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Bosses to Millennials: Use the Phone, Not Just Email

Bosses to Millennials: Use the Phone, Not Just Email

According to this story from The Wall Street Journal, managers at businesses around the country have observed an new trend among younger employees: They never use the phone. The story looks at how for millennial employees (which they define as individuals born between 1981 and the early 2000s), actual phone calls are becoming more and more rare, as the demographic prefers texting and emailing. But according to managers, the phone-phobia is hurting business, especially at companies that rely on sales and client relations.

One boss told the paper, “You’re not selling if you’re just asking a question and getting an answer back.” Some businesses have even started hiring professional phone consultants to re-teach the generation raised on SMS and Facebook messages the art of the old fashioned phone call. The evidence of the decline of phone use isn’t just anecdotal either. From December 2011 to December 2012 the amount of data used by American cell phone users nearly doubled. What was the increase in the number of minutes actually spent talking on calls during the same period? Just one percent …

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