I work remote and in my context a quick call is always a video call, which tbh feels low key nice to interact with coworkers.

Usually they are having an issue and need to share the screen, or are showing me a document they prepared and are explaining their reasoning for feedback, or I had an idea for their issue and I wanted to explain them with some pseudocode... I much prefer quick "calls" where I can show my screen than text, presenting ideas and hearing feedback is sooo much better (not only faster but better) if you can see the face of the person you are working with.

I work in municipal development. When I want to call you instead of emailing you, it's because what I'm going to say is something pretty frank that you'd rather not have a written record of. You, Mr Civil Engineer, don't want your client to do an Open Records request on me and find the email where I had to explain to you, in detail, that water flows downhill and that your drainage plan shouldn't show water moving parallel to contour lines.

I'm often in a situation where it's harder to type and I need immediate answers. Some people just sit on messages so phone call it is.

I don't send the "free to talk?" messages though 

Texting feels like a sad proposition knowing a significant portion of the US population can't read beyond the 6th grade level.

Honestly I think it's wild people are so upset about this. Typing back and forth a ton of DMs sucks. Phone calls just get things accomplished. That's my experience as a software engineer at least.

I guess I'm weird for preferring a 2-5 minute call over what would be 15-20 minutes of back-and-forth over text. 🤷‍♂️

I can literally feel myself deflating when I get these, like it's a huge involuntary sigh accompanied by the classic heart-sinking...

...followed by a deep breath and a "Sure! 👍"

This is giving "can't place your own order at the drive-thru vibes."

I hate random calls but I'm also usually very time efficient with answering things, so despite my own usual aversion to calls I find work is the only place I'll ask if I can quick demo/show something to get input. Lasts a total of 3 minutes, keeps me on-topic to my work, and takes less time than waiting for their slow typing back while I'll be distracted in typical ADHD fashion and start trying to discover if my laptop dock can make my hand cream melt.

Either send me an email and you'll get an answer when you get an answer, or come see me in person. Phone calls and text messages are annoying as shit.

"Yeah, so I've got an issue with my computer, and I am getting an error message"

"What does the error message say?"

"Dont really know, lots of gibberish"

"Would you mind reading that gibberish to me"

"I'll send you a screenshot"

"Allright, I'll look at it once I got it, and come back to you"

At which point I will hang up, wait 10 minutes for their email, look if its something urgent and if it isn't, wait about an hour or two before emailing them back my answer.

Guess I'm just a chatty Cathy. I like the phone (as long as I somewhat like the person on the line).

Avoiding my calls because verbal conversations make you anxious? Fair enough, I will spend an embarrassingly long time to write, re-read, delete, re-write, re-read several times, re-delete, re-write a third time by blending versions one and two, re-read and realize I didn't explain something, re-write and realize that something else is irrelevant, re-read and realize it wasn't irrelevant because two paragraphs later etc. until I have a message that can't possibly be misread, send it, and then agonize about writing something that was misread until I hear back from you while pathologically refreshing my inbox.

Saying you can't talk now but scheduling a time for me later? Totally fair, you have a whole ass job outside of my stupid problems, if they can wait I will wait and if they can't I'll go back to paragraph 1.

Avoiding my calls because you think I'm dumb but won't just tell me how I'm being dumb so I can try to make improvements? Congrats, my new work project is making your work life a living hell until you either quit or schedule a call with me where we can discuss preferred communication styles and how to demonstrate mutual respect.

I had that recently. The call and meeting "here's x, can you do x?" Me: "yes".

Was a bit crazy.

If it's easier for you to explain by talking, I will from that point on assume you are illiterate and can't write the same words you can speak.