staffing agency for independent workers in the technology industry.

He has recently noticed an uptick in people who fail to pick up their phones when contacted about job opportunities, forcing him to resort to using the app Loom to record voice memos in order to communicate with people.

According to Eastin, the response rate is higher for audio messages than voicemail — about 40%. Those who do respond with a phone call, however, are more likely to get the job.

“I’ll do business all day with someone who answers their phone,” he told the Journal. “In fact, I’ll take a less-qualified candidate who calls back.”

The emergence of corporate telephonophobia has resulted in a need to hire consultants like Mary Jane Copps, otherwise known as “the Phone Lady,” who has upped her daily charge to $3,000 for employee trainings and $195 per hour for individual sessions due to demand.

“I’ve started getting questions in workshops that surprise me, like, ‘How do I end a phone call?’” she told the Journal. “Things that to many of us seem obvious are no longer obvious.”