I can relate, I work in Army Finance and there is a lot that we are not alowed to talk about over the phone in dealing with soldiers’ pay due to the privecy act of 1974 and the fact that we can not verify that the one we are talking to is who they claim to be. I hade one lady trying to get some information, pay related, on her soon to be ex husband. She was being rude to one of my soldiers, so he passed it on to me. I got on the phone and tried to explain that there was a whole lot of nothing that we could do over the phone. She threatened to call her lawyer. I asked her why, so he could tell you the same thing that I am? Then I hung up. Then on 14 Sept 01, a man was trying to get pay information on another soldier. Again this was passed on to me after the caller was rude to another soldier. After trying to explain the privecy act of 1974, and how we could not give any information over the phone, he accused me of being racist. I looked at the other soldiers in the office who were in ear shot and I asked them if I said anything racist, getting a negative response from them, I asked the caller if he was the type who plays the race card when passed over for a promotion due to non-qualification. This make him even more angry and he then claimed to be working for some local government (state or city?). I told him that even if he was Pres. Bush I couldn’t give that information over the phone. He was not happy with this response. I then told him to go to the web and do a search on the Privecy act of 1974, then to turn on CNN and catch up with current events, and then maybe we could talk, but not about soldiers’ pay.
Just because you have a SSN, doesn’t prove that you are whom you claim to be over the phone.
I’m not going to laugh or sneer but with all seriousness, get a grip.
Try it before you look even MORE stupid than you do. How many jobs have companies that have to put in a special, padded, soundproof room for their people to work off anger/frustration. Do a Google search on occupational stress. You’ll find more than your knee-jerk reflexed brain can hold about stress. Stress is NOT danger, idiot! I said I’d rather have my job than some of these others! Get a brain!
Mr. Cynical: My nick is short for “Not Much Of A Diplomat”. I’m just too lazy to type it all. I’ve proudly borne that nick since the days of 300-baud modems that looked like a telephone handset cradle. I “flamed” someone, (back before the term existed.) and he/she sent back “You’re not much of a diplomat, are you?”. It’s been my nick ever since.
Well, first I should welcome you to the board. Fighting ignorance is our mission, and the golden rule is DON’T BE A JERK.
Now… I merely disagreed with your contention that phone support or customer service was the second most stressful occupation after being a police officer and then presented some examples of professions that might be just a little more stressful.
And then I get this:
Well sparky, here’s some advice. Before you go off and rip me or anyone else a new one you should really spend a little time wandering the place and getting to know the people who frequent the joint. Ask questions before you go off and tell people they’re “stupid” or an “idiot” just because they disagreed with what you said. I’ll expect much better from you in the future.
I have a fairly good understanding of what causes occupational stress since I have been working in professions that are primarily service oriented for nearly twenty years.
I’ve tried it, I worked in the Hospitality industry for twelve years and have now worked in Rehabilitation for seven. That’s customer service and human services respectively.
I am currently working on an in depth strategy to reduce the occupational stress in my workplace as my own profession has a 30% turnover rate of which prolonged stress and the subsequent “burnout” play a major role. To do this I have had to analyze the different stressors that negatively affect myself and my peers and there are many, in fact… we have them all in abundance.
We don’t have soundproof padded rooms for our employees but some programs do have them for the people they serve. This is to protect those persons from harming themselves or the staff that are there to care for them.
Have you ever been on a suicide watch?
Have you ever had to restrain a violent person?
Have you ever dealt with a life threatening siezure?
Have you ever had to watch the people you care for and really liked die from chronic illness?
My enquiring mind wants to know.
We do have pretty decent health coverage which will cover a persons absence due to stress. One of my co-workers has been off for better than four months on an extended stress leave and this is the second leave he has taken in two years.
Unless you are in upper management you’ll be doing shift work which causes shiftwork fatigue. This has the same effect as jet leg in that people’s sleep patterns are disturbed which can lead to neuroticism, depression, and physical complaints such as problems in appetite, constipation, or diarrhea.
My profession demands a high level of knowledge and the processing of sophisticated information, research shows that these types of jobs are typically categorized as being high stress.
Danger causes stress, we often have to deal with physical violence, threats of violence, and verbal abuse from the people we are responsible to care for. You said “Stress is NOT danger, idiot!” yet my personal experience and research I have done would indicate that working in such an environment is indeed extremely stressful. You would have a difficult, if not impossible time proving otherwise.
For all we are responsible for and for all the knowledge we need to perform our job, we are grossly underpaid and underappreciated by the general population. When asked, most people couldn’t tell you what I do. Once I’ve explained what I do I have had most people tell me there’s no way they could do my job.
So please forgive me if I feel that answering the phone and dealing with upset people isn’t quite as stressful as what I do. I have had to deal with quite a few really pissed off people as well except that they are always in my face and not at the other end of a phone. I can’t defer them to a manager or hang up on them but have to deal with them directly. Try doing that day in and day out.
For the record, I love my job because I get to make people’s lives better even though they often don’t immediately appreciate it or are unable to express it. Our own management oftens fails to recognize us for the great job we do but the real satisfaction comes from seeing people succed because we were there to help them.
Danger directly causes stress, and too much stress is dangerous to a system. So your “Stress is not danger” statement is moronic from both ends.
I believe what you were trying to say is “A job being stressful does not mean physical danger is involved.” that would be correct. However physical danger activates the systems which less clear cut threats do, and it activates them much more strongly. That’s what those systems are there for, to respond to physical threats.
Feynn, I do not care if you were on this board before GOD. I’m speaking to you TODAY.
DO NOT come to the Pit if a little heat singes your tender tootsies. Ya’ don’t like it, go to Great Debates and ponder “the whichness of the why” or something. I’ll be there too, when I don’t feel like flaming wimps.
As to your lowlife questions, none of your business but:
Have you ever been on a suicide watch? Yes.
Have you ever had to restrain a violent person? Yes
Have you ever dealt with a life threatening siezure? Yes
Have you ever had to watch the people you care for and really liked die from chronic illness? Yes, you toad, and I don’t enjoy some lowlife using that in an argument. That’s low.
The bold in the quote is mine.
Do you know how Phone Support people de-stress? We go home. That’s IT! We never accomplish ANYTHING, 'cause the morons are still there, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after sickening year!
And you, with your superior, sneering questions! Of course, anyone with YOUR wealth of experience MUST agree with you, so I CAN’T have done what YOU’VE done.
Stress that CAN’T be relieved is the focus of all my words after the first response! Go ahead, ignore all that you don’t want to hear. That’s really a great way to go thru life.
Hmmm. Translates as “I’m big, mean and tough, fear me!” Which is really interesting because it’s followed with:
Which seems to translate as “whine No fair! Now you’re just being mean!”
You show up here, grandiously hold yourself up as some type of “expert”, while at the same time dissing the opinion of a poster who actually, oh, I dunno, posts credentials of all things, and then procede to pull some of the weakest “flames” I’ve ever seen out of your ass. Here’s a hint, Einstein, this is the big time, the major leagues, the creme de la creme of internet message boards. We ARE the shit. Your pathetic little boy my-job-is-just-so-hard whines cut no ice here. Here there are brilliant posters who can skewer your weak ass attempts at logic using only the brains in their little finger, caustic wits who will leave you weak and teary eyed, longing for mom, and acomplished flamers who will send you huddling under your bed muttering “Please, make it stop”. You are swimming with sharks, goldfish boy, and don’t you ever forget it. If you can’t handle it, go back to the Martha Stewart Message Board, I’m sure all the grannies over there are impressed at how big and bad you are.
adiplomat, I work customer service, and I would never think to compare my work stress level with the list that Feynn provided (and there are probably quite a few more that I would add). Perhaps you have a cite to support the claim that phone support/customer service is the second most stressful job? If you do, that’ll probably eliminate most of the hassling.
I used a throwaway line in the Pit, for God’s sake, and this was not even the original thrust of the argument. I apologize for being unable to cite stats that I saw over a year ago. I was originally, and I believe still, being virulently attacked for my response to Gomez, who BTW actually AGREED in part with my OPINION. (words in caps are for those who can’t seem to see.) To quote Gomez
Then Feynn weighed in. (Excuse me Weirddave, O Master of Reason and Research, just WHERE did Feynn show credentials in this thread? I believe his posts are as bereft of cites as mine or yours. So aren’t you the pot calling the (admitted) kettle black? Whatsa matter Dave? A little cranial flatulence there? Where’s YOUR cite of Feynn’s alleged credentials?) Now, as to Feynn’s post. A list, sans citations, of allegedly more stressful occupations. But his failure to cite is OK, somehow.
In a later post, I answer Feynn’s rude questions, and point out that I regard using a person that I love’s death as a debate tool as “lowlife”. If you disagree well, that’s my opinion and you can flame all you want.
Then comes The Tim. He puts words in my mouth,
I answered carefully with reason, if not politely, and recieved this gem.
Yes? A poster who appears to debate and then when his statements are quite properly questioned retreats into the safe haven of insult.
And then there Weirddave. How can you POSSIBLY accuse me of being grandiose, and then post this piece of bombastic crap?
Davy, try not to flame yourself with your own weapon. It looks truly clueless.
Now, to be quite fair, several posters have honestly attempted to continue the original thread instead of turning it into “Flame the Newbie!”. Kat, your reasonable restraint is appreciated, and I am sorry I cannot answer it with the cite in question. I have searched, while at work, for 3 hours, and the best I could find is a book that I cannot afford to buy, and which may or may not contain the list I saw.
Now, can we get back on the original subject? I’ve had enough of restraining myself with these three incredibly gifted people.
Hey, Gomez? In all the irrelevant bull, I forgot to mention that your post itself was beautifully written. The only thing I objected to was the action, and that I, who want to do that several times a day, cannot do the same thing.
Aw, hell, that’s nothing. I used to work customer service and, although we didn’t have to take a certain amount of calls, averaged about 25 calls an hour. My record in a ten-hour shift was a little over 300 calls. Most of our callers were teenagers; a small percentage were adults. The adults were harder to deal with than the kids. But anyway, I like that you told that bitch off, but I would have stayed away from using profanity. However, if you really wanted to ruin her day you should’ve stayed as calm as possible. That would’ve really pissed her off.
I remember once I was doing tech support at a local ISP and some guy called saying he couldn’t get connected to us. He also made it a point to tell me he was a system administrator. I told him what he needed to do, and he refused to follow my instructions because he said he had tried it already and it didn’t work. He also kept telling me, or yelling at me, that he was a system administrator (which I took as meaning that he knew more than me). I stayed calm and told him that if he didn’t do as I instructed, I’d have to let him go. He finally, after about 15 minutes, did what I said, and lo and behold, it worked! You can imagine he was pissed at this point, and just hung up on me. That was a lot more satisfying than telling him off would have been.
I enjoyed the OP, it was extremely well written and the innner monologue was brilliant. Cursing out the woman on the end of the line and hanging up on her was a bad idea and I am pleased to hear that Gomez is getting out of an occupation where one has to put up with this kind of behaviour.
I should clarify the following because it appears that people might misunderstand the context of the statement:
This is an aspect of my work as many of the people we serve are chronically ill. We have a seperate branch of our service which only treats persons with HIV/AIDS and I applaud the people who work here because their job is about as tough as it gets.
adiplomat, Since you just got here I’ll point out that I am actually a certifiable Pit whore, I have asbestos underwear so don’t worry about hurting my feelings.
Don’t hold yourself back, you seem to be harbouring a great deal of personal stress and you need to let it all out.
It sounds like you’re in the wrong line of work.
But this is the Pit, this is where we come to blow off steam.
I just have to say that adiplomat is making quite a few of you look like bandwagon-jumping reactionary doofs.
I’d’ve complimented (him? her?) in email, but it’s not listed.
Comparing telephone customer service with military service or with watching a loved one die (I didn’t think “watching a loved one die” was a paying occupation) is not valid…which any of you, were this not the Pit, would have noticed.
I don’t agree with ALL of this guy’s points, but guys…the rule of thumb should actually be “Read thrice, think twice, post once.” Your clever rejoinders and long, convoluted insults prove nothing but the joy you take in the sound of your own voices.
I think the customer was a repugnant come-stain; I also agree that the customer service rep (the OP) shouldn’t’ve sworn…which he admitted.
Computer World magazine (does it still live?) listed what it said was the top ten stressful jobs as of six years ago.
Number one - paramedic/EMT. Number two - database administrator. Number three - tech support. Number four - air traffic controller. Number five - trauma nurse. Number six - surgeon.
I don’t remember what the last four were. Probably firefighter, police officer, psychologist, and prison nurse. I also don’t remember anything else about the article, including how stress was measured or where their study came from. Sorry.
adiplomat, that’s a lot of hostility you got there. You feel the need to call someone an “utter moron” on your FIRST post? Maybe you need to start your own pit rant and get some of this vitriol out of your system.
