Things I’ve learned working in a call center:
Or, A Post You’ll Find Absolutely Nothing of Interest in, So Don’t Read This
- Patience.
- How to speak more articulately, which I didn’t realize I learned until I used these tools outside of the call center.
- Winner for state with best city names: a tie between WA and NY (Look up some names, I promise you’ll at least giggle)
- People from the south have this way of saying “Ma’am?” when I’m explaining something that makes me think they can’t hear me, but really, they mean, “I have no comprehension of what you’re saying right now.”
- Old men sometimes like to flirt with the women they are speaking to on the phone, who work in the call center of the company that houses their 401k. We’re never impressed. Ever.
- Old men like to talk about the wife they’ve been happily married to for 60 years, and therefore wish me a Happy Valentine’s Day, which makes me confident in the future.
- It’s true that if I don’t go to the gym like I said I would, sitting in a chair basically “attached” to the desk all day will eventually add up.
- My friends have said I sound like a robot, and I do, which simultaneously makes me glad and sad.
- Much like when I was a server, I realized that “call center reps are people too,” and I find that when I call some center on the phone, I start wondering about their lives, much like what happens when I eat out at restaurants. I think that mostly it stems from the attempt to identify myself, identify myself with others, to get at the root of things. Mostly, I wonder if they feel the same dissatisfaction with their lives, if they too are struggling to get out, somewhere “better.” More appropriate to where they “should” be. And for a moment, I feel a little bit better that I’m not the only one.
