EDIT: Read the comments for more
---
Well, the veneer of the office job is beginning to wear thin. Along with the nice desk tucked away in corner comes the responsibility of answering phones. Yesterday I had a particularly nasty piece of work, a lady in her 70s who was upset that she hadn't had her documents returned to her despite submitting them over 2 weeks ago. Despite the occasionally humourous moments in the conversation (like how I should fire all the workers at the Cowley shop and replace them with competent managers, and when she would use 'strong' language like crap and flip) mostly it was just aggravating. I can understand why she would be upset, but of all the people in the company to complain to, I'm probably the one with the least authority. At one point in the conversation (despite me apologizing profusely) she said "I don't think anyone cares!" and it took all my willpower not to reply "Well I certainly don't give a shit!" Part of the reason I started temping was to get away from angry customers!
Now, I don't want to come off sounding like a spoiled {b/p}rat - it is still better work than the coffee shop. Overall it's less stressful and I earn more money. It's nice to have a steady pay cheque again, to work regular hours and have weekends off. All that said, I felt the sting of injustice yesterday as I walked past the desk of the new temp and saw her rocking out to her iPod while she input the new account information, knowing that we were being paid the exact same wage.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
on reflection on my years as a temp i think that with people like that you can turn the whole 'powerless temp' thing on its head and agree with the aggrieved client/customer to see what you can do to make it better, and cast yourself as the 'outsider on the inside' (by asking 'stupid' questions and making it a personal project to speed things up or whatever) - the only way to deal with the depressingness of being a temp is empower yourself to make a difference... certainly wish i'd done that more often in my days in the office...
but then of course this lady could have been totally unreasonable and wrong and that approach doesn't work so well!
Somebody once taught me that the best way to deal with that is to be completely saccharine: sickeningly sweet in response to everything.
Old people hate that.
Just remember the email I sent yesterday on the call centre computer techie! You can think it but don't say it. :):)
I'm sure you recognize that all this is to motivate you to go back to school and research people's behaviour and what leads them to have such narrow lonely lives.
You may have been the best thing that happened to that lady all day since you actually listened. Send her some flowers on the company's account :):) That's what a great temp staff would do!
Naomi: I tried this tactic originally, stating that i would make it my personal priority to track it down and that I would call the store and have a word with them. This worked for a bit by deflecting the blame to the store (whose fault it actually was, as they still had the book sitting there and just hadn't sent it out) and this was also what led to the comment that I should sack all the store managers and replace them. But the unending stream of venom that was pouring out of her mouth soon turned to the company in general, of which I was not only a cog, but a cog of considerable influence, at least in her mind.
Kyle: I tried that one too. When she threatened to close her account, I politely told her that she'd need to send in the required paperwork and we'd cut her a cheque for the amount in her account and send it back. That led to the 'no one cares' comment.
I had to take her phone number at one point in order to check with the store and then call her back (oh yeah, that was fun) so part of me thought that, now in posession of her phone number, a few 3am calls from an untraceable pay-as-you-go mobile might be in order, however then I thought back to our monday discussion of forgiveness.
I seriously considered phoning her after work and telling her that she was out of line and that I forgave her, but the more I thought it through, the more I realized that it probably wouldn't do any good, and would just cause more trouble, so I left it.
Mom: They don't give me access to the company account! I did buy flowers for my boss last week though, when she spent the morning dealing with a similar customer. I tried to get everyone to sign the card so it didn't look like I was sucking up, but they all insisted I make it from me personally. This led to jokes yesterday that it was all a scam on my part, and I just wanted flowers ;)
so we can rule out a customer service job for your life career!
that begins to narrow the search down:):)
Post a Comment