It's not always the big things that mess up your day. It's not always when someone curses or yells at you that your day is shot to hell. Sometimes the smallest exchange between people causes the most painful sting.

I had just spent about 20 minutes setting up a transaction and I was pretty proud of it. All of my ducks were in a row, I had set it up perfect. Every field was filled out, every instruction clear as crystal, every thing authorized by the powers that be and all that was left was for it to be completed in the next hour and make the customer some money.

The last thing I had to do was advise the customer of the status. I tapped the numbers into the phone and sat back wishing I had three arms so I could give myself the uber-pat on the pack I thought I had earned.

Ring...
Ring...
Ring...

"Hello?"
"Hi, This is AC from anonymous investments. Can I speak to Roger please?"
"Yeah...this is Roger."
"Hi, I'm just calling to let you know I set up the transaction your boss requested. We'll call back in about an hour to give you a final accounting."
"Sure, you will. Everytime you guys call me, you promise you'll let us know if there's any problems. The last three times you guys haven't called back, or carried out anything the way it was requested."

I stopped for a second. Nothing I could say at this point would make any difference to this putz. Well, if that's the case, then at least I can remind him that he can't treat people like shit without getting some of the same back.

"Well, at least I'm being consistent with you. Do you think I'm saying these things simply to piss you off? I'm doing all I can to be truthful with you, but I guess none of that matters to you does it? Have a real nice day, Okay? **CLICK**!"

One of my co-workers said something the other day that sums up the headaches call center workers face:

"Why do these people all think they have the right to speak so badly to us? Sometimes its like we're not even human to them..."