Part 1

"...Somehow, through the din of twenty call center workers talking at once, my boss heard what I was doing. Over everything, he starts yelling, "You will not handle that call! Do you understand me! Without that offer code-you will turn this customer down immediately!"

I had told the customer that I would call him back with the information directly. He was already off the phone when the yelling began. I don't know why, but the tone in his voice started me yelling as loud as him, "Larry, I am not writing him up, I am just making one call for him!". Larry responded back, "I've warned you about that, you know better! Do not do anything without that offer code!". I don't remember how long it went on, but evidently I snapped and we were both screaming without using our "inside voices" as my sunday school teacher used to say. The guy in the cubicle next to me yelled at both of us saying "Would you guys quit yelling?! My customer can't hear anything! It's very unprofessional!"

Finally Larry-the direct supervisor shut up, but I could tell it wasn't over. He gave me that look like a mean dog on a chain just out of reach of biting you. I called the guy back and gave him enough information to satisfy him and went back to work. Twenty minutes later Larry yelled that I had not completed an information request that was twenty minutes old. He barked at me when I asked him a question about something else.

Normally Larry settles down after an hour, but he was in a foul mood, and I had really pushed him too far this time. The thing is I have done this sort of thing before. Once he had told me to give the customer a freebie and get them off the phone because to handle it completely would have been more trouble than it would have been worth. I had done something wrong and had wasted company time and resources-no doubt about that. But it was something that I had done often, and had been told to do before by the same insane person who was screaming at me today!

When the call volume slowed down, he said, "AC, do you have all your requests finished for now?" "Yes I do." "Come into the general manager's office, We want to talk to you."

Continued in Part III


Thanks for reading...
AC