It feels earlier, but I did (mostly) miss work yesterday.
Seven years ago today, I checked myself into a partial hospitalization program (PHP) at a psychiatric hospital. With the PHP program I did, you stay in your own home but report to the hospital each weekday for a full day of group therapy and occasional individual sessions. One or more social workers run the group. It’s all overseen by a psychiatrist, of course.
I already had complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and my position at Apple (I was a second-tier technical support agent) was making me far more symptomatic. People get passionate about their smartphones, and too many yell when they are told that 1) they will have to pay to get their physically broken phone replaced or 2) they’ve done something causing data loss.1iPhones were just one of the many products I supported, but those were the folks who were the worst to deal with. Some even make threats.
Yelling is a big problem for me. Part of me still expects to get hit when someone2especially a man is yelling, even if the yelling person is on the phone. After a time, just hearing the phone ring was triggering.
During my four years at Apple, I had to take several breaks. Fortunately, Apple’s amazing benefits allowed me to do so. Moving to SaaS support in March 2018 made a huge positive difference in my life, and I haven’t needed any breaks since. However, I wish we could make call center work safer for everyone.
Customer service people in general are expected to put up with way too much abuse. Cowards are especially emboldened by being on the phone or behind a keyboard, but plenty of people are willing to be abusive in person, too. When I worked retail as a teen, there were always some of those customers. It was nowhere near as horrible as I’m told it is today. A certain horrible person who is inhabiting the White House has emboldened people to be mean. It’s awful.
Oh well. Y’all hug each other tonight, and be nice to the customer service folks, okay?