Tuesday, July 21, 2009

getting stuff off my chest

well, it had to happen sometime, and it did in may. i went back to work full time.

it's not working out very well right now. the job is fine. the benefits are fantastic, and i like everybody i work with, and my manager is fantastic. however, i work from 1030 to 7. in the old days, mark would go to bed around 730. now, with my commute, i'm not getting home til 730, so we often don't eat dinner until 8 or 830, unless mark cooks, then we MIGHT eat at 730. i would say about 1/3 of the time, he cooks, 1/3 of the t ime, i finish up or completely cook, and 1/3 of the time we order out. however, if mark doesn't get to bed by 730, he's incredibly grumpy. so, there's been al ot of fighting lately, because i'm tired when i get home from work, and have a lot less tolerance for bullshit.

and now there's band camp. when i volunteered to be the main band uniform mom last year, i wasn't working. now, i'mh aving to coordinate everything either in the morning before i go to work, after mark goes to bed, and on my days off. tonight was a bitch. mark decided tonight was an eat-out night, but didn't tell metil almost 8. i had to go get liam at 815, and ended up not getting the food until 825. so i had to go pickliam up, and talked to the band teachers while i was there, because there was information i needed in order to get things ready (band camp is in 2 weeks. sigh).

so he gets mad because the food was cold by the time i got home. i feel like i can't win for losing with this one.

add to that the stress of having a major asshole on the phone today, who refused to acknowledge that maybe the reason why his credit card keeps getting shut off is because he's not following the rules that his bank put in place to PROTECT HIM. add to that the fact that the aforementioned bank has the habit of dumping customers on us without any prior notification, and he came to me pissed (without any warning to me), and that i got screamed at for a full 3 minutes because he didn't authorize ### bank to give us the verification information (which, i'm sure, was in the paperwork he signed when he created the account, or was given that information when the bank changed their policies) and wouldn't let me explain that it's HIS bank that determines what is going to be verified, NOT US. he even choked, he was so apoplectic. i had enough and hung up on him (he was also swearing, and i don't care WHAT company policy is, i WILL NOT put up with that crap). my luck, 10 minutes later, i get the same bank sending him back to me. at least this time the bank rep stayed on the line and toldme who the customer was. i informed him of this customer's disgusting behavior, and asked if he would mind if i spoke to my supervisor. she ok'ed me to transfer them both to a different agent, because i was literally edging into a migraine from the stress of this asshole. i warned her ahead of time what was going on, then emailed my manager with all the details, in case they decided to review the call.

i was so upset, i ended up getting off the phone, and walking the halls for a few minutes, to calm down.

why are some people so damned hateful and vicious?

that was my week.

how was yours?

4 comments:

Anna M said...

OMG! You had to take a customer service job? I feel for you. Really. That's just awful!

fillyjonk said...

"why are people hateful and vicious?"

Here's my thoughts: It's because they can be. It's because they have experiences in the past where they were hateful and vicious and were able to intimidate people into doing for them what they wanted.

Also, they fail to "see the other person" - to them, you are no more than a computer on the other end of the line. I think many of the instances where people are ugly to other people happen because the person being ugly has somehow forgotten that the other person is a PERSON - or they have convinced themselves that it's OK for them to be ugly, because the person is "really not a person" or "paid to deal with stuff like this" or "they work for ME, after all." Or something.

Luckily, in my job, when people get ugly to me, I can cut them off - tell them I can't help them right now, tell them that their yelling at me won't help their grade any, remind them that there are 23 other people in the class that need my help too.

But yeah. It sucks dealing with other humans some days. You have my sympathies.

(Any way you can find someone else to take over uniform duties? And I say that as someone who has, all too many times, been the person left "holding the bag" when a helper decided to quit over less, or who crapped out, or something. I think you are justified in asking for help/to be relieved of the duties)

Samantha said...

Wow, that's a sucky week. Hopefully you are able to catch up on some sleep. Do you have a crockpot? Maybe setting it up before you leave for work would help you be able to eat right at 7:30. Just a thought.

Shells said...

I think it would not be at all untoward for you to decide that since your situation has changed, your willingness to do uniforms has changed. I know this is only one small portion of this equation, but sometimes just taking care of one little piece gives you a little peace.

I could NOT do the job you are doing right now!