Further Issues With Jerks and Morons

Yes, I am going to still complain about stupid people and stupid things they say on the phone, so my anonymous friend, you may want to cover your eyes.

Some of you people out there will be assholes to my operators, because you feel that you have the right to do so. It isn't even a question of tempers either, I know that you think you can do so because my operators have to take it. Its their job. You couldn't be more wrong.

You see, my operators are not payed to put up with your shit. They are not payed to get yelled at. They are not paid to be abused by you. They are paid to facilitate your communication with the emergency personnell you are looking to reach to fix a problem that you are facing.

Unfortunately our society is very well versed in "the customer is always right" kind of business dealings. We also as a society tend to hype up in our own minds of our superiority over folks who are in any position of servitude, such as customer service implies.

In regards to my operators, though, there are a couple of things you should probably remember. First and foremost, you are not our customer, so even that "customer is always right" mentality doesn't apply as well here. The company you are trying to reach is our customer. So if they give us the rules they want to play by, no amount of bullying on your part will get us to do differently.

So here is the thing. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am not quite your placating, customer is always right kind of supervisor. I will do my best to see to the needs of both the caller and our client so everybody is a winner. That is my job. However, there is one thing I won't stand for. You don't abuse my operators.

Ask anybody who has ever been abused by a caller when I was on duty and you will find out that this caller learned that if they don't play nice, neither do I. I just wish that more people played that way. Too many managers are too worried about losing precious business if they don't cow down to the customer. Now I am not knocking the concept that you bend over backwards for a customer, but if your loyalty is more to their dollar than to the people who work for you, something is screwed up there.

If more people showed loyalty to their own in the business world, you would have less of these assholes abusing people who are trying to do their job. But until more people see the wisdom of this, all I can say is that the assholes in Rochester are getting the short end of the stick.

Just some thoughts about phone etiquette in this life, or something close to it.

Reflecting On Lessons Unlearned

So I sat down today as I was waiting for Martha to finish the first infusion of her new medication and I reflected on conversations I have had with people over the past few days in person, on this blog (and the others I visit) and on the phone. I reflected on various conversations, debates and arguments I have been involved in since this blog was created. Thinking of the web address that I have looked at hundreds of times before, I consider the original title I was going to use for this blog. Lessons Unlearned. The title taken from something I wrote several years before this blog was created, and subsequently shared here. For the first time I stopped and wondered how others had read that title, or how others read it if they looked at the address bar for this site.

I wondered whether people interpreted it to mean lessons that I had not learned as of yet, or whether it was interpreted to mean that I was addressing lessons that I had learned that were wrong and needed therefore to be "unlearned".

While the former had been the intention, it occurs to me that both could apply. There are new things that I am learning every day, but I also get the impression that there are things that I need to learn that I have not. There are also things that I have been taught, that have been ingrained in me from a young age that I have spent years "unlearning."

This is not unique to me. Many individuals out there have gone through similar circumstances. In fact, not only do we see this in many individuals, but we see this happening in societies. In fact, some of the greatest conflicts societies face is based on such an occurrence. It is based on the unwillingness of some people to unlearn their ways, either through fear, or an inability to be convinced that what they have been taught is wrong. (Not just reflecting people being stubborn, in some cases they aren't wrong.) Yet often times society moves forward through such process, if not always completely. Slavery is unlearned, but for some the prejudice isn't. Women being second class citizens has been unlearned, but legally based rights and equality issues don't erase the prejudices completely in that arena either.

Slowly people can be reached and induced to accept that something is inappropriate, or incorrect, and this unlearning process is necessary. Each person thus reached helps to increase the likelihood that others will consider what public opinions to espouse or actions to take as what was once normal becomes socially unacceptable. But then, there will always be those who just don't care. That is, after all, one of the beauties of our society. We generally have the right to be socially unacceptable. Some of us exercise it more than others.

The fun area to watch the Lessons Unlearned phenomenon is with churches. You get individuals or groups that step away from the whole. They determine that the body that they were with has got it wrong. From here they find some person or group that seems to have a better understanding or forge their own path.

The thing that makes churches particularly interesting with this phenomenon is that these folks that are stepping away generally aren't that quiet about it. They let the folks that they are leaving know that they are leaving and why. They let everyone else know what is wrong with the folks they just left.

I commented recently that one of the things that amuses me about watching some of these evolving christians, reading their words and hearing them speak is that more of these people who are branching off and being quoted by so many others are spouting similar theology to what they have been condemning folks like me for for years.

Things like spirituality being at odds with religion. Things like theology being reflected in the nature around us. Things like having an interpersonal relationship with their god. These things are popping up more and more. I can almost hear her laughing, "Now they are getting the idea."

Just some thoughts on lessons unlearned in life, or something close to it.

Telephone Etiquette

There is no phone on the planet on which you type in the seven digit phone number and then the area code, so why the hell do so many of you stupid people give the phone number that way?

While we are on the subject, if you are talking to anyone who is operating in a professional capacity, keep the same name through the call. If you introduce yourself as Debbie, don't change it to Deborah when verifying spelling. Yes, your full name is more accurate for professional dealings, so why don't you start with it? We aren't friends, Debbie. In fact I neither know nor care about you, so lets just keep it formal from the beginning.

Just some aggravated thoughts from the person on the other end of the telephone in your life, or something close to it.

Reflections On The Shower (AKA: The Spider Lives)

I was in the shower this morning and something happened to make me stop and think. (Sorry if it disappoints you, but this is not THAT kind of story)

Shortly after I got in I noticed movement along the wall of the shower and turned to see a very small spider trying to make its way to anywhere that wasn't where it was. I don't know if you have ever been a spider on the wall of a shower, but if you have you know that the water spraying on the wall you are trying to walk on can be deadly.

I realized that this spider didn't stand a chance of getting to safety given its position and the spray of the water, so I shifted my own position to block the water and give it a fighting chance. I would have liked to have just moved it, but it was a tiny spider, and the circumstances led to the probability that I would end up killing it in the attempt.

So here I stood in the shower, acting as a guard for this little spider as it worked on moving back to safety. I held my ground as it slowly made its way, my heart sinking just a little bit every time it slipped and rising just a little as it recovered. I was seriously rooting this spider on.

Then it stopped. In a position along the side of the soap tray it just stopped and held its ground. I watched it unmoving as it stayed right where it was. I realized that if I moved it was still very much in the danger zone. I almost willed it to slip as it was on a jutting surface and would thus allow me to grab the web it hung by to move it to safety.

As I tried to will it to move I tried mapping out any of the best routes for it to take and that is when it hit me. It had two choices. Retreat into the dangerous area from which it came, or move forward. Retreat made no sense, it was trying to get back to its web. Moving forward was impossible. Why? Because where I stood caused the water to spray off of me onto the path it needed to take.

While my standing there had given it an opportunity for survival, now I was standing there too long. I needed to move now to allow it to continue to safety. I did, and it did.

Then I just reflected on this scene, seeing it as an allegory for my life. I have spent much of it in a "danger zone" where the slightest misstep would have me swept away. I have survived because others have stepped in and stemmed that flow.

The problem is that I find myself mixing the metaphor here. Because I am certain it is I who stand in my way, not any of those who have helped me get to where I am. I just need to figure out how and when to get out of my own way. Too soon and I get swept away. Too late and I spend a lot more time sniffing the soap than I need to.

Just some wet reflections on life, or something close to it.