dealing with the general public

[fluketamer]

a lot of us have customer service type jobs. we deal constantly with the general population.

today i told a client that the specialist is only in on tuesdays and thursdays . he only has clinic those two days. which day would be better for you to see him? the response was how about friday?

i feel almost all of the questions asked of me could very likely be answered with a magic 8 ball.

the response likely wouldn't matter because a lot of clients never even hear what you have to say.


anyone else today having fun dealing with the general population?

 

[Broken Crow]

 

[BongoYodeler]

The general public aren't all we're cracked up to be.

 

[day_trippr]

I could never deal with a customer-facing job. Hell, I could barely deal with people in my non-customer-facing career. The best part of my career was the final decade when I went independent and did WFH before it became a thing

But I go out of my way to help make up for the typical knuckleheads that such folks have to put up with...

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

anyone else today having fun dealing with the general population?

Nope, just enjoying another day of retirement.

I did have lots of customer facing responsibilities in my last job. The customer base was distinctly non-general public. Scientists, engineers, upper mid-level government employees, etc. They're much worse.

 

[Halfakneecap]

Nope, just enjoying another day of retirement.

I did have lots of customer facing responsibilities in my last job. The customer base was distinctly non-general public. Scientists, engineers, upper mid-level government employees, etc. They're much worse.

Personality in highly intelligent engineer type people is generally disproportionate to intelligence i think. Not all of them, but there are some pretty smart cookies where i work who have zero personality/people skills. Just part of the deal i guess


I refer to one such person as "dark matter", because he doesn't interact, with anything or anyone

 

[Agent]

Since most of my interactions through work are usually at residences and unplanned by either party, it's often a notable encounter. That said, it's usually because sewage or water is actively pouring into a basement, so they do tend to attentive listeners.

Though I do feel bad for the cases out of *my* control, like when I had to go through the building records to learn the shutoff was in a neighbors driveway and had been packed full of garbage and toys by the resident children. So a 5 minute task took closer to an hour 50. Sorry!

 

[MaxStout]

I spent many years working with corporate clients. Then I tapped the brakes on my career and went solo, representing individuals (estate-planning). The latter clients were much better to deal with, but a few of them could be dicks. But being self-employed, I could quickly spot and turn away those I sensed might be trouble.

With the earlier corporate work I had no choice but to suck it up and endure the micromanaging, barrage of phone calls, and some occasional temper tantrums. They were paying the bills, after all.

 

[redrocker652002]

Being a 911 call taker and police dispatcher for the last 20 plus years, I have had my share of really difficult callers. Some I swear are just being stupid for the sake of it, while others really are that stupid. On the flip side, when I get a caller who "gets it" and can give me the info I need right away without telling me their whole life story, I still hold hope for humanity. LOL.

 

[fluketamer]

i worked triage intake for 7 years. from 2004 to 2011 8 pm to 8 am shift.

foolishness really comes alive at night.

 

[whoaru99]

Sorta. I worked in a pizza/ice cream place for a while as a teenager. It generally went pretty well.

These days though I'm not so sure I could. Seems like there are more Kevins and Karens around these days.

 

[Bobby_M]

I think every industry has some subset of the general public. I'm REALLY lucky that homebrewers are on average smarter and nicer than the average Mcdonalds customer.

 

[Snuffy]

I work in IT. Tell me about it. Even serving just internal customers, the willful avoidance of responsibility for learning anything remotely technical is staggering. You have a PHD in science. You've used a computer for 20 years. How can it still be a total freakin mystery box? How can you not know what a backslash is? How do you not understand what needs double or single clicking? Google is not your browser. The computer is not a modem. No, I am not speaking Greek to you. Cheezis cripes...

 

[Broken Crow]

https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/bofh/

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Since retirement I hardly leave my property but when I do I'm amazed that a good share are better than my cow-orkers from my engineering job. There's hope!

 

[AdjunctBrewer]

Always remember that sometimes the shoe is on the other foot. Keeping yourself humble is one of the best ways to deal with your own ignorances.

Having said that, yes, there is a huge amount of non-sensical mania endemic to the general population. Most exhibit pyschosis not even they know they have.

Welcome to being human.

 

[DonT]

I own an auto repair shop and work the front desk. I'm also nearing retirement and my fuse is growing shorter...

 

[Broken Crow]

I own an auto repair shop and work the front desk. I'm also nearing retirement and my fuse is growing shorter...

I feel your pain! I grew up in a 3-bay service station..cars/trucks and 24/7/365 towing with a 24-hour phone extention next-door at home.....I'll just call it; "Diverse" and "Educational".

 

[sibelman]

The customer base was distinctly non-general public. Scientists, engineers, upper mid-level government employees, etc. They're much worse.

Supporting tech in a legal government environment, I encountered some real a-holes, of course. But also a great many wonderful, smart, funny, and kind individuals. Sometimes both in the same person.

sometimes the shoe is on the other foot.

And then there's what they thought of me, no doubt also a mixed bag.

I think it's important to keep sight of two things: 1. only half the population is above average (smarts, kindness); 2. generalizations about entire groups - engineers, lawyers, "ordinary" folks (whatever that could mean) - are generally false.

There's good and bad everywhere in our messed up human world. It can be a struggle to focus on the happy part - the full part of the glass, I like to call it - when there's so much horrible sh*t going down all the time. But it's essential to mental health.

Even if it were true that most of humanity (the "general public") doesn't really deserve much positive regard, we are truly all we've got. We must cling to hope, and make the best of it somehow.

 

[Bobby_M]

I work in IT. Tell me about it. Even serving just internal customers, the willful avoidance of responsibility for learning anything remotely technical is staggering. You have a PHD in science. You've used a computer for 20 years. How can it still be a total freakin mystery box? How can you not know what a backslash is? How do you not understand what needs double or single clicking? Google is not your browser. The computer is not a modem. No, I am not speaking Greek to you. Cheezis cripes...

People should have to take a 10 question basic skills quiz before they can buy a computer. I've been trying to explain what a folder is to my father for 25 years. Oh.. .and that turning off the monitor is not "rebooting".

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

One of my first jobs in high school was cashier at a grocery store. Especially really fun around the holidays. I think minimum wage back then was $4.25. Id make like $100/wk and probably take home around $70. #stupid.

It was something to get used to the general public. Then I came up with a motto "there's always one customer a day" It didn't matter if it was a great day and it was 10:59pm a minute before closing time.

One true story was a woman running in screaming I know you're closing I'll be right there......twenty minutes later she's in the pasta aisle where all of a sudden I hear CRASH. A large jar of sauce smashed all over the aisle as she was reaching up. Pissed but then all you could do was laugh. I do think you could boil a pot of water on my head at the beginning tho

I'm sure nowadays it's "there's at least a dozen people a day."

 

[redrocker652002]

It is funny, but I have always said kids should start out working in retail or some sort of customer service job to understand what it is like to deal with people. When I was in high school i worked at Macy's and dealt with a plethora of people. Some were rude as heck and felt because they had money, in some cases lots of it, it meant they could just do whatever they wanted. Other were just the nicest in the world and I would do anything for them so they got what they wanted. Point being, I think a lot of these kids would benefit from working a retail job to get used to communicating and dealing with all types of personalities.