The Common Phone Habit Gen-Z and Millennials Love Is Quietly Sabotaging Workplace Communication

New data shows that call-screening and spam paranoia have moved beyond personal lives, leaving legitimate business ops on ‘read.’

BY KIT EATON @KITEATON

Many Americans have become conditioned to avoid unknown numbers calling their phones, or even using the phone as a “phone” at all (we’re all looking at you, Gen-Z!) and though it may seem strange to anyone aged over 40, it’s just one of the many cultural shifts that happen as habits evolve in time. But new research suggests that the filtering trend is affecting more than personal communication, and it’s leading to people missing out on important work-related calls, sometimes routinely. This could have short term impacts on productivity and long-term implications for business comms of all kinds.

The big driver behind the call-screening trend is spam. Robocalls and robotexts combined with scammy messaging or phishing attempts are now so widespread that a call or text from an unknown or blocked number can instantly raise suspicion. The natural reaction to this, in our digital world, is to simply not answer such calls or texts. But........

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