In the print journalism industry, reporters work under tight deadlines. At theReview,we go to press once a week and aim to have all our stories completed by end-of-day Tuesday.

But that, unfortunately, is at times hard to achieve when the stories we put together rely on others, who hold the

valuable information we require to construct a well-balanced and factual account of events.

Not that I expect that every phone call I place will be answered. Most times, I am greeted by a pre-recorded message that sounds a lot like this:

“Hi, you’ve reached the voice mailbox of John Doe. I am currently unavailable to take your call. Please leave me a detailed message with your name, number and the time that you called and I will return your call as soon as possible. Thank you.”

As ironic as this may sound, I obey the machine. I leave my name, number and a detailed message. What irritates me the most is when my call isn’t returned in a timely fashion –or at all, for that matter.

I understand that people are busy. So am I. I understand that, at times, I may have contacted the wrong person. So direct me. But I don’t get how some people can just ignore a message.

At the office, when someone leaves me a message, I call back. If the message was left on my machine by error, I forward it to the individual it concerns. Then, I follow up to make sure that the person has been helped.

All of this takes just a few minutes. It’s not complicated, nor is it time consuming. After all, returning someone’s call boils down to respect, don’t you agree?

Obviously, we are all human. Not everyone remembers to do everything between the busy hours of 9 a. m. and 5 p. m.; I know I don’t. But I

truly believe that employers should instill some sort of callback etiquette for employees.

So, what’s acceptable?

I think a two-day callback policy is good enough. That allows enough time to look into a request or wrap up other duties in order to dedicate the appropriate time and attention to the caller.

But not to return a call at all, that just drives me stark raving mad! After a few days of leaving a message for someone without a returned call, I start to think that maybe I didn’t leave the message at all, or maybe, by accident, I pressed a key on the touch-tone phone, which erased my message before it could be delivered. Crazy, right?

Luckily, the issue is easily resolvable: when someone leaves you a message, get back to them in a timely fashion.

After all, you already said you would, on your voicemail recording. It’s just a matter of living up to your promise.