Pet Peeve du jour

I'll admit I'm often more cranky than not, but nothing singes my shorts more than someone calling me and leaving a voicemail message that says, "This is so-and-so, call me back..."  What?!  No!  I demand MORE INFORMATION!  Is it too much to ask that someone briefly (or go into detail, I don't care! - I can always FF) state the nature of one's call?  Give me a good reason, any reason to call you back.  Tell me what I'm getting myself into by returning your call.  Better yet, if you tell me why you called in the first place, I can be better prepared to call you back with 1) some information 2) some questions C) some answers 4) congratulations or condolences or E) to lend a listening ear.  Otherwise, depending on the caller, my mind will start wandering.  If it's a family member (who should know better than to leave me such a message!), I will immediately think they're lying in a ditch somwhere with low battery power which will send me into a massive state of frenzy.  If it's a friend, my first thought would be that it must not be that important and I'll call back whenever I feel like it.  Even if it's a friend with nothing to say but "hi" and the friend leaves a brief: "It's so-and-so and I just called to say hi," message, that's perfectly fine and chances are, I will call shortly upon receiving the message.

What especially irks me are business associates who leave such cryptic messages.  Unless you're a spy (and if that were the case and you were leaving such non-messages, I'd have to be one also, and since I'm not, that is not a good excuse either), there is no excuse to call me, not state the nature of your call, and expect me to have the least amount of interest in calling you back.  There are some (soon-to-be-former) co-workers who are notorius at this and despite my gentle hints at stating the nature of one's call, cannot seem to grasp the concept. 

You can have the best news, the worst news, and everything in between but if you don't give me an inkling of why you called, I don't feel so compelled to return that call.  This is one of those instances where I'd rather have too much information than no information at all.