can I tell a coworker to read his emails and stop calling me?

A reader writes:

The CTO of our company is our CEO’s high school buddy. If you come to him with a problem, he always wants to jump on a call with you to hear the problem and troubleshoot. However, 95% of the time, I don’t need to be on this call. I don’t have any amplifying information other than reporting that something isn’t working. He wants to think out loud and chat. It’s a huge waste of time.

Lately, I’ve been flat out refusing to be on a call with him by saying, “I don’t have any additional information, so a call is not needed.” Instead I will Slack him with the problem and my attempts at resolution (again, all of the information I have). I’m realizing that he doesn’t actually read beyond the first sentence, because he will then ask me questions that I have already answered. I’m guessing now he wants to be on a call because he doesn’t like to read. For reference, my last message to him reporting a bug with our email was only 80 words.

Is there a professional way to say “Please reread my message, all your questions are answered”?

Yes, but whether it’s politically smart to do that depends on how senior he is to you.

If he’s significantly senior to you, then you may just have to deal with the calls. That’s not ideal, and it’s also the political reality of hierarchy in many workplaces; his seniority may mean that his communication preferences take precedence.

That said, to cut down on how often you have to get on the phone with him, you can try saying things like, “I need to jump on a call that’s about to start, but all the info I have is in the message above. Hopefully that’s enough!” Or, “I’m not free for a call right now, but I did put all the details I have in the original message. Once you look it over, if there’s anything specific you need, let me know!”

Realistically, you can’t do that every time or it’ll be obvious you’re just trying not to talk to him, but you can do it some of the time.

You can also try making the messages as short as possible so that his disinclination to read doesn’t have as much room to play out. There’s a tension between doing that while also trying to provide all the info so you don’t have to get on a call with him, but think about whether there are ways you can streamline for someone you know won’t read. (And always, always consider bullet points.) I realize, though, that this is happening with messages that are already short!

If he’s not that senior to you and is closer to a peer, you can also try naming the problem. For example: “I’ve noticed you often suggest jumping on a call with things like X or Y, but I usually don’t have any info beyond what’s in my message and it can be tough to fit impromptu calls into my workflow.”

But much of the time, when a C-suite exec has annoying preferences, you might just need to put up with it and figure that’s what the money is for.

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