Sofia Quintero:

An unexpected phone call can be a huge distraction, especially if it happens at the wrong time. The act of recovering from an interruption can cost you a big part of your working day. In fact, most of us lose 28 percent (or 2.1 hours a day) of our productivity to constant interruptions and recovery time.

When people call me out of the blue it feels to me like they are saying in their most macabre voice: “I own your time now, my life and my priorities are more important than yours so now proceed and surrender to my communications needs.”

This is especially uncomfortable when we are talking about sales calls. In that case is more like this: “Hello, let me interrupt your day now because I really want to sell you something and I am sure you have nothing better to do with your time than talking to me.”

Agreed. This is exactly right and it really, really pisses me off. In my eyes, there’s nothing more disrespectful towards your customers than invading their personal space like this.

The good news is, we can fight back. A couple years ago I left my bank after more than a decade with them because they wouldn’t stop calling me during office hours. And more recently I switched Internet providers simply because they wouldn’t stop trying to upsell me to a “better” plan, despite me having told then repeatedly that I wasn’t interested.

Was it a pain to switch? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Hell, yes.

See also: why sometimes I can be an ass.