(September 23, 2020 at 1:47 am)A. Secular Human Wrote: I always ask them their general location, and the weather. Most are more than happy to have a somewhat more "personal" conversation. Plus, most seem to have an attitude that since *I* started it, it's OK for them to chat as long as I like. I've had some interesting convos with strangers from across the country that way.
Life's short.
I have never worked in a call center. But just like in person counter interaction with stressed out workers, they love it when you crack a joke to let them know they have a stressful job.
My best friend briefly moved from Oklahoma to Denver and got a job at a satellite TV provider. Those companies advertise like everything is cheap and you can watch billions of channels for nothing, but rely on the hope of the consumers falling for cheap, but know they will forget about the fine print. When he told me he got a job there, I knew he was going to hate it because he has empathy for others.
Even in person brick and mortar in person stores, lots of giant corporations cut labor, and expect the employee to perform as super heros, and they really don't care if they pit the customer against the low level employee, when the business model and CEO marketing is what the real issue is.
Point is, when I deal with call centers in person, just like having dealt with customers in a snow storm or hurricane, having worked pizza delivery, I really try to put the employee at ease and try to brighten their day with a silly joke. I think I got that mentality from the TV show MASH. BJ and Hawkeye took their jobs seriously, but they also knew that the higher ups were the ones pulling the strings and sometimes those higher ups simply were so disconnected from what the low level employees went through, they had to use humor to cope.
Having been yelled at as a low level employee countless times, over things that were beyond my control, when I deal with those, especially where a bill is involved, be it private or even public utility bill, I know that these poor folks get shit more often than not for things that are not their fault. So if you can crack a joke to cut the tension, it helps them get through the day.
