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Generally speaking, if a person is required to talk to you as their job, they probably don't desire it.[0] They're not in the right headspace and they get it pl

Generally speaking, if a person is required to talk to you as their job, they probably don't desire it.[0] They're not in the right headspace and they get it plenty enough as it is. Similarly, if you have no idea who they are and they're not in a location (physically or online) which implies they're interested in receiving random attention, they're probably not going to be interested. Aside from that, testing boundaries is something most people seem to learn to do. Personally, as a woman, I've been friends first with almost every person I've dated - I have a suspicion that that is what's missing from the current general dating culture. The idea that every person you meet, you've got to decide whether they're "dating material" or "friend material" near-instantly (generally based on the context of where/how you met them) is bizarre. [0] They also probably don't desire discussions about politics or your pet dog or other things unrelated to the job unless they bring it up. They're rarely in a position of power here - the customer is. You're not equals in this exchange.

StavrosK 11y ago
I'm not defending the customers, I'm pointing out that "don't do things people won't want" doesn't really work unless you first establish that they won't want them, and it doesn't work at all when it becomes "don't try to gauge if someone wants X unless you know they want X".
- untog 11y ago
  As you correctly state, it is difficult to know exactly what someone does and doesn't want even at the best of times, but in a professional context it is a safe assumption that the person you are talking to wants to be treated professionally.
  - StavrosK 11y ago
    I agree, and I agree that it's lecherous and creepy to be hitting on support people (because, what, are they supposed to drop what they're doing and go out with you?) but that's about it. It's not sexist or terrible or anything, just very poor taste.
    - infinite8s 11y ago
      Lecherous and creepy doesn't fall under terrible behavior?
toyg 11y ago
That contrasts with recent findings that some of the happiest workers are hairdressers. Guess what hairdressers do all day, while cutting hair? Chat about random stuff their customers bring up. And yes, a lot of it will be saucy, so to speak, because that's what most people are interested in. Is that customers forcing their sexuality on hairdressers? No, that's just being social "old school". Like you learn to find boundaries, you learn how to actually talk of the stuff. In tech, that is simply frowned upon. The tech world, for all our declarations of being so progressive, is extremely prurient and repressed.
- vertex-four 11y ago
  On the other hand, a hairdresser can usually fire their customer if they're creepy - at least in my country, they're independent workers. A tech support worker can't.
  - toyg 11y ago
    Have you ever worked in generalist tech support? One of the first things you learn is how to draw a line when the situation is beyond mutual respect, because nothing good can happen there and you have already lost. A lot of people like to blow off steam by abusing a random voice on the phone, so you are entitled to quickly apologize and cut them off. Same applies (or should apply, in respectable support shops) in other situations the support worker would deem socially unacceptable. So yeah, you can fire the customer, your mental health comes first. Btw, the most depressing call I've ever had was with this guy I had helped for weeks, solving his "enterprise" problems. At the time I worked with a female colleague, and we would share customers and tickets. Eventually she left, so when I broke the news to this guy, he went "oh, i'm sorry to hear that. To be honest, I preferred her; I always prefer ladies on the phone". That was humiliating beyond belief. When I told her a few years later (since we kept in touch), she was absolutely flattered. Because sexism is not that bad when it benefits you, so to speak.
    - vertex-four 11y ago
      > So yeah, you can fire the customer You absolutely cannot ban a customer from your service 99.9% of the time as front-level support. You often can't even put the phone down except in certain pre-defined situations which are decided on without actually communicating with front-line support, never mind groups which might have specific issues within your front-line support team. Harassment is expected and you're expected to deal with it, whether gender-based or not. The best you can do is try to deflect them, as you say, and let them do exactly the same thing next time. If there were actually consequences to harassing people, few would do it - but as it is, in many cases, from small companies to large ones, retaining the customer is more important than your employees.

StavrosK 11y ago

I'm not defending the customers, I'm pointing out that "don't do things people won't want" doesn't really work unless you first establish that they won't want them, and it doesn't work at all when it becomes "don't try to gauge if someone wants X unless you know they want X".

untog 11y ago
As you correctly state, it is difficult to know exactly what someone does and doesn't want even at the best of times, but in a professional context it is a safe assumption that the person you are talking to wants to be treated professionally.
- StavrosK 11y ago
  I agree, and I agree that it's lecherous and creepy to be hitting on support people (because, what, are they supposed to drop what they're doing and go out with you?) but that's about it. It's not sexist or terrible or anything, just very poor taste.
  - infinite8s 11y ago
    Lecherous and creepy doesn't fall under terrible behavior?

toyg 11y ago

That contrasts with recent findings that some of the happiest workers are hairdressers. Guess what hairdressers do all day, while cutting hair? Chat about random stuff their customers bring up. And yes, a lot of it will be saucy, so to speak, because that's what most people are interested in. Is that customers forcing their sexuality on hairdressers? No, that's just being social "old school". Like you learn to find boundaries, you learn how to actually talk of the stuff. In tech, that is simply frowned upon. The tech world, for all our declarations of being so progressive, is extremely prurient and repressed.

vertex-four 11y ago
On the other hand, a hairdresser can usually fire their customer if they're creepy - at least in my country, they're independent workers. A tech support worker can't.
- toyg 11y ago
  Have you ever worked in generalist tech support? One of the first things you learn is how to draw a line when the situation is beyond mutual respect, because nothing good can happen there and you have already lost. A lot of people like to blow off steam by abusing a random voice on the phone, so you are entitled to quickly apologize and cut them off. Same applies (or should apply, in respectable support shops) in other situations the support worker would deem socially unacceptable. So yeah, you can fire the customer, your mental health comes first. Btw, the most depressing call I've ever had was with this guy I had helped for weeks, solving his "enterprise" problems. At the time I worked with a female colleague, and we would share customers and tickets. Eventually she left, so when I broke the news to this guy, he went "oh, i'm sorry to hear that. To be honest, I preferred her; I always prefer ladies on the phone". That was humiliating beyond belief. When I told her a few years later (since we kept in touch), she was absolutely flattered. Because sexism is not that bad when it benefits you, so to speak.
  - vertex-four 11y ago
    > So yeah, you can fire the customer You absolutely cannot ban a customer from your service 99.9% of the time as front-level support. You often can't even put the phone down except in certain pre-defined situations which are decided on without actually communicating with front-line support, never mind groups which might have specific issues within your front-line support team. Harassment is expected and you're expected to deal with it, whether gender-based or not. The best you can do is try to deflect them, as you say, and let them do exactly the same thing next time. If there were actually consequences to harassing people, few would do it - but as it is, in many cases, from small companies to large ones, retaining the customer is more important than your employees.