We have a Soul Too

This is a blog coming from the person on the other side of the phone.

In my line of work I deal with the general public on a daily basis, both on the phone and face to face.  I deal with people from all walks of life, from the rich to the poor, from the criminal to your average law abiding citizen.

What all of these people have in common is the inability to be polite on the phone.  Anyone who deals with the general public know the type.  The person who thinks that shouting, nastiness and general rudeness will magically make things happen faster, rectify problems and generally will get them what they want.  Let me give you a very large tip here, it doesn't.

Over the years I have been shouted at, verbally abused, sworn at, threatened and reduced to tears.  None of these things make me do my job better and they will not make me want to help you.

I know it is tempting when you have a problem and have to ring a company to chase a response or complain to shout at the person on the other end to get a more immediate response.  You may be angry about an issue, but believe me, shouting at the person answering your call is helping no one, except perhaps making you feel better.

When a person calls or comes into my office if they don't shout and say please and thank you like an ordinary human being then I will always go that extra mile to help them.  Obviously the nasty people are helped too, but I'm not going to bend over backwards to help someone who is shouting/verbally abusing me.

It is more often the case that the main result of an abusive call is that the caller themselves gets more angry, gets confused in what they are saying, goes round in circles and nothing is resolved anything.  Everyone loses.

What also irritates me is the amount of times that I will be shouted and/or sworn at by a client, and then once they are transferred to the person dealing with their matter, they suddenly turn into polite, well mannered people.  The monkeys deserve respect too, not just the organ grinders.

So next time you make a call to a company, customer services or whatever, please remember that it is actually a person on the other end of the line.  Because we have a soul too.  Take a breath before you call, don't swear, and we will get along fine.

Strike? No I’ll go shopping instead

Yesterday was the day of the public sector strikes.

I have mixed emotions about striking.  On the one hand you have the medical sector , emergency services, police, all of these professions do an amazing and often thankless job.

Although, as someone pointed out to me, those jobs are also a vocation, a want to help the public as well as a need for a job, I do believe that they deserve good pay, a good pension etc.

The people I have the problem with are the teachers who strike, the admin staff of the medical profession and also admin from various other public sectors, such as the Court Service.

Teaching is also a vocation, but one with good pay, a pension, job security and 13 weeks holiday a year.  I fail to see what they have to complain about.  Teachers can and do argue that that amount of holiday time isn’t a fair reflection given that they have to do lesson plans, marking etc over some points during that time.

Taking away the usual 4 weeks holidays that you would get, that leaves 9 weeks.  On the generous side of allowing 3 weeks to do the extra work, which on the average day of 9-5 equates to 120 hours, that still leaves 6 weeks of paid additional holidays to everyone else.

That is the way the school year works, I understand that, but you must appreciate that to a private sector worker like myself, seeing someone with so many good things about their job complaining and striking is irritating.  In these current times you are lucky to have a job and moaning about a tax payers paid for pension amount, which is more than the state pension the private sector gets, does not carry any favour.

My sister is a teacher, I say at this point, but I believe in what I say and am not going to not write about it because I am related to one.  She did not strike although don’t actually know what her views are on the subject.  If she reads this blog, I guess I will find out!

Even more than the teachers who strike, the people who make me the most angry are the administration staff that strike.  Teachers are at least contributing to society, teaching and educating and helping to improve lives, administration staff do none of those things.

Admin staff are just that, admin.  Part of my duties are in an administration capacity in my firm, but I wouldn’t dream of taking strike action.  Why?  Because I think myself lucky to have a job in the first place.

The last time there was a strike, I had to go up to the local Court on work related business.  When I got to the front doors I was told that I could not enter, that I would be crossing a picket line, and that the Court were on strike. 

Three members of staff that day, unbeknown to each other at that time, went up to the Court that day.  There were no people outside striking, no “picket line” to cross.  The admin staff just hadn’t shown up, probably used the day to go shopping.  If you are on strike, be there, show why you are on strike, don’t go shopping.

Incidentally, most of the large towns and cities yesterday were uncharacteristically packed with shoppers Christmas buying with their children in tow and I’m willing to bet that most of them should have been on the picket line.

So that’s the end of my little rant.  Understand some strikers, disagree with others and loathe the rest. 

Bouncy, Bouncy

So, genies. You know, the whole genie in a bottle and the three wishes deal. What would you wish for?

Genies came into my mind whilst on hold for 45 minutes to an insurance company this week. So along with charging me an exhorbitant amount, they also appear to have sent me slightly mad. Daydreaming for 45 minutes apparently sends my mind to weird places.

Anyway, genies.

In the unlikely event that you ever find a genie in a bottle, what is the perfect wish?

I went through all the usual options, being rich, which doesn't guarantee you are going to be happy, love which can bring you pain, expensive possessions which in the end, are just possessions, a fast car, which I would probably end up killing myself in......

In the end, I decided what I would wish for. Which is exactly the same thing I wanted when I was six years old. A bouncy castle. Because in the end, if you have something in your life that can instantly make you smile and laugh, what is better than that?

Daydream ends and I am still on hold, but now with a hankering to go on a bouncy castle.