I don't listen to my phone messages...
not at work, not most of the time.
this is because almost anyone who actually needs to get hold of me knows to either e-mail, or call my cell, if they are cleared to have my cell number.
The university at some point switched to a VOIP phone for cost savings, this had several effects:
if the internet goes out, so does our phone service, no redundancy;
the VOIP voicemail (apparently) randomly expires the voicemail password, but infrequently enough that I don't ever remember how to retrieve or reset it, hence most of the time I can not actually access my voicemail without calling tech support to have them reset it, this is enough of a bother that I wait for 20-30 messages to pile up, unless I suspect there is a real and urgent message on there;
and, we're not allowed to make long distance phone calls without having a billing code, and we're not allowed to bill phone calls to grants, so that means burning unobligated funds to make phone calls - I don't think so.
Seriously.
I actually kinda like it...
Yes, with the policy on phone messages. I follow a similar policy here. If you need to leave a message, email is clearer.
But VOIP: its remarkable how broken VOIP is for 2011. Where is the robust subnet for Internet use, for voip and emergencies?
How come we still talk of Long-distance charges in the age of the internet, wasn't VOIP supposed to make phone calls free?
A good solution is to tell everyone you're hard of hearing so you can't accept calls. Being deaf myself, it works a treat. :-)
Google Voice is the answer. You can practically ignore all voicemails after you look at the email, and you can make free calls out to US + canada. Plus, even on your salary you can probably afford making international calls. Given it is an institutional number there might be some problems using it for voicemail, but you can definitely use it for outgoing calls.
I have no choice given the poor cell phone reception in my office.
Google Voice. Get it, use it, be happier. Makes checking your messages dead simple, can ring any of your phones simultaneously, or not at all. Voicemails are transcribed (albeit imperfectly), texts are dead-simple to send and receive, and you can record incoming phone calls (great way to interview grandparents). If you're using Google Chrome, you can call phone numbers (or any string of 10 digits) with two clicks of the mouse.