Managing to have a phone conversation with another human at some companies is becoming so difficult and frustrating, it would be easier, and faster, to send a pigeon.

For a start, they do everything possible to prevent you from calling in the first place, presumably because it costs too much to have a real person pick up a handset.

The letter you receive, whether it be via your inbox or through the post, certainly won’t have a telephone number on it – a web address, an email maybe, and if you’re really lucky, a postal address.

More often than not, the website craftily manages to avoid listing a phone number either, but if it does you can be sure that when you’ve hung on for half an hour, your call will be answered by a machine listed as a chatbot.

Of course, if the company you’re trying to contact is seeking payment for something, they will manage to provide you with a whole host of different options, ironically often including a telephone number with a 24-hour automated payment service.

It was bad enough before Covid struck, but the pandemic made everything a hundred times worse and provided a whole army of lazy gits with the perfect opportunity to avoid interacting with anyone for months on end.

What’s really unforgivable is some work-shy, self-professed ‘communication professionals’ are still trotting out the same lame excuse years later. When I finally tracked down the correct phone number for a particular council’s newsdesk this week, I got an auto-reply message informing me calls can’t be taken as, due to Covid-19, measures are being taken to protect employees.

“Covid is still being used to disguise poor management, incompetence of the highest level or, in many cases, pure laziness...”

I’m presuming these same employees are also being protected by still not being allowed to go to the supermarket, the cinema or the pub?

Frankly, the statement was laughable in 2020 but it perfectly demonstrates how Covid is still being used to disguise poor management, incompetence of the highest level or, in many cases, pure laziness.

My desire to hold a conversation with another human being, rather than simply seeking to communicate with a machine or swap written messages, will see me dismissed as a dinosaur, but it’s not just a case of hankering after a bygone age.

I fully realise technological advances mean methods of communication will continue to evolve and wherever possible I’m happy to embrace them.

However, we certainly haven’t developed to a point where conversations, either face-to-face or over the phone, don’t still have value. And if you’re still trotting out Covid excuses to avoid proper communication then you’re a complete disgrace.