The Quick Call Has Exceeded Its Mandate
Someone asked for a quick call. The quick call is now in its thirty-fifth minute. Nobody scheduled thirty-five minutes. Nobody is sure how this happened.
The message said: do you have a quick call?
This communicated several things simultaneously. That the call would be short. That the topic was not important enough to explain in the message but also not unimportant enough to leave as a message. That the person asking would prefer your voice to your typing, for reasons they did not specify. That the meeting this would become had not been calculated into anyone's afternoon.
You said yes. You are now on minute twenty-eight.
The Definition
The quick call was defined, at the time of the request, by how long it was not going to take. Not thirty minutes. Not a meeting. Quick. The definition had no floor, only a ceiling, and the ceiling was implied rather than stated.
The implied ceiling was five minutes. Maybe ten. Something that would not require blocking time. Something that would be over before it needed to be scheduled.
The Expansion
The quick call expanded for reasons that are individually reasonable.
First, there was context to establish. Then there was a complication in the context that required explanation. Then there was a related issue that was easier to address while both parties were already talking. Then someone said while I have you, and this introduced a second agenda that the quick call was not originally intended to carry.
The quick call is now carrying two agendas and a follow-up question about a third thing.
The Record
Minute one through four: the reason for the call. Minute five through twelve: the context for the reason. Minute thirteen through nineteen: a related issue, raised opportunistically. Minute twenty through twenty-five: the while I have you item. Minute twenty-six through thirty-one: the follow-up. Minute thirty-two: "I should let you go." Minute thirty-three through thirty-five: not letting you go.
The Learning
The quick call will be requested again next week. It will be accepted. It will exceed its mandate again.
Nobody will use this pattern to estimate how long the next quick call will take, because the definition of quick, established at the time of the request, remains sincere. The person asking genuinely believes it will be quick. It will not be quick. Both parties will be surprised.