Second Worst Call Ever At Work
(Almost worth starting a new Pit thread to rant about. Forgive any typos. This was typed up on a laptop with cursor jump problems and while doing other things)
I just got off the phone with a very angry, impatient and racist woman. I can understand the anger. She never got a renewal notice or packet in the mail. She did receive a notice that her medical and food stamp cases were ending because she had failed to renew. She then called the wrong office. She spent a long time navigating automated menus and on hold before reaching a human who told her to call my office to renew. Then, when she call this office, waits, and finally gets a human, the call disconnects early in the process.
I would expect somebody to be angry after all that. I see no need to take all that anger out on me. She saw that differently. Besides nearly yelling at me, she was constantly interrupting, pre emptively giving me information (mostly information I didn’t need. The stuff I did need, I often had to ask for again because she gave it to me too early for me to enter into the system), constantly breaking into questions that started with ‘does anybody in the household’ to tell me she was the only one in the household, and other charming habits.
When I asked what language she wanted her confirmation receipt in, she launched into a long rant. This was not just a rant about how I was an idiot because we were both speaking English, or a rant about immigrants, it was also quite oddly also a rant about how I was wasting her time. During pauses in the rant, I would break in and politely and calmly remind her “Maam, all you needed to say was ‘English’.”
When I asked her citizenship status, she asked back “So foreigns and illegals can get benefits?” I moved on to the next question. But she kept repeating herself. Finally, I answered ‘You need a social security number to receive benefits. It is hard to get a social security number if you are not here legally’
When I asked her race, she said “white”. When I asked “Are you of Hispanic or Latino origin?”, she got mad again. “I just told you I was white!” I calmly and politely reminded her it was possible to be both. I do not remember her response to that. Editted to add- I remember it included “I am a proud white American!”
The Compass site had been giving me problems all morning. As I expected, once I got to the Review & Submit section it would not let me proceed. This had been happening all day. I tried various work arounds. They were unsuccessful. I put her on hold and called the lead line. I got permission to use the Compass Down script. I told the woman the system was down and I could not finish her renewal. I suggested she call back in an hour or so. She insisted that I had wasted hours of her time- the call tracker said it was actual 45 minutes or so. It would have taken less time if she did not keep ranting and interrupting. I asked if there was anything else I could do for her. She roughly said ‘no’.
There was a noise. But she failed to hang up properly. I waited to make sure the call was over. I heard her talking to her brother, as she had done at several points during the call. She told him that I was unable to complete her renewal because I ‘did not know how to do my job’. She then said that I was “probably a nggr”. She went on to say “He was probably one of those nggrs who sounds white.” Satisfied that the call was over, and very happy to be done with her, I hung up.
Only twice in my life have I been called a nggr. Both times, it was by callers I spoke with on this job.
