...the reason I’m marking this off as done now is for several reasons.

1) I offered to make a booking at a restaurant over the phone, rather trying to palm it off on someone else because I was too much of a wimp.
2) I now answer my own phone at work without even a moment’s trepidation.
3) I don’t much like answering colleague’s phones, but as long as the person on the other end isn’t a completely unreasonable human being, I can handle it.

So in other words, while a career in telesales is probably a no-no (which tbh I’m not too upset about!) I think I can now function pretty much as normal when it comes to telephones! 5 months ago

...I now supervise a guy at work who obviously has severe phone phobia as well. After dealing with the simplest phone call he frets about it for ages afterwards that he might have said or done something stupid. I try and reassure him because I know exactly how he feels (not that I can really tell him because I don’t want it to be public knowledge how much using the phone bothers me) but he still has to do it. I feel very hypocritical forcing him to face up to his fears when I’m still so uncomfortable facing up to my own! I know that in the last year, since I’ve had to take more phone calls, I’ve become a lot more relaxed about it – so I’m sure that given time, this guy will also learn to deal with his fear. But right now I feel like the meanest person in the world. 17 months ago

I’m really suprised how many people have this problem too.
I can answer the phone without any hesitation or worries at all, but making a phone call terrifies me.

I will do ANYTHING to avoid it and I find it hard to even call close friends and my family. This has become really difficult, especially lately as I have a really important call I have been avoiding making. I know that I really really need to do it, but I can’t.

My goal is to do it by 10am the day after tomorrow, since I have the whole day off work (it’s so pathetic that I need recovery time for a phone call.) 18 months ago

Literally this morning I felt really good about this goal. I’ve been having to handle a lot of phone calls at work on behalf of another dept. – they’re not phone calls I can deal with, I just have to either take a message or transfer the call. I’ve been doing fine with that – I don’t like having to do it, but I’ve been getting on with it, and this morning I thought, hey, maybe I’m getting over my stupid phone phobia at last.

Then this afternoon I get one stupid phonecall and it sets me right back. The guy is angry, he won’t accept that he’s talking to someone from a different department who doesn’t know how to help with his query, he won’t get off the phone until he talks to the right person (who is already on a call) and he makes me feel like a right idiot in the process. I’m in a right state, and then Tracy breezes in, takes the call and handles it so effortlessly that I just feel like a pathetic loser. Why can’t I do that, why do I end up shaking like a jelly and barely able to stop my voice wavering?

I don’t know who I was kidding this morning. I’m nowhere near completing this goal. :-( 20 months ago