Is AUTHOR wrong in the post ? POST : So, I work somewhere where I send a lot of e-mails throughout the day. Some of these e-mails require action to be taken by the recipient, and sometimes they can be a bit time sensitive. It’s nothing life or death, and in my line of work I deal in dollar amounts that rarely exceed $200, so it’s not like there’s big money on the line.

However, when I send one of those “action-required” e-mails, I usually give a courtesy call to let the recipient know that I’ve sent them one of those e-mails, and then I kinda just give them a breakdown of what they need to do from there. My job doesn’t require me to make those calls, I just do it because people tend to appreciate it and it often expedites their response.

That being said, if I notice that the recipients name is something foreign-sounding (By which I mean any name that isn’t something I immediately recognize as being common/familiar), I never make that courtesy call because I don’t want to be stuck in an awkward phone conversation with someone who I can’t understand.

Doesn’t matter if it’s an Arab name, Asian name, or an Eastern European name. Basically, anyone who doesn’t have a name that would be considered “normal” in an English speaking country doesn’t get a courtesy call.

I know the majority of these people would probably be easy enough to speak to, but even one call with someone who I can’t understand a damn word they’re saying is too much for me, so I just don’t risk it.

The way I see it is that I don’t need that kind of hassle in my day-to-day, and my current practice has made it pretty much a non-issue (not to say that old white dudes from Nebraska can’t be damn near impossible to understand too sometimes). In addition, those courtesy calls aren’t required, I just do them to make my job easier. Having a 15 minute conversation with a man from Belarus who speaks unintelligibly (to me, chances are I sound weird af to him too) does nothing to make my job easier, therefore defeating the purpose of making those calls in the first place.

To be totally honest, I have no real intention of changing my ways even if everyone says I’m an asshole, because like I said I just don’t want the hassle and if that makes me a dick I guess that’s the cost of doing business. That being said, any insight would be appreciated.

