Why would a boss always email me when she wants to talk to me and say “call me”?

The telephone is an old technology, and it can cause many problems in the modern workplace. The fact that it is a public alarm (ringer) is quite disturbing to those around you. Additionally, it’s not easily managed to help during times of focused concentration and productivity.

In most places that I have worked for the past 10 years, people would only use the phone during an emergency or if you request the call via email or chat first.

In other words, I believe your boss is using proper office etiquette that takes into consideration those around you, provides you with the respect and trust that you know how to manage your time, and that you may be in the middle of something very important.

This is completely normal, and I would view this as a very considerate and respectful thing that your boss does.

I thought the same as you, but ends up @thisismyusername is right, she was just allowing me to call when it was convenient in my work day, not a power trip or anything.

My former coworker, who was about 30, and I emailed each other through out the day a LOT and we only sat about 10 feet away from each other.

Then I was transferred to another location where I worked directly with my 65 year old boss, who was convinced I was retarded after my hospitalization. Oh the fun we had. I’d send her emails about whatever, and one day she stepped out of the office and screamed at me for sending emails and why didn’t I just go talk to her?
I was really shocked. I told her that just because I didn’t hear a lot of noise or movement coming from her office, I didn’t assume she wasn’t busy and I was concerned about interrupting her. I sent emails so she could read and respond at her convenience.
She just snapped that I needed to stop, and turned away muttering, convinced that my emailing was another manifestation of brain damage.

I think only you can know for sure.

My current boss is somewhat like this, only worse. He asks me to review and comment on things (in email, since he does spend a lot of time in meetings, on trips and in other ways out of his office), or sends open-ended or technical questions that can’t be answered in one-sentence answers or other simple ways. So I respond in kind, for one thing because he’s not in his office down the hall, and for another, to give him a timely response, but also to give the response the consideration that the question or review requires – and also to preserve a record of the response.

Then when he gets back to the office, or near it, he’ll send a follow-up email to “come see me” so we can talk about the email that I may have sent days earlier… and when I walk down the hall (and around the office), I find that he’s still unavailable. So I leave a message in his office for him that I tried to find him and didn’t, or I email again to elaborate on the answer that I’ve already given, in case there’s some open question (or in case I’ve learned more since the question was asked) ... and wait for him to get back to me.

When he finally gets back to his office, then he’s rushed, pressed for time, late for a dozen meetings… and he shows up at my office to demand an instant update on an email that may be, by now, a week or more old (and may have been covered with other emails following the same pattern).

So I end up giving rushed, incomplete oral synopses to questions that I took a lot of time and care to answer “just right” the first time… and he only absorbs a fraction of what I tell him (which was a rushed fraction of what I wrote him) ... and then he gets part of that wrong.

And he wonders why he has no time…

@chyna Does lazy come to mind?

It’s no lazier to make a call than to answer one.

It would help if she mentioned what she needed to discuss so I could have it ready instead of digging for the file, etc. while she waited. Instead, she just says, call me. Kinda rude in my opinion.
@thisismyusername I’m not sure how this can be proper etiquette. It would be proper to tell me what we will be discussing.

I can only think that because your line of work probably require you to sit behind a cubicle working on a computer so a direct e-mail is perfectly fast, appropriate, and effective.

If that isn’t the case and she knows that you carry your smartphone with you all the time then perhaps you didn’t share texting apps with her or she didn’t know your ID on the apps. I say this because I find that most co-working indirect conversation in office happen through texting apps, not so much anymore with e-mailing unless it’s for formal talk/announcement. But, then again, perhaps the culture and environment where you live are different.