Something about there being a record of what I said that can be checked and rechecked as many times as wanted gives me mad anxiety. Like they can analyse just how weird I talk. With a phonecall, all that remains is memory, and that makes people way more inclined to give me the benefit of the doubt.
Sometimes I take half a day considering just how to address and sign an email. There’s such intricate expectations there and no cues from them that would allow me to adjust as needed. It’s just guessing with zero clues. At least when I get an immediate response to anything I say I can adjust as I go and kind of match their tone.
Don’t get me wrong, I find calls stressful too, but at least the stressing is over when it’s done. It’s more of a ripping the band-aid off kind of stress. The barrier of actually doing it is higher, but at least i can’t really spend all day putting my energy into it as I do with an email.
I can definitely relate. It also takes a lot longer to craft an email to contain all the relevant information. If you miss something, that’s potentially several hours or days of back and forth to get everything sorted out and plus the need to context switch each time. If you do a phone call, the context switching happens once and it gives you the freedom to go “I need help but I don’t know exactly how to describe the problem or what information you need” and the other party can help fill in the blanks for you.