Hello?: Gen Z's silence on the phone baffles older workers

Younger workers who don't say hello when they answer a call need to know it's a problem.

- Pilita Clark

The other day, a recruiter in the US posted something online that quickly racked up an improbably large number of views.

This was no rant about war, strife or US President Donald Trump. It was merely an observation made by a heavy phone user that a lot of workers in their 20s now answer calls without saying "hello", "hi" or indeed anything at all.

"I can hear their breathing and the background noise, but they wait for you to say hello first," said the perplexed recruiter, adding she was talking about pre-arranged calls made at precisely the time the silent breathers had themselves chosen.

Also, she was calling on a phone number she had sent them, so they could tell who would be on the line, having just sent an e-mail reminder about the upcoming call.

Like others who saw her post, I found this news baffling. I realise a lot of young people find phone use unnerving. I understand this may be because they grew up without a landline in the home, so never got the free phone training from their parents that the rest of us took for granted.