Oog...

[mousme]

I am unreasonably tired today. Work was stupidly busy all day, with three or four thefts, and 211 alarms at last count. We had TWO newbies today, apart from one of my usual co-workers and myself, which meant that while the long-term guy handled the thefts, I had to hand-hold the newbies. That was interesting, since I'm pretty much a n00b myself, though less so.

n00b #1 left, and n00b #2 was supposed to be handling the alarm page, but she freaked out at one point and so I took it over, only to realize that she was about half an hour behind on all the alarms. So I spent about two hours trying to sort that out until the little Italian guy from St. Leonard came in. I've never been so happy to see him. With his help, we cleared all the alarms in about twenty minutes.

I'm learning to get along with him, as it happens. He still has opinions that make my teeth itch, and I refuse to discuss anything in depth with him, but we've reached something of an understanding about how things are going to work between us. I am cautiously optimistic.

I thought for a while that the tiredness might be due to the fact that I didn't eat until late, but it's been 45 minutes since dinner and I'm still tired, so it can't be that. I hope I'm not heading back into the Mysterious And Unexplained Case of Tired(TM) that I had in August, when I was completely wiped all the time and couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. I started work at DAH after that and was genuinely exhausted by the job, then exhausted myself again in November for NaNo, but was doing pretty well here at Boomerang. Maybe this is a case of delayed new-job-related tired.

Anyway, enough about that.

I am going home in less than three hours. Tomorrow I shall finish writing my script for Capricornucopia, and call the little man from Paradoxe to finalize the details. I think I shall also sleep in a bit.

I think I forgot my wallet at home. I hope to God that I have, because otherwise it means that A) I forgot it at toughlovemuse's home (not a bad thing, but inconvenient), or B) I've lost it somewhere, along with my brand new driver's license, all my cards, and essentially most of my financial life. Gah.


In other news, I really wonder what it is about being safely on the other end of a phone line that makes people think it's okay to be abusive with those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of their frustrations. Seriously, folks, we're just trying to do our jobs. We are not actively trying to make your lives miserable: if you're dissatisfied with the service, kindly express it in a non-abusive fashion. Your customer service representative will not only appreciate it, but will likely go the extra mile to help you out. Cross my heart.

Comments

[walkerofrohan.livejournal.com]

On the abusive customer front, I feel your pain. I did 7 years of computer support in the retail industry. And boy, if we got chewed out by store managers, it was nothing compared to what the head office people gave us. And in the end, you just have to smile, agree with them ("yes, we suck"), and try not to hit something (at least not something nice or breakable). I've found most of the time, when you get someone who flips out, it's not really at you, but caused by something else that they cannot flip out at, and you're the closest thing they can flip out to.
And you're dead right about the extra mile, more flies with honey and all that. Unfortunately I've had managers who don't escalate issues for the polite ones because they're not being yelled at, but we know who's really in control, and we can help the polite ones ourselves.
It's odd where I am now because I'm dealing directly with customers... but they're happy. I'm really not used to that, people don't call for computer support if everything is working. And if my customer isn't happy, 90% of the time I have the power to make them happy. Very odd. Too bad the pay sucks. :)
Chin up, remember the polite ones, not the raving lunatics.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Well, luckily I wasn't on the receiving end this time, it was one of my co-workers.

Also, I work in a job where, for the most part, clients are happy to hear from us. Very few are cranky with us, since we're not customer service. We're the emergency department, so they like us.

But thanks for the nice comment! I like your username, too.:)

I wonder too

[tcaptain.livejournal.com]

I worked 4 years at an answering service and I wonder the same thing about people too. It seems that if you aren't physically there, then you 1) aren't a real person and 2) you are there to abuse and give them the power they so lack in their daily lives.

I'm very glad I no longer work in customer service, people can suck at times.

It does keep me from losing my temper, however, when faced with mediocre service on the phone :) (Great service gets compliments, not temper)

Re: I wonder too

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Yep. Quite glad I'm not (directly) in customer service either. :)

[luvenditti.livejournal.com]

I must admit to verbally abusing (yelling VERY loudly anyway) the person at the company that towed my car. There were extenuating circumstances, but it doesn't excuse me being belligerant.