Continuation of Introvert stressors.
Part 5: Phone calls.
At my previous job, I learned early on that I had issues with phones, and that was unfortunate, because phones were essential. From the experiences I had, I learned quite early on that the sound of the ring alone gave me anxiety. I was able to fix that for a time by turning the ringer off (there were other ways to tell if the phone was ringing), but after a while I found myself surrounded by phones, so even though I was able to turn mine off, I had no control over turning the others off.
Having to talk to people. Yes. It can be so easy, yet so hard at the same time. It's having to step out of the comfort zone and actually *gasp* speak. That's difficult in person, but especially difficult on the phone, because I can't see who I'm talking to. I can't see the look on the face or the expression in the eyes. You don't know because of the lack of visuals how the person is taking in what I'm saying or if they're understanding. Having to push myself to speak to someone whose face I can't see is hard enough, but aside from visuals, I'm also extremely sensitive to tone of voice. If I happen to call out to someone and their voice is, well, not friendly, it leaves its mark on me. In many cases, I'm able to keep my calm, but even then there's an inner battle going on within me dealing with the feelings that emerged from that conversation.
It's not unusual for me to get a little befuddled with words when I'm trying to speak with someone over the phone, and it often comes out sounding like a blathering idiot. All I can hope for is that my words came out making enough sense for them to know what I'm talking about.
There is one exception, and it seems to be something I bring up a lot. If I'm comfortable enough, I'm actually able to sound cohesive and pleasant. There were plenty of times I was able to explain things clearly to people so they knew exactly what they needed to do, and plenty of times I received compliments, because I was friendly and did (in some cases) an awful lot of listening. Those made my day. I loved those phone calls. They often made up for the anxiety.
You know I've got to put that positive twist in at the end. That's how I roll. 😁
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| This post I found sums it all up. I don't think any more has to be said. |
