Encouraging and slightly brisk, then off the phone

When someone tells you something hard about their life, you say something encouraging and slightly brisk and then get off the phone, and from the other end efficiency is the same thing as unkindness.

With Hannah this has run for about six years. She would say something about being flattened, and you would hear it as a report from a country you had not emigrated to, handle it warmly and quickly, and end the call. You think she could feel you doing it, which is why she answered your offer with "can I though".