Angry Communications

[mousme]

I was just reading a post by bodhifox about people being nasty on the phone with him, and it occurs to me that everyone I know who works in a job that has them answering phones has stories about people who are horrible and rude and abusive. It seems that callers fall mainly into two categories: neutral and abusive. For every 100 callers, I'd say about fifteen to twenty are rude or abusive in some fashion, most range from barely tolerable to just polite, and maybe one (if I'm lucky) is deliberately pleasant with me.

I'd really like to know what it is that makes people feel it's okay to be that way with complete strangers. It's not just the relative safety of the phone, either. People are abusive with retailers and anyone behind a counter, too.

People just seem to be angry, a lot.

Comments

Angry Callers

[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

In your job, I'd guess that
a. people are frightened and displaying anger instead
b. people are mad at someone else and you're just handy
c. both

But in retail and on help desks, I assume at least some of the people are driven over the edge by having suffered through multiple disconnections and interminable voice-mail menus before reaching a human.

However, that's an explanation, not a defense.