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

[crowgirl13.livejournal.com]

I spend a goodly amount of time on the phone at work, and I'd say that it's more of a 10% rude factor for me. Instead, I tend to get confused people or people who automatically assume I have the ability to read their mind [which isn't bad really, just confusing]. This is also understandable - I work at a hospital, and people are seldom at their best when calling.

But the truly sad thing? 8 out of 10 of the rude people I deal with are *also* people who work at St. Mungo's.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Insurance runs at about 1/3 rude, and 1/6 mean, and about 1/12 of them cruel.