DocAndersen
One of my longest friends in the world is a helpdesk leader. He has been in the helpdesk industry since, well since he worked for me 39 years ago. I won’t say I taught him everything he knows, because I didn’t. But I did get him started on his path. We were talking about the length of people’s fuses lately. You see when we were both starting on the helpdesk; we thought people calling had short fuses; They would lose their tempers and be angry in two or three attempts to solve the problem. I related my story about being in O’Hare airport when there was a long thunderstorm (being out in lightning with metal objects isn’t safe sot hey close airports). Flight after flight was canceled, and since I was heading to Narita (and had a couple of hours anyway), I waited in line. I had just qualified for premier (back then it was called 1k).
Standing there in line watching person and person yell at the poor person behind the counter made me sad. She, the person there, actually flinched when it was my turn to walk up, and I approached. I smiled and “you are having a tough day.” Remember the human in all cases. Right or wrong doesn’t matter if you hurt the feelings of others. You see, remember the human is the most important thing. No one is above that rule. The person at the counter took a breath and smiled back at me. She said, “so are you.” She found me an alternate route that would get me to Tokyo about 2 hours later than I was expecting, but I was arriving two days early because of that very thing. When you travel for a day, you should plan to lose a day as well!
Nasty, yelling and making a scene doesn’t help anyone. It is why I personally love that Reddit rule, Remember the human. My friend was talking about one of his helpdesk people. He was actually crying when he came into my friend’s office. The person had attacked him verbally, calling him names, and berating him. My friend actually got on the phone with the company where the person worked and told them, the company that person was no longer welcome to call. He, my friend explained the situation. Many sites have that rule by the way. If you are mean, they ban you. It isn’t a discussion they just ban the person. The most important thing in our ever-growing online world, Remember the human. There is no right or wrong. But there is nasty.
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Question of
Have you ever felt sorry for someone trying to help other people?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you feel bad when you see someone attack another person?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you have a plan to deal with people that hurt your feelings?
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Yes
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No
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I dunno I really have a mixed feeling about this topic. Remember the human. There is one in each end of the line. During our trip to China this January, my nephew failed to use his departure ticket from Manila to Guangzhou because of a school exam which was scheduled after we purchased the ticket. The ticket was of course paid, round-trip. When he was going to use his return flight, the airline helpdesk simply refused and would not even compromised. I tried to reason calmly but the human at the other side won’t just budge. Granting that I failed to inform them of the change (that he cannot use the departure), does it give the airline any right to assume that the passenger will not use the return flight just because he did not use the departure flight and thereby resell the ticket? They even refused to refund. It is easy to judge the customer who loses his or her temper. But it is a fact that many companies have inflexible policies. I cannot just easily give my sympathy. I worked as Marketing Communications Manager and handling angry customers (the ones that can no longer be managed by the staff) was one of my responsibilities. I always compromise and DO something. But you cannot expect that same treatment from airline and telecoms companies.
Sounds painful for you and your nephew. The reality of customer service is the last time you interacted with customer service.
I do not mean all but most of people in the customer service act like AI that they might as well be bots ?. The guy from the airline no matter how I tried to make him see the point just kept saying “it is not that simple”. I asked if I can talk to his boss but like a bot he simply said “not that simple”. Truth be told, the pixie in me wanted to strangle his neck. ?
Sometimes customer service people have their hands tied by rules.
In fact, everyone should serve one another, especially those or parties who are involved in service transactions, and unfortunately, sometimes there is one party who forgets that the person in front of them is human too who need their service, in whatever role.
Honestly, I think it is worse on the internet. As in I think people are abusive of people on the internet.
Oh well.
I know… I think my opinion includes the attitudes of people on the internet, who should, ideally, and are not as a bad reality. I think the internet in many ways has aroused the dark side of mankind (this issue again, eh…), the horrible monster, especially the rude and irresponsible attitude.
Maybe we are in the stage of adjusting to this relatively new thing.
I wonder.
I really wonder. The world looks at gun violence in the US and wonders,
The US looks at the terrorist attacks in the rest of the world and wonders.
Because violence is in words on the internet now, as well.
I am not surprised… It is only the same human face in the different form of expression and media according to the times
I find cyberbullying is getting worse.
But I do thank you for allowing me to remove stress by sharing!
I also pay attention to the terrible phenomenon that has greatly increased during the long campaign and ahead of elections in my country.
A lot of people lose patience and then take it out on others. I don’t like cruelty at all.
Yet, I try to be nice when people are mean to me. I don’t know if they had a worse day than me.
It pays to remember that there are some kind people in the world.
That is why I always start by remembering the human. The person on the other side, even if it is a screen 12000 miles away, is a human being as well!!
Great lesson here Doc. We should all always be nice to others. We never know that that person may be detain with. And it is just the right thing to do. Be nice. It costs nothing.
That is a good line, be nice it costs nothing. I wish many more people would adopt that.
I’ve already witnessed similar cases like yours. I do not approve of this, and I am very concerned about it. All problems can be solved by peaceful conversation.
It is sad when people take out their frustration on others. That is why I love that Reddit rule, remember the human.
Unfortunately, this world is very cruel …. I do not understand people who are affecting other people or even enjoying the suffering of others … definitely would help a person if only in my power
I worry more about those who justify or blame their anger on the actions of others. Each of us is the shepherd of our lives, no one else can make us angry. We can respond with anger to a problem, but that is not caused by the person.
Unless we are talking about physical violence, then the natural flight or fight takes over. But that is different.
I hate it when I see people getting hurt by others. I know people lose their tempers at time, but there’s really no need to take it out on other people, is there? I will step in without a doubt if I see someone being hurt.
I agree. There is no justification for meanness. Sad that so many people think there is.