Had a coaching with my supervisor last morning, we talked about the various escalation calls I've had to take lately. Escalations are when a customer's being difficult, and demands to speak to a supervisor - a job I just recently started. We also talked about my last call on Sunday, which was rougher than an escalation, and which I should have escalated myself (since I was on regular calls at the time.)
My supervisor and I clarified that, when I'm just taking calls, it's perfectly okay to say "you're not allowed to talk to me like that, let me find a supervisor to help you" and then put them on hold. I already knew it was okay to hang up on someone using foul language, but since he didn't cross that particular bridge (he got pretty inventive with his language - 'hydra-headed' being one of the more colorful), I wasn't sure if I could.
The customer spent five minutes reminiscing about the glory days when he used to "straighten out companies like yours," which possibly wouldn't have hurt as much if I hadn't hung up and thought "you dream of telling CEOs what to do, and I just dream of going home to little children I probably won't ever see again. Certainly not as little children; they've grown up since then - it has been three years."
It is helpful to know which thought is prompting the despair, but it's hard to know what to do about a thought like that one. And, once the despair starts, it can be sweeping - she did this to me, he did that... does anyone care about me? why am I always alone? is it possible to turn this around?... ect, ect, ect.
Basically, if there's a way to head off the despair before it starts, that's definitely better than trying to fix it after it's crashing about my ears. And, now I have a plan for how to do that next time.
Also, no overtime on Sundays. Ever. I had a major switch-up on my schedule, such that I don't know where to put my overtime anymore. Leaving an hour late puts me in bad traffic. Leaving two or three hours late means nothing gets done at home, including rest. Working on Monday means there isn't a day when I'm not going somewhere. I thought I should give working after church on Sunday a trial, but that was a bad idea. I don't know how I'm going to handle Christmas and prospecting seasons, but then I do have that two week vacation right between them, so... maybe it won't be so bad.
Anyway, it was a great coaching, probably the first where we've used all the allotted time, but I needed it. As my first day back after that call, I'd picked up a bit of a twitch and flinch in response to my phone ringing.
The rest of the day, I was the one doing the coaching. One of the new hires and I hit it off immediately, talking about superheroes. Between calls, I introduced her to Amazon costuming, which can be expensive, but also real quality. That was pretty fun.
I have two new girls to coming to join my poster collection soon; Scarlet Witch, obviously, but I also found this great poster of Mystique as her normal blue self, but with clothes on. It's from First Class, when they were all wearing those yellow uniforms. So, of course, I rewatched the movie.
It's amazing how far superhero movies have come in, what? ten years? First Class treated all four of its leading women as sex toys (I was especially annoyed by the way they portrayed Emma Frost, the villain's right hand woman) and it killed its only person of color in a completely unnecessary and un-true-to-villain's-character fashion. These days, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch are dynamic personalities in their own right, and War Machine, Falcon, and Black Panther are genuine characters in the story. No more Red Shirts and Sex Toys, eh?
It's progress.
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