Don't Make Me Go To Work Today...

I don't know if I can take another nine and a half hour day of being yelled at, cussed at, hung up on, threatened, and insulted by the general public. I will have a little help in the office today, until a whopping 2:30 when my Thursday coworker heads for home. This is after she takes a ten to fifteen minute smoke-break, and upon her return to the office says she is clocking out for lunch. So it is just me most of the day, trying to answer all of the phone calls, help all of the counter customers, put up with stupid inquiries from the sales staff, and trying to squeeze my actual job as the Service Coordinator into the middle of it all.

The management does a lot of demanding that we allow fewer customer calls to corporate office, but they don't seem to realize that a lot of these calls come from my not being allowed the time to make the unhappy customers happy again.

Yesterday I was one of two people in the office as usual. I got up from my desk to help a woman at the counter because my associate was on the phone with another customer. The first reaction I got from my customer was in raised and aggitated tones, telling me that SHE was the customer, she was giving ME her money (as if I get to KEEP it), and she would NOT sit around waiting for a delivery for three hours, so I had BETTER make her first stop of the day on the route. I asked her if we could have the drivers call her at work when they were on their way, and that seemed acceptable to her. So while I am typing that note in for the drivers, the phone rings. I answer it and promptly page it to sales. When I hang up, the woman says "That's it. We will just shop somewhere else." I appologized and asked her if there was a problem, and she started screaming. SHE was giving me HER money and I answered the phone. As much as I tried to nicely explain that it was my job, that we can't stop helping our customers after we take their money, and that if she were to call in after she got home she would want us to answer the phone too, she continued her tirade while yanking her young daughter out the front door. I do admit that I failed in one of my required tasks... I forgot to tell her to have a nice day before she left.

So this is what I look forward to again today, and every day. I am stuck. I can't get a better job because I have no college degree and other jobs do not start at what I make now. I can't go to school because they make sure that my retail schedule does not allow consistant time for education, or recreation for that matter.

I am like a helium balloon in a small, heavy box. I don't have room to grow as big as I should be, and I am stuck on the ground when I have the potential to fly.