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You know what gets unending amounts of vitreol thrown at you? Working customer service. Especially tech support. I had urges to smash phones whenever I heard

by gchpaco 11y ago

You know what gets unending amounts of vitreol thrown at you? Working customer service. Especially tech support. I had urges to smash phones whenever I heard them ringing for years after doing tech support for three months. Tech support is a job where you sit on a phone and people abuse you all day, day after day. Only cops get to pull this sort of crap in response. Find yourself a retail clerk and ask them how much abuse they have to quietly take, every day; it'll shock you.

mc32 11y ago
Exactly. So you feel this way about people you dealt with over the phone long distance, sight unseen. Imagine if you had to deal with people like this directly, some of which could be actual violent people (maybe didn't take their meds, had a bad day, whatever.) To get a glimpse, imagine next time you get on a bus, or a coffee that someone you don't know, a stranger says, to you, "Hey asshole, you're in my way." Maybe you inadvertently took their spot. Now imagine this happening frequently, maybe daily, or more. I think it's fair to say it's a tough job. That's not condoning the powertrips, but at the same time, one needs to understand the circumstances those people work under. In civil society some of it would be considered sexual harassment and intimidation and direct threats.
- anon4 11y ago
  Sure, because that schoolboy flipping off the officer was obviously a punk gangster Al-Qaeda sleeper agent suicide bomber.
  - mc32 11y ago
    There are nice schoolboys and there are hardened dropouts too, what's your point? And I dint bring up schoolboys. You're injecting that where I didn't mention that. All I'm saying is that public servants of all kinds face daily indignities. They may deserve some of it, other times it's people being jerks --but pubic servants don't face one or two antagonistic people a week, they can face many, depending on their post. And the point is no one should have face a daily dose of expletives directed at them. They face that, but they should not. Now granted, we have a right to express ourselves. My point is in any other job, this behavior would become unwelcome and would have consequences on the offender in the form of up to civil or criminal charges (sexual harassment, for example). This work hazard is a bit unique to public servants and it's constant and that will take a toll on the affected's psyche, like if or not. Just because they get paid with public funds does not make them magically immune to human weaknesses.
vinbreau 11y ago
Indeed! I did support for Apple for 10 years. In the last few years I began to have nervous breakdowns and suicidal thoughts. To have to put up with abuse on a daily basis and never be able to do anything but take it takes a toll.
- Washuu 11y ago
  Sprint/Embarq/CenturyTel/CenturyLink have an interesting policy on not showing up to work. Many years ago when I did work for them in technical support I was told two things. "Most people here do not make it past a year. The rest break at two years." After that, "We do not terminate people for missing work. If you do not show up for two days or answer your phone for two days we will assume you have turned in your two weeks notice effectively two weeks prior." They understood people cracked and just would disappear never coming back to work. There were days of spending three hours on a phone with someone that clearly did not understand where the start menu was despite having been explained it many times over those three hours. Verbal abuse does hurt and it gets to people after a while. Being in a position at the end of that requires a very tough resolute personality. I thought I was the best at being strong, but in the end I cracked refusing to get out of bed for several days.

by gchpaco 11y ago

mc32 11y ago

Exactly. So you feel this way about people you dealt with over the phone long distance, sight unseen. Imagine if you had to deal with people like this directly, some of which could be actual violent people (maybe didn't take their meds, had a bad day, whatever.) To get a glimpse, imagine next time you get on a bus, or a coffee that someone you don't know, a stranger says, to you, "Hey asshole, you're in my way." Maybe you inadvertently took their spot. Now imagine this happening frequently, maybe daily, or more. I think it's fair to say it's a tough job. That's not condoning the powertrips, but at the same time, one needs to understand the circumstances those people work under. In civil society some of it would be considered sexual harassment and intimidation and direct threats.

anon4 11y ago
Sure, because that schoolboy flipping off the officer was obviously a punk gangster Al-Qaeda sleeper agent suicide bomber.
- mc32 11y ago
  There are nice schoolboys and there are hardened dropouts too, what's your point? And I dint bring up schoolboys. You're injecting that where I didn't mention that. All I'm saying is that public servants of all kinds face daily indignities. They may deserve some of it, other times it's people being jerks --but pubic servants don't face one or two antagonistic people a week, they can face many, depending on their post. And the point is no one should have face a daily dose of expletives directed at them. They face that, but they should not. Now granted, we have a right to express ourselves. My point is in any other job, this behavior would become unwelcome and would have consequences on the offender in the form of up to civil or criminal charges (sexual harassment, for example). This work hazard is a bit unique to public servants and it's constant and that will take a toll on the affected's psyche, like if or not. Just because they get paid with public funds does not make them magically immune to human weaknesses.

vinbreau 11y ago

Indeed! I did support for Apple for 10 years. In the last few years I began to have nervous breakdowns and suicidal thoughts. To have to put up with abuse on a daily basis and never be able to do anything but take it takes a toll.

Washuu 11y ago
Sprint/Embarq/CenturyTel/CenturyLink have an interesting policy on not showing up to work. Many years ago when I did work for them in technical support I was told two things. "Most people here do not make it past a year. The rest break at two years." After that, "We do not terminate people for missing work. If you do not show up for two days or answer your phone for two days we will assume you have turned in your two weeks notice effectively two weeks prior." They understood people cracked and just would disappear never coming back to work. There were days of spending three hours on a phone with someone that clearly did not understand where the start menu was despite having been explained it many times over those three hours. Verbal abuse does hurt and it gets to people after a while. Being in a position at the end of that requires a very tough resolute personality. I thought I was the best at being strong, but in the end I cracked refusing to get out of bed for several days.