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Comment by matsemann | Hacker News Reader

I think this is cultural. I've never ever left a voice message, and never will. I've also never received one, the few I get are robocallers not understanding no one picked up.

If you want me to pick up, send an sms explaining what it's about.

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Many of us here grew up in the answering machine era where leaving a message was normal, expected behavior- when phones were not carried on your person.

Ironically back in the answering machine era you could screen your calls as they were coming in, short-circuiting this entire loop.

And what's old is new again, both Android and (newly) iPhone have live voicemail screening features!

I'm always struck in these threads how much variation there is. I doubt I receive one SPAM/scam text or phone call a week. It would seem weird that I'd want to make myself potentially unreachable to avoid the odd junk. I guess if I got multiple per day I'd need a different strategy.

A school nurse probably doesn't have SMS capabilities on their school phone, and might not be willing to share their private number (I certainly wouldn't in that position).

I rarely leave voicemails, but I will when it's urgent.

A school nurse is certainly expected to leave a message with a callback number. There are hundreds of millions of ways to leave a callback number that isn't 1 specific number you want. But "leave nothing" obviously isn't an acceptable solution, and leaving a personal cell number as a callback is a more acceptable one.

tl;dr: leave message+number, how you do so is up to you

Absolutely. The person I was replying to said that voicemail was not a reasonable option. If the nurse needed to send an SMS their only option may be to use a personal device, and it isn't reasonable to expect educators and staff to provide personal contact information to parents.

The proper procedure is for the nurse to leave a voicemail with their school-provided contact number (either the school office or a way to dial them directly that isn't their personal number).

However, since voice mail isn't common where I live, I also get all communication through text. Most systems send out texts. It's how I communicate with the plumber, my dentist etc. Basically never talk over phone with anyone.

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