That’s why adults are confused a lot of the time. Adults are terribly confused, messed up people. That’s because they forget, really, that they don’t have to pretend all the time. Really, the fact is that you’re not an adult at all - you’re just a tall child holding a beer, having conversations you don’t understand… "The Middle East? Yeah, I know it was really bad. I wouldn’t have done that. A hysterectomy? Yeah, very painful, the shoulder is a very painful area."
As I've written about for many many Mondays now, I played Chess all weekend the girlfriend got her wisdom teeth pulled, I live an eventful life, work continues to constitute an odd ebb and flow of fuckery and general ease depending on the week, day, hour, unit of time in question. Now in my short time on this planet and even shorter time as a working, semi productive member of society, I've learned a few things about what can broadly be termed professionalism. I loath that term though, as it is so loaded and vague it borders on in-utility in the English language; then again so does most corporate jargon.
My personal definition of professionalism, and a general motto I try to live by is, pretty simple, "Don't be a cunt." This basic idea has served me well for most of my life and for the very short term that I can see ahead will continue to do so, but my finely tuned corporate sensibilities unfortunately do not extend beyond my cubicle. I understand Different Strokes, and all, as a TV show, theme song, and general principle but that doesn't mean you get to be an ass because things aren't coming up Milhouse.
Damn my reference game is on this morning
In my current position, you have six weeks to, and I apologize for the generic corporatism, become compliant with program X; If you go beyond that and I need to charge you more money. Full disclosure, you know it I know it, plenty of time to get done what needs getting done. Most people, again most people, will respond to notice of this with appropriate haste and attention, opting to put in the work they have put off for several weeks. Every once in a while though, you'll get a snarky individual, who feels like lashing out at this perceived injustice.
As an individual who has worked in what can be generally termed customer service most of my life, I've seen and heard just about everything but still being relatively new to this position, and given this is business to business conversation I, perhaps unreasonably so, expected slightly fewer tantrums than I have seen in my short tenure with my current company. So when I woke up this morning at quarter to five to pull up the slack from Friday and get on top of my shit, and was greeted with the email equivalent of, "No You!" in response to one of these extension emails, you can imagine I was both awake and delighted.
This is something I've noticed as being more characteristic of older clientele across the board. From retail to EDI, to working in a call center I've had my head bitten off by more people int he 40-60 age range than any other range. I am not sure about how far I can take my stereotype and run with it, but I'll give it a go. It is the type of individual who'd readily berate someone via online chat for not providing the same, immediate customer service they could have gotten over the phone should they have opted to call in the first place, the type of person who asks for a conference call, only to ask you to type up an email detailing precisely what was just talked about, yet still calls after every minute email you send their way, the most general way of saying it is the type of person who would hold any representative personally responsible for their smallest grievance which is of course, the biggest issue in the world.
I don't want peace in the Middle East, I want my goddamn iPad
I know at least in terms of corporate philosophy/theory, the customer is always right, but as when you read or hear about people's beliefs on vaccines causing various diseases, chemical trails, conspiracy theories about the fluoride content of the water or the undisputed fact that the Queen of England is actually a Reptilian alien, you have to recognize that no human being can believe something like that in earnest. Most companies will go the extra mile to get your wallet back in the store, that is true, they have to acknowledge you as a customer but they don't have to respect you as one.
That comes off a bit harsh, but I think the broader point stands, in that to most companies you shop at on any given day save for your locally owned, non-franchised convenience, you are very replaceable. I guess I've not yet been exposed to the self-important twenty something screaming at the counter regarding the iPod she got which was the wrong color; as far as I know, the vast majority of my generational kin tend to keep their self importance largely limited to the sphere of the internet. I am sure that will eventually bleed into real life, but for the time being it seems relatively well contained to filtered photos of sunsets, pets, and whatever artisan cheese you just bought at your locally owned, locally sourced goat cheese vendor at the farmers market. I think its when you start to believe your own bullshit that these things surface in what should be a comparatively civil discourse with your friendly, local Spiderman, clerk, or CSR.
/Vent, time to go figure out how to get this guy out of my hair, thanks for the read TL.