I got into work this morning to an email that one of the operators had called off. Hmm… okay, well, we can get through this. I checked my voice-mail and found that another had also called off.
So, we had one on the schedule for 2 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. My co-worker who is usually my back-up was also off today.
I also had a meeting at 11, an off campus appointment for lunch, and a sore throat.
At 10:30 I had a hot pocket and a pop-tart and settled in to save the. FREAKING. DAY.
My 11:00 appointment was for a training session on our survey software. My colleague was patient with me and instead of being annoyed by the frequent/constant pauses to answer the switchboard, she was intrigued at the whole process.
Thank you, Susan, for being understanding.
We got through that and she headed out – and shortly there-after the headset I was using started to do the “the battery is dying” beep. Right around the time the program crashed. I switched stations and kept on going.
Call after call after call. It was a pretty steady stream all day. Lunchtime came and went. Around 2:30 I finally decided to just let the damn phone ring and go to the bathroom. It was either that or I was going to literally wet my pants. I dropped the headset on the desk, ran down the hall to visit the urinal, then ran back to the switchboard – with a brief detour to get some hand-sanitizer.
Hey, I’m not a barbarian.
The operator on the schedule came in at 3:15 to take over and I went home to get “lunch”.
Trying to answer all those calls – and still keep up with my emails and regular work – really took it out of me. The cold didn’t help, but the sore throat did make my voice sound pretty amazing. It was heading towards Barry White at one point.
And it wouldn’t be a day on the switchboard without some weird calls. The worst was a woman who was calling in for her daughter. Her side of the conversation amounted to:
1. Her daughter sent an email to someone at UA.
2. Someone at a computer near the recipient took a photo of the screen with their phone.
3. That person then texted the daughter the picture and said that it was good that the email didn’t come to them because they would have done… something with it.
4. The daughter then reported this to HR for some reason.
5. A guy named Mike may have been involved. In some department. Maybe.
The woman wanted to know why no one at UA had gotten back to her daughter and what I was going to do about it.
The expression on my face – and the words that I mouthed – are primary reasons why I do not belong on Skype or Facetime.
What. The. %#@$
I mean, really? What in the multi-verse was this woman thinking? Based on that information – and she couldn’t come up with any more details than that – how was I going to provide any guidance for her at all?
For just the smallest moments, I was speechless. I literally could not come up with anything at all to say. And that’s rare.
And, yes, I’ve used the word “literally” twice in this post and I absolutely mean both of them.
I recovered, made some educated guesses and said some polite things, and then transferred her along with a hope and prayer.
Susan was impressed.
I took another moment to get that bit of crazy out of my system, then answered the next call with a soothing voice and a helpful attitude.
I was faking the attitude, but the caller didn’t hear it.
I actually took a sort of a nap when I got home, then got some dinner with Jim, and then home for another nap. And in a few minutes from now, shower and bed.
Yep – living the dream.
Or a simulation.
Wait… That would actually explain a lot.