If you want to avoid picking your way through a voice mail system, become old fashioned. That is, pretend that you have a rotary phone without buttons. Eventually, an operator will answer. And if that fails, make up an extension and then ask the person who answers to transfer your call. As a last resort, send e-mail, a fax, or a letter.
Some people use voice mail to screen calls.
Although this may control interruptions, it becomes rude if you never respond to the messages. Those messages are very important to the people who left them. That's why they called. Set aside a time each day to return calls. If the messages were left by people whom you do not want to talk to, have an assistant return the calls.