Your Voicemail is Full!

My voicemail has been full for a quite a while now. Do you know why? Because as fast as I empty it, it fills back up. I am chasing my tail at this point. So I give up.

I kid you not, I sat down one day and got a chance to delete four voicemails while I was eating lunch. Within the course of that day I was right back to "voicemail full" flashing on my screen. 

My friends and co-workers are totally aware of the problem. We have all decided that since people send me an email or text right after they leave the voicemail that it is easier to just eliminate the voicemail option and let them go straight to email and text.

Apparently taking this option away upsets some people. It appears that I am supposed to have all communication options available to strangers I do not know and who do not pay our cell phone bill at all times.

People who know and/or work with me know I will get to them as soon as I can. But strangers, well they like to lay on the guilt. I find that quite comical. I have become immune to superficial guilt these days. I love the emails with the guilt trip of "Since you did not take my call...." and "I tried to leave you a voicemail but your voicemail was full. You should empty it." I am not sure what people think these statements will accomplish.

There is usually a very good reason I didn't take your call. Let me take you through my top ten reasons I didn't take your call. These are in no particular order.

1. Shockingly my cell phone is not always glued to my hand. I do choose to set it down and walk away from it a few times a day.
2. My family needed my attention at that time your call came in.
3. Sometimes my phone is dead and needs to be charged. I try to avoid this, but it does happen.
4. If I am out run/walking, chances are I am not answering because it will sound like an obscene phone call from my end.
5. I am homeschooling our girls and they need my undivided attention. 
6. I am on a conference call on the other line and cannot click over.
7. If you call before 8am or after 6pm, chances are I am no where near my phone. Before 8am, I am not ready to deal with the world yet and after 6pm I am done dealing with the world for the day.
8. I might be with a family, a tax client or in a meeting.
9. I could be at the VA or a military base that kills my signal. 
10. I am just worn out and cannot answer the phone at that moment. 

These are all pretty good reasons, right?! To me these are all reasons that we should be patient with each other and understand that those of us with full voicemails, might also have full lives. We might have days where we are so busy the sun rises and sets without us even noticing.

Leaving nasty emails about how we are not thinking about you and dropping everything to tend to your needs is just not what we need. And to be honest, the last thing the mean emails do is compel me to help you. Some of us are trying our absolute best to help everyone we can. Some of us are really tired because day in and day out we are taking care of everyone else before ourselves.

The only we can ask of each other is that we do our absolute best. I can tell you that I work really hard on the behalf of others everyday. I am doing my absolute best to help everyone I can, but I have to help them at my pace. I will not let the statements to the contrary take root in my mind, nor should anyone else.