Some time ago, I had a college intern, and in her first week I gave her a task I thought to be simple — answering the phone.

I said, “Just answer the phone, tell whoever is calling that so and so is in a meeting, and ask to take a message.” When the first call came in, she picked up the phone and didn’t know what to say. It turns out that she was unaccustomed to answering phones and didn’t really know […]