Hello Again

     The last few weeks have been hectic. I've been moved to another location for work, and this time, it's so close to the house that I could walk if there was an emergency.  It's not a "walk for the fun of it" mind you, as I prefer to not be a hot mess just before I'm supposed to help people. Surprisingly, some people don't trust you when you look a tad disheveled.

     Speaking of which, one of the few interesting things that happened in the past couple weeks was another personal example of the strength that God has given me to not reach across a table and throttle a customer.  Just last week, I think it was day 3 on this new adventure, a gentleman became quite animated while in my office - he even raised his voice at his wife several times.  As I tried to explain again that the document in front of me didn't contain the information he said it did, he got up, moved beside my chair, looked me in the eye and said, "I don't understand why this is so difficult for you to figure out."

     For one small moment the words "back the fuck away from me" danced on my tongue.  Also, "how dare you try to intimidate me like you do your wife" or "step back before i make you step back."  But then the good Lord stepped in and all sense flooded back to me.  I used my step-away-from-the-ledge voice and normalcy ensued.

     I used to work with a man who felt that for every 100 awesome customer service jobs we did, we should get a free pass token for that jerk customer.  So when they started being a complete jerk-face, you could hand them the token and walk away.  No sir, I don't have to help you.  In fact, none of us do.  There's plenty of poor customer service out there, but a good chunk of the time, it's due to having to deal with too many cretins who demand to be respected and feared.  Add to that low wages, reduced hours and demeaning expectations, and you can see the tiring service world we've created.