I work a very high stress job taking calls from people who are angry. They’re angry because they can’t access the internet. Doesn’t matter if their computer is borked or if it’s the AOL software or whatever it is. They’re mad they’ve been transfered 2, 3, or 4 times, waited on hold 40 minutes, and I have to have their internet up and running in 10 minutes. Doesn’t matter if they barely understand English, are hard of hearing, computer illiterate, or just plain stupid. My supervisor won’t take directly transfered calls and I’m only authorized to send a technician out in the event that there is something physically wrong with their installation. That could be a week, but usually it’s TWO weeks. And even then we have to hope that the technician we send does what we tell him or her to do or even show-up.
You tell the Ebay Grand Duchess of the Universe that she’ll be down for 2 weeks and see what she says to you.
If I quit smoking while facing this kind of pressure I WILL go postal on the very first customer who tries to ream my ass with every insult you can think of.
My job sucks major hairy monkey wang however it pays my bills and I need it.
We don’t get holidays off unless they happen to fall on a day you already have off. Because I’ve lasted 5 years in this job, which makes me the tech with the longest tenure (finally), I get to have Thanksgiving off.
I have, therefore, decided to move my quit date to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This way I will have 5 days off in a row to work through the withdrawal. The sad fact of the matter is I can’t afford to yell and damn strangers over the phone but I can afford to do it to my family. That’s fucked-up but it’s true.
So. There it is.