I'm in a new job at an university. I sit with three other colleagues in a room. The office location is new as well as the team composition. We recently got phones. The other three team members have rather organizing/marketing roles while I have a software development role. The other team members get a lots of calls within a day while I get barely one in a week. As there is no policy how to handle calls, I asked one colleague how I should handle incoming calls for him. He said that I can answer calls if I want to.
I don't mind answering calls, i. e. I don't have telephone phobia, but it really gets annoying as there is no option to answer the calls from my desk, i.e. I have to get up and walk to his desk. It is also a high level of distraction as my role requires focusing on a topic a lot. So my stance was not to answer calls at all. Recently an other colleague realized that I was in the room while somebody called and nobody answered. When he called back he said to the caller that I was in the room but too shy to answer the call. I got somewhat upset and told him after the call that I'm not a phone assistance.
I don't want to be badmouthed and handle the situation professionally. Should I get over myself and just answer calls?