The question is no longer anecdotal. As working methods are evolving and infobesity wins each function, the use of the professional phone has become a marker of management styles. Teams favor the instantaneity of calls as a lever for efficiency, others see it as a permanent intrusion into their concentration capacity. Between imperative of availability and right to cognitive continuity, the choice to refuse or limit professional calls is no longer just a case of comfort: it directly questions the way in which a company designs its relationship to time and performance.
Expensive interruptions for productivity
The telephone interrupts an employee on average on average every eleven minutes, according to the work of Gloria Mark, professor at the University of California in Irvine, published in The Cost of Interrupted Work: More speed and stress (2008). Each call then imposes a time of resumption of activity of approximately 23 minutes, even when the exchange was brief. This cognitive fragmentation slows down problem solving, complicates arbitrations and promotes the multiplication of harmless but chronophagous errors.
A meta-analysis led by Leroy, Schmidt and Madjar, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology (2021), confirms that oral interruptions harm more to complex tasks than other forms of distraction. The reactivity required by calls, even professionals, limits the ability to structure a successful work sequence, to the detriment of quality.
Refuse a call as a time control strategy
Planning periods of non-depurbability becomes a method of protecting attention capital. Interrupting an appeal voluntarily, ignoring it or orienting it towards a defined niche is not a passive behavior, but an active choice of organization. In the functions of support, engineering, creation or project management, this anticipation constitutes a lever of efficiency. Reserving slots dedicated to vocal exchanges allows you to focus energy on one task at a time.
It is relevant to explicitly inform his interlocutors of his joint hours. A simple mention in signing mail or a voice message indicating the call beaches preserves the fluidity of exchanges while placing clear limits. This discipline contributes to a better sharing of responsibilities in the management of collective time.
Availability perceived as a loyalty criterion
In a large number of teams, immediate availability remains associated with professional reliability. The telephone embodies a form of relational commitment. Not to drop can be perceived as a disconnection or a lack of responsiveness, even when it is a thoughtful choice. This offset feeds a tension between organizational autonomy and compliance with the implicit expectations of the collective.
According to the Steelcase Global Report on engagement and the Global Workplace (2022), 38 % of the employees questioned declare that they feel guilt when they do not immediately respond to a professional call, including outside working hours. This cultural bias slows down the adoption of healthy rules for regulating oral interactions.
Collective rules to get out of ambiguity
Allow everyone to decide their use of the phone alone feeds misunderstandings. In the absence of a clear line, collective time becomes fragmented and decisions are slowed down by contradictory expectations. Companies have implemented simple but effective policies: protected unavailability hours, obligation to confirm written after an oral appeal, strict hierarchy of the channels according to the real urgency.
At Decathlon, the establishment of concentration slots without interruption in the product design services, accompanied by strict framework of internal calls, has made it possible to accelerate several development loops without increasing the pressure on the teams. It was not the tool that has been deleted, but its use that has been reached.
Individual autonomy and team consistency
The use of the professional telephone puts in tension two complementary logics: personal freedom of organization and collective coordination requirements. Refusing an appeal can meet a legitimate need for concentration, provided that this choice is part of a clear and shared setting. The consistency of exchanges is more based on the predictability of behavior than on constant availability.
The teams that benefit from well -defined margins of autonomy more easily succeed in structuring their oral interactions. The introduction of delayed recall slots, the clarification of emergency levels or the formalization of postponement messages contribute to preserving the quality of labor relations without overloading communication channels. These are the practical adjustments, anchored in specific routines, which make it possible to reconcile individual attention and collective efficiency.
Managerial training and exemplarity in the use of the telephone
The impact of the rules framing the calls depends directly on the attitude of the supervisors. An official who requests his teams by telephone without framework or anticipation installs an implicit standard of constant reactivity. Conversely, clearly indicate its availability slots, favor deferred supports for non -urgent subjects and adapt its communication methods to the degree of emergency contributes to establishing a more structured logic of oral interactions.
Several directions now integrate the issue of the phone in managerial development programs. Training includes concrete exercises on the hierarchy of channels and the management of concentration beaches. These are the specific benchmarks, transmitted daily in internal interactions, which facilitate the progressive appropriation of new practices. The reasoned use of the telephone then becomes a full -fledged steering skill, carried by exemplarity.
