Fear of answering phones drives young Japanese workers away companies respond with training, outsourcing

An increasing number of Japanese companies are taking steps to ease the burden of phone communication for the MZ generation — those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s — as many younger employees say they feel anxious about answering calls and some even quit because of it. According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on Monday, companies are turning to professional training firms to educate young employees on phone etiquette. Some are even outsourcing phone reception entirely to call-answering services that handle calls on behalf of the company. “Some employees are quitting because they find it too difficult to answer the company phone,” said customer service training company DoFine. “Others can’t even use internal lines to report or pass along information.” The company added that many of the trainees are using landlines for the first time in their lives. Some firms now spend an entire week just on phone etiquette training for new hires. A 2023 survey conducted by call service company Softsu with 562 respondents aged 20 and older found that about 60 percent felt anxious about

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