Voicemail Synchs
Many times in the last year at work I have been in the process of taking messages from voicemail when the other line rings and it is the person (whose message I was listening to) calling back. Now, this is not all that strange (timing is natural, the person is simply trying to contact me again after a few hours). However, I have noticed that the second call usually comes in at the same time I am trying to figure out how to replay the message to get some detail I missed. So picture this: me, sitting and staring kind of stupidly at my phone (I have never in the last year figured out how to replay a message on this voicemail software, but it doesn't stop me from trying to "remember" how to do it every time) and thinking really hard about the person whose message I've just listened to, when I'm interrupted by a call from them. It happens so regularly that it has stopped seeming wierd. I mean, I used to count it as a synch every time, but then I got so used to it that I stopped thinking it was even out of the ordinary at all.
Yesterday though, a twist on the experience made me question the natural timing explanation which I've fallen back on of late. Two nights ago, a new employee called and left a message to request that I purchase a couple of books. I didn't catch the woman's name and was sitting there trying to replay the message and ruminating about which book she wanted. She had asked for a medical directory and since someone else from her department had requested a few weeks prior that I purchase two copies of a medical directory, I figured that she probably wanted the same one. This was just a couple of seconds of thought, but I was thinking about all this, holding the phone to my ear, my fingers poised above the keypad, when the other line rang. It wasn't the new employee calling back, rather it was the woman who had requested the two medical directories. When she had called in December she asked for 1 copy of the directory, and then called me back a few hours later (after I had ordered) and changed her order to two directories. The order took a few weeks to arrive and I had just sent them to her last week. She was calling back to say, no she had asked for 3 directories. I asked her if this was for the other woman who had called and she said, "oh, no, that woman wants a different medical directory," and then she gave me the specifics of the book.
So, again, I had a phone call come in that answered a question I was ruminating on.
Yesterday though, a twist on the experience made me question the natural timing explanation which I've fallen back on of late. Two nights ago, a new employee called and left a message to request that I purchase a couple of books. I didn't catch the woman's name and was sitting there trying to replay the message and ruminating about which book she wanted. She had asked for a medical directory and since someone else from her department had requested a few weeks prior that I purchase two copies of a medical directory, I figured that she probably wanted the same one. This was just a couple of seconds of thought, but I was thinking about all this, holding the phone to my ear, my fingers poised above the keypad, when the other line rang. It wasn't the new employee calling back, rather it was the woman who had requested the two medical directories. When she had called in December she asked for 1 copy of the directory, and then called me back a few hours later (after I had ordered) and changed her order to two directories. The order took a few weeks to arrive and I had just sent them to her last week. She was calling back to say, no she had asked for 3 directories. I asked her if this was for the other woman who had called and she said, "oh, no, that woman wants a different medical directory," and then she gave me the specifics of the book.
So, again, I had a phone call come in that answered a question I was ruminating on.
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