A US recruiter set the internet on fire a few months back by complaining that Gen Z candidates don't say hello when they answer the phone. The story bounced from TikTok to Fortune to Newsweek to YouGov, who ran a study and found that, no, Gen Z does say hello, mostly. Boomers are the ones who don't.
Funny how that one landed.
The version of this story sitting on the desk of every managing partner in the Midlands isn't about juniors picking up. It's about juniors not picking up. Not because they're rude. Because the phone, for them, is the wrong tool.
A senior partner I know in Birmingham rang me last month, properly annoyed. 'I've tried Sarah three times today, Chris. She's a 4 PQE, she should be answering her phone.' Sarah, when I spoke to her later, had been on a Teams call with the client all morning and the partner had her on Slack the whole time. He didn't check Slack. He picked up the phone.
Two people in the same building, same matter, talking past each other because they're using different mediums to do the same job.
The associates aged 27 to 35, your 2-8 PQE bracket, the ones you're trying to retain because they're the most expensive to replace, grew up with WhatsApp and Slack. They process work asynchronously. They batch their concentration. A ringing phone interrupts a deep work block on a complex piece of drafting, and they resent it the same way you'd resent someone walking into your office and shouting your name while you were trying to read a 90 page SPA.
The solution most firms reach for is training. 'We'll train them to answer the phone.' That misses the point so badly it would be funny if it wasn't costing them six figures in lost talent every year.
The real move is two way. Associates need to understand that some conversations work better on a call. Difficult feedback, urgent client problems, sensitive personal matters. Anything where tone carries weight. Partners need to understand that for everything else, a clear Slack message at 9.47am gets a faster response than a missed call at 9.43am followed by a passive aggressive 'any updates?' at 10.15.
The firms in my patch that get this aren't the ones with the slickest tech stack. They're the ones where the partners have asked their associates how they prefer to communicate, and then met them halfway.
The ones losing people are the ones where partners still see picking up the phone as a moral test.
It isn't a moral test. It's a generational communication preference. Right now your competitors are quietly fixing it while you're still complaining that nobody answers the phone.
The Gen Z thing went viral because every senior person in every office felt seen by it. The reason the YouGov data didn't kill the story is that the story was never about whether Gen Z says hello. It was about whether senior people could keep doing what they've always done and still get the result.
They can't.
Adjust, or watch your best 4 PQE pick up the phone to me instead.
Chris Brain
Founder, Connect Legal Partners
Key Takeaways
- The viral Gen Z 'won't say hello on the phone' story masked a real issue: 4 PQE associates default to async tools (Slack, Teams, WhatsApp) for deep work.
- Phone calls interrupt concentrated drafting and are resented by associates who batch their attention — not because they are rude.
- Calls remain the right medium for difficult feedback, urgent client issues, and anything where tone carries weight; everything else moves faster on async channels.
- The retention move is to ask associates how they prefer to communicate, then meet them halfway — not to mandate phone-first culture.
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About the Author
Chris Brain
Founder, Connect Legal Partners
Chris Brain is the Founder of Connect Legal Partners, working a 2-8 PQE legal recruitment desk across the Midlands from the West Midlands - covering Northants, Leicester, Birmingham and Shropshire. He places experienced solicitors with Legal 500-ranked and Chambers UK-listed firms across six core practice areas.