When I was on reserve I never answered the phone even when on long or short call. I always listened to the message first.

Be wary about calling them when you're off. I thought about it a few times when I had picked up late report assignments day 1 then later saw a better assignment I wanted. I was afraid to call and ask for those better trips because I was worried they'd say, " no. You can't have that trip. But since I've got you on the phone here's an 0630 departure. Enjoy."

Multiple times I had scheduling call me 6ish pm last day off 10 minutes after an early report trip popped into open time and they wouldn't leave a message. I surmise that early report trips appeared and they were trolling down the list to get some dummy to answer.