Asynchronous communication is easier for busy people, typically
This is of course highly subjective. You might prefer the ability to choose the most suitable moments for communicating over communicating efficiently. My impression is, however, that the asynchronous type of conversation just stresses people out because the initial illusion of "just a quick message" turns into an endless back and forth of clarifications. I cannot imagine a meaningful communication on any level that does not require any kind of clarifying question, queries etc.; be it even just for expressing empathy or confirmation.
I wonder if there is any linguistic research on verbal asynchronous communication to make the matter less subjective.
My anxious brain might just work differently here, but I’ve found that I communicate way more efficiently if I have a minute or two to turn something over in my head before I need to respond.
Even if I don’t grok it immediately, my clarifying questions will usually be much better because my mind has had time to work through the possible second-order effects of whatever we’re discussing without - and this is key - the social pressure of making someone sit and wait while you think.
Nobody said it is efficient. It's good for certain situations. People are doing various things throughout the day and they don't always have time to hop on a call.
But of course, when both parties are completely free and asynchronous communication hits a bottleneck, you can easily switch to synchronous.
I didn't answer three phone calls and ignored like 10 messages from a co-worker from different department since yesterday afternoon.
Today afternoon I finally received an email from him where he told me that he'll do exactly that I suggested in Jira ticket comment two days ago, and that my further involvement is not needed.
I guess if I answered any of these communication attempts, we would still be discussing the solution to a problem that is already known for more than two days now.