21
Oct
Annoying Customers Part 1:
Supposedly, my work would actually help me manage my time better, especially when working in shifts with ever-changing off days. What I didn’t count on when I scrawled on the contract papers was the fatigue accompanying 12 hours of straight talking to unresponsive humans.
Granted, most people are fluent conversers (is there such a word?). They can make the most basic articulation to get in with the flow: provide name, their situation and request.
The rest, however, are socially inarticulate and incompetent fishes (remember, fishes don’t talk). While I had people with problem conveying their messages across, it was far less tougher to be informed on their needs than to chat with guys who think that the whole world could understand them with just 5 words.
“I just got a letter.”
Resisting the urge to be a telepathic psycopath, I decide to probe, “So, you got a letter?”
“Yes, I (sic) got a letter.”
Gee, I might have flipped there and then. That conversation was going nowhere, and I was plotting on how best to get him to keep his trap open. I suggested to myself that he rarely used his mouth for purposes other than refuelling.
But I kept silent. Sometimes, keeping silent and not make conversation can have the uncomfortable effect of anticipation, and encourage the mouth to yak. Anything to stop the silence.
“Hello?”
“Yes, I am still here. So you got a letter?”
I decided: if he wasn’t going to be forth-coming with his request, I won’t carry on waltzing with a time-waster. There are a good many other things that I could do than to wait for someone to decide to tell me his situation (like take other calls; but you know that I wrote this to make the Boss happy. I prefer lazing it out 
)
“So, would you prefer to tell me your current situation, or would you like some more time to think it through?”
Sometimes, I wished that people didn’t think that I was omnipotent. Besides, why would I continue to work when I can read their minds for at least one month’s salary in one day?
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