This is just a reminder.

When you call a phone number--any number, really, but especially one for a business or entity--try not to be pissed off.

I know it's tough.  You ARE pissed off.  You want to yell at someone.  But yelling at some peon who works on the phones is going to accomplish exactly nothing.  Let me give you some scenarios:

CSR hangs up on you-->  Nothing accomplished
CSR engages and yells back at you-->  Nothing accomplished
CSR meekly takes your abuse, but is now totally disinterested in helping you-->  Nothing accomplished
CSR has no power to address your issue-->  Nothing accomplished

Either you are just pissing someone off who might have been able to help you, or else you're wasting your breath on someone who can't do a damn thing.

I think we get spoiled by the idea that "the customer is always right."  And sometimes we take that to mean that we can heap abuse on whomever we like and we'll get a coupon or get our situation taken care of faster than it would be otherwise.  And we forget that thing someone once said some thing about honey and flies.




The reason I can't stand my job ... okay, there are so many reasons.  Just ... a lot.  Too many.

But a BIG reason I'm quitting is the abusive caller.  I probably get one a day or one every two days, so they're not constant or anything.  Most people are just appreciative that they got through and can speak to a human and that I'm not in India or the Philippines or wherever.  (And lord, they do complain about that.  Usually in the most racist way possible.)  Most people appreciate that I can fix their issue easily and quickly or explain something in a way they understand, and they're just happy with that.

And then there's that person who calls up just to argue with me.  Or yell.  Today I had a caller who was in an absolute fit of rage.  I kind of talked him down, at the expense of my own adrenaline, but at the end I was just shaking.  It was one of those situations where I could do absolutely nothing for the guy except to try to talk him down a bit and tell him to follow the instructions in his letter and that I hoped he got his problem solved.  And he did apologize for yelling at me in the end, but that didn't stop my poor, poor adrenal glands from going OH MY GOD OH MY GOD RUN RUN CALL THE POLEEEEESE.

Sooooo not fun.  I can be cognitively aware that someone is not yelling at me, but it still affects me physically and mentally.  I feel my blood pressure soar and my adrenaline go crazy if I so much as HEAR an argument between two people.  Apparently I do the same thing when someone is yelling at me over the phone.

It's unfortunate.  I really thought I could handle this job and deal with that because, hey, I knew it wasn't my fault or my issue.  But every time one of those calls comes through, I am so jittery after that I feel like I was in a car wreck or something horribly traumatic.  It's just that bad.  

So ... 

Don't do it.  I realize misery loves company, but misery needs to get a hobby it can go do by itself.