Annoyed At: The Flashing Voice Mail Light
It annoys me when…
The voice mail light flashes incessantly on my desk phone. I get it that my phone wants me to know that I have a message. But can’t the light just stay illuminated (as it appears to be in the photo above–for the true effect of that unnerving, consistent flashing, watch the video below) rather than flashing like that? It would accomplish the same thing without driving me nuts with it’s taunting “You have a message, you have a message, you have a message, come on check your messages, it could really be important” insistence, like that irksome kid who sat behind me in third grade who would tap, tap, tap on my shoulder to try and get my attention. Tapping harder and harder the longer I ignored him.
That flashing light is a grating reminder of one more task I need to accomplish, a task I didn’t volunteer for or schedule myself. It’s really an uninvited interruption on my schedule. And those messages are never of the “You’ve won $1,000,00” or even “We’re sending someone over to your house to do your laundry for free” variety. They’re almost always someone asking for something, and often the something they’re asking for is something that I can’t provide. So I’m faced with the dilemma of calling them back and disappointing them or simply ignoring the message and by so doing, disappointing them. It’s a no-win scenario. I really need to change my outgoing voice mail message to something like “You’ve reached this number by mistake, no one is here. No one will ever check these messages. Leaving a message on this number is an exercise in futility on your part. We strongly suggest that you do not leave a message.”
