Inc.com columnist Alison Green answers questions about workplace and direction bug--everything from how to bargain with a micromanaging boss to how to talk to someone on your team about body odor .

A reader asks:

I run my own small-scale graphic design business organization. I work with some regular clients, simply a lot of my piece of work is i-off projects for small business clients. I'k always open to new clients, though I also have a steady stream of work, enough to exist comfortable.

Here's the trouble: Often, a client or prospective client will ask if I can "bound on the phone" for a quick talk or schedule a teleconference. I have terrible social feet, and merely thinking about talking to a stranger on the phone makes me want to throw upwards. I get so flustered on the phone that I can become practically unintelligible, then I don't sell myself well over the phone anyway. I also really like to have every conversation in writing then there's no confusion well-nigh task guidelines, deadlines, etc.

Is there a mode I can say "No, let's go along the conversation via email," or explain that I don't communicate by phone/teleconference? I accept a therapist I work with, I have medication, and I know in that location are strategies I could use in the future to make phone calls more comfortable--merely from a business perspective, is there a mode I can refuse this request without seeming ridiculous? I'm aware that insisting to communicate only by email could lose me some jobs, but I have enough work that I'yard OK with that.

What do you call back?

Green responds:

As long as you're OK with the possibility of losing business from people who feel more than comfortable if they can talk past phone--and since you already accept enough piece of work to be comfortable--you can exercise your pick to do this if you lot want.

For example, y'all can say: "My schedule makes it hard for me to bound on the phone, only I'd be glad to respond any questions y'all have by email, and I can usually exist quite responsive that way."

Or if you desire to exist clearer that you're always going to be unavailable past telephone: "I have a medical issue that means I don't use the phone, just I'd be glad to answer any questions you have by e-mail, and I tin usually exist quite responsive that way."

That said, more generally--and this doesn't audio similar it applies to yous since y'all're in a position where you're calling the shots--I do think people who dislike the phone would be doing themselves and their careers a service if they worked on getting comfortable talking on the telephone even when they don't desire to.

At that place are tons of people who hate talking on the phone and who actively avoid it. I've heard dozens and dozens of managers say a version of this most junior staff members: "She kept telling me she hadn't heard dorsum from the person who we're waiting on info from, simply said she had followed upwardly several times. Eventually I constitute out that all her follow-upwards had been by email. She'd never once picked upwards the phone and called, fifty-fifty when it was getting urgent. I had to lodge her to use the phone, and and then nosotros got the info we needed." This is always said in a tone of exasperation, and understandably and so.

At some point in the future, the phone might get the way of the mimeograph motorcar. But until it does, for nearly people, "I detest the telephone" isn't sufficient reason to avoid using information technology when it makes sense for your chore. Simply you lot're an exception to this, because you lot're in a position where you tin can be choosy about how you piece of work, which is a keen matter.

Want to submit a question of your own? Send it to alison@askamanager.org .