"Joel's meltdown" [rant]

A few months ago, a coworker of mine named Joel had an epic meltdown at work. So epic they actually mention it now during training as what NOT do to when a customer frustrates you.

He received a call, during which he graduately raised his voice until he SCREAMED at the customer “WHEN YOU’RE THIS STUPID YOU DON’T DESERVE MY HELP!”, was told by a supervisor to calm himself, ripped his headset off while the customer was still on the line, and threw it at the computer screen hard enough to break it beyond repair.

He vacated the premises and everyone involved agreed it was best if he never showed his face again.

And to be honest, at my job, everyone who witnessed that has more or less admitted that wanting to have a “Joel meltdown” is a near daily occurence.

I DO understand that when a person ages, their brain changes and things like memory, learning, and thinking speed decreases in quality.
But when you give someone simple instructions, they confirm the instructions twice, STILL ask you how to perform the task and then does it wrong or tells you they’ve tried when there is no way in heck they did, I see it as “I’ve decided this is hard so I won’t try to use my remaining brain cells”.

I do a LOT of cases that involve a customer downloading a file and accept three dialogue boxes. I explain to each and every one of them that these boxes will show up on the screen, and that they are to press the button that either says “ok”, “yes”, or “accept”. (The other button will say ‘cancel’…)
STILL around 70% of them will insist on reading EVERY dialogue box out loud in its entirety, ask me which option to click, and if I say “click ok”, most likely respond with “You said to click ok? Is that what I should do? Should I click ok?”
Do NOT come here and tell me that behaviour is anything but voluntarily shutting off brain functions.

I can imagine these people trying to bake. They get to the part in the recipe that says “add two teaspoons of sugar”. They open their drawer, and there’s two different brands of teaspoons in it, the brands slightly differing in size.
THESE PEOPLE would not like most people just grab one and use it.
THESE PEOPLE would grab one of each and yell “Which one do I use? They’re different! What if something goes wrong? I’m so confused!”

That kind of helplessness, unless you have a genuine learning disorder, is something you learn, and decide to nurture.

I guess all I wanted with this rant was to let out some steam.

But if anyone has any experience on how to keep experiences like this from rotting my soul, I’d be very grateful

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I worked at McDonald’s for four years to get through college. I know what you mean. There are some rude people in this universe.

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Yes.
Lazy, entitled rude people.

A lot of these customers somehow fail going onto our website and downloading the installer file, even with verbal guidance. Then they ask for a remote session, where I do it for them, which requires them to go on a website and download a file before I can access their pc.
But they can totally do that?

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I do think you’re being unfair to those people, but I understand your frustration. I don’t think I could cope with a job like that.

People get pissy when they get hungry. And a lot people eating at McD’s are addicted to food.

So when you hold up their food your holding up their drug.

I have cognitive impairment related to anxiety & PTSD and an auditory processing disorder. I’m also middle aged.

I hate talking to tech support. It’s stressful and I can tell they hate talking to me and think I’m stupid.

One guy asked if I had a husband I could put on the phone.

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@Gamera

Maybe he was hitting on you, but yes, you’re probably right.

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You have to learn to play the game.

Haha from the tone of his voice, I think it’s safe to say he was NOT hitting on me. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

That said, I get how frustrating it is to explain tech stuff to people like me all day, everyday, regardless of the reason.

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What does that mean? :thinking:

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So, they have a checklist of easiest things to try first. You gotta do what they want.

Man, I could write a 10 page paper on the BS that I went thru with Comcast this year. I’ve just learned how to deal with them…

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I don’t mind doing tech support for folks who are genuinely struggling to understand, because I realise it’s not for everyone.
What I mind is when people say ■■■■ like “I’m 75 you can’t expect me to understand this, do it for me”
I do admit I am guilty of the occasional “If I wrote some instructions and emailed them to you, do you think you could get someone to come over and help you?”
But it’s not because I’m trying to get rid of them or trying to belittle them, but because the exerience is becoming quite frustrating for the both of us, and I’d like it if they could get the help they need.

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Yeah, the guy was frustrated, but I know he was just trying to move us forward.

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Actually, now that I think about it, if that guy had sent me written instructions that would have helped a lot!

Is that something you think I can ask tech people to do, or is that not typical?

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yes the customer service industry can be trying on the most calmest of people. One way to get through it is to accept that people can be stupid and also your getting paid to talk to stupid so just let them be lol.

My friend does tech support and her coping method is to pretend her job does not exist any time she is not sctively doing it. People will ask “what do you do for a living?” And she will say “work. Let’s change the subject.” It seems to be working out for her. She’s been doing it nearly 8 years at this point.

It depends on what you’re getting help with, I think. Different companies have different rules. In my company, we are allowed to send emails to the address registered to the account, and we HAVE to ask for an email at the beginning of a call.
I often feel relieved when customers want instructions on email, to be honest.

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