D
I work at a place where I call and try to get you to do a political survey over the phone. Damn people are just so rude sometimes when you call them. It's frustrating
I don't mind helping another human being. I mind being treated like a sucker by a robot.
I used to do telemarketing whenever I couldn't get another job. (Let's face it, doing the same thing over and over again is boring, and I did it back in the days before auto-calls and computers.) But I hate all the exceptions Congress made to the Do Not Call list, (mostly so they could fund their own campaigns.) And I really hate that the Do Not Call list means absolutely nothing anyway.
One funny story for you, and one reason somebody got a short, sharp answer from me.
Funny: I was selling IT journals and manuals to IT users. One day an IT professional sounded unusually distracted when I called. (IT guys, so chances are good they were trying to solve some IT problem when I called, so often distracted.) Back in those days we actually asked how someone was doing, after we told who we were and why we were calling. So, I asked.
And he said, "Well, right now the fire alarm is going off because there is a fire on the other side of this room."
I laughed, asked him why he picked up the phone, then told him to get off the phone and get out of the building.
So much for the new rule that says "never let them get away if you can help it." lol
Short, sharp answer from me, which might help you get a glimpse on what's going on with those who are rude to you.
When hubby was still in ICU, the hospital would average a call every other day either telling me to get there quickly because they weren't sure if he'd live much longer or they needed my verbal "signature" to okay yet another (emergency) operation or procedure on him.
At the same time, my brother was working the legal route to get Dad into assisted living, because Dad wasn't just off his rocker, he was 51 cards short of a full deck and living by himself. (Alzheimer -- end of Stage Two.) Now Dad was to the point of not ever remembering what was going on, but his emotions have never been more aware that something is seriously wrong. All he knew was my brother was doing something something and something something about Dad not having home soon. He really couldn't put two and two together, but he kept staring at those two 2s and he was terrified. (He's also OCD and an alcoholic, so nothing easy about what he was going through.) Dad has six kids. Dad was calling one after another after another to say something is wrong and he didn't like it. And, when he had talked to all six, he'd start over.
He called me 13 times between 8 PM and 1 AM one night. The last call, I told him -- again --that I needed to be off the phone for fear the hospital would call, and he asked, yet again, what's wrong with John. Only time in my life I hung up on Dad.
The next day, the hospital called, because they thought they were transferring John, and then they called back to tell me they couldn't until they dealt with bleeding tooth. (New part to his heart -- a valve -- so no way were they allowed to transfer him back to the VA until they extracted his teeth to make sure he wouldn't get an abscess that could break loose and land in or on his just-fixed heart.) And Dad started calling again. And I'm trying to get out of the house to go visit John.
But the phone rang again, and I really hate leaving Dad in this state of confusion... but nope. Wasn't Dad. Wasn't hospital. It was "your computer company calling because we detect there is a trojan horse in your computer." (Not a good sign, when they can't even tell which computer I have. And I'm not really so stupid to think the company that made my computer is going to call me.)
My response was fairly short, (every curse word I could think of and used in proper context ), and any sharper and my voice alone could have killed. But just so you know, sometimes it isn't you. (Assuming you aren't a scammer.) sometimes the person is having a very bad day and you're the only person he/she can take it out on.