I just can't do customer service

[Pezzle]

Urgh, haven't been here in a while.

I feel like I just can't do customer service anymore. Every customer interaction is very triggering for me/my PTSD. Every time a customer comes into my door I'm constantly anxious, frightened of what they might say or do to me next even if they're going to be perfectly reasonable people.

I keep telling myself it's just til' I'm done with school but who the hell knows anymore. Argh!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I don't have PTSD but have similar fears as you about them.

Believe me I am not trying to make light of your condition but the general public can be so crazy, so stupid and so unpredictable that it makes you nervous. I have just started a full time non customer service job after 5 years of nothing but. It's such a welcome breath of fresh air.

I hope you can get out too.

[NateTheChops]

That was pretty much me during my final months in Rank Aid. Wondering what crap the next customer was going to pull. Wondering if I would get fired, or lose more hours, or god only knew what kind of mind games my coworkers and supervisors would decide to play.

Work should be a safety zone. You shouldn't feel sick to your stomach every day before going in.

[Pezzle]

As soon as you get to the point where your PTSD is triggered it's time to get out of that job. Seriously, go to your doctor if you can to see if there is a way you can leave your job for mental health reasons so that you can still get unemployment. Been there, done that. Best decision I ever made.

Well, my father is my boss and I don't work while I'm in school. I love my dad, I love having a boss that will always back me up but - it's just the nature of the entire customer service/retail beast. I'm afraid my next customer will throw golf clubs at me and knock over my displays like x guy or y woman did that one to me etc...

I've started developing a lack of trust and fear of strangers as a part of this and it's pretty terrible for working in the public. I want to be like IP Freleigh or Kus. or Gravekeeper and be able to keep cool and flush out my stress, keep a level head and focus on my job, but the stress cup is constantly overflowing because of the past trauma.

I'm also unmedicated. I went to the doc today to try to get something for the panic attack type symptoms but apparently kids are abusing xanax nowadays and she treated me like junkie garbage. I can't trust anyone.

I don't have PTSD but have similar fears as you about them.

Believe me I am not trying to make light of your condition but the general public can be so crazy, so stupid and so unpredictable that it makes you nervous. I have just started a full time non customer service job after 5 years of nothing but. It's such a welcome breath of fresh air.

I hope you can get out too.

Oh, I have no doubts that I will. It's just to make ends meet for now, and to help out my father because I love him and he needs me. I mean I think I could handle it once and a while, but customer service piles up QUICK on the stress plate for me.

I am not surprised you have similar fears, definitely not a PTSD only type response - it just augments and sometimes amplifies those fears, creating irrational feelings to accompany them. I keep a baseball bat behind the register and we're on the nice side of town!

[Hyndis]

There was a point which we were so short handed and the customers were so vile that I developed a sort of nervous twitch.

I cannot answer a phone. Every interaction with a phone causes me to lock up, even if its entirely mundane and I'm making the call, like me ordering a pizza. It still causes me to lock up.

I just completely lock up, stutter, and am unable to get anything out. This is ONLY with a phone. Face to face? Perfectly fine.



And my current job? Its answering the phone. I keep having to invent new ways to trick myself into not freezing up.

[Moirae]

Honestly, I'm to the point where I HATE customers, or in my case guests. I hate them. They can be as polite as possible, but I hate them. They are bothering me. Everything about them is bothering me. I need out of customer service, but I've been doing it since I was 12 years old. Moving into anything else when all my experience is in customer service is almost impossible. So I completely agree with you. I sooooo want the chance to go off on some of these morons JUST ONCE.

[Kristev]

I have to agree with you, Moirae. I find myself in a very similar condition of late. I don't do the same job as you, and I haven't been working as long. But the fact still is, I've lost my patience with just about everyone. I don't like them, I don't trust them, and I'm always feeling on the edge. Either consumer or manager, it doesn't matter much.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Well, my father is my boss and I don't work while I'm in school. I love my dad, I love having a boss that will always back me up but - it's just the nature of the entire customer service/retail beast. I'm afraid my next customer will throw golf clubs at me and knock over my displays like x guy or y woman did that one to me etc...

Yay for Daddy! :3
That's a very bad place to be in, constantly worrying about the person who's coming up next...

I've started developing a lack of trust and fear of strangers as a part of this and it's pretty terrible for working in the public. I want to be like IP Freleigh or Kus. or Gravekeeper and be able to keep cool and flush out my stress, keep a level head and focus on my job, but the stress cup is constantly overflowing because of the past trauma.

I hope you don't distrust us...? Although I wouldn't blame you. We are just words on a screen, if you choose us to be.
at least we can't go wackaloon on you physically!
Every last one of us are made from moulds, models of human, if you will. Some models can handle stress beautifully, they were made for it, high energy, cheery, peppy, go-getters ( ). Others... are more the 'behind the scenes,' hyper-competent, even-keeled, efficient... and of course that's just two, of many. You're just not the model to deal with customers.

I'm also unmedicated. I went to the doc today to try to get something for the panic attack type symptoms but apparently kids are abusing xanax nowadays and she treated me like junkie garbage. I can't trust anyone.

No-- you can't trust that doctor. Talk about breaking the rules of healthcare!
(cuntnozzle 'doctor')

Oh, I have no doubts that I will. It's just to make ends meet for now, and to help out my father because I love him and he needs me. I mean I think I could handle it once and a while, but customer service piles up QUICK on the stress plate for me.

I'd do that for my dad. Unfortunately, his current problems are something I really can't help with directly, only stuff like chores around the property and doing well in school (secondary/tertiary things... possibly even quaternary!).

I keep a baseball bat behind the register and we're on the nice side of town!

Trust in the baseball bat. Bond with it. Be one. Take it out and swing it on something-- perhaps that will relieve some of the stress? (Preferably not a custy, for your own future. No one's worth the time in jail and legal fees... and if they are... then they deserve premeditation. <----------- teh does not advocate that plan either!)
Name it something. Assign it a gender.

[HappyFun Ball]

I really do feel for you hun.. And I understand, I suffer from PTSD as well. The PTSD and my Borderline Personality Disorder is what makes me love delivery driving the graveyard shift, limited interaction with people and little risk of triggering a break down.

[Moirae]

I have to agree with you, Moirae. I find myself in a very similar condition of late. I don't do the same job as you, and I haven't been working as long. But the fact still is, I've lost my patience with just about everyone. I don't like them, I don't trust them, and I'm always feeling on the edge. Either consumer or manager, it doesn't matter much.

I soooo completely agree. I'm so burned out it isn't even funny. I don't trust anyone I work with, and I've come to the conclusion that I can't trust guests worth a damn. As my husband says "a guest can go from angel to asshole in .05 seconds". He actually teaches his employees NOT to trust anything the guests say or do and to just expect that they will be jerks.

We've been trying to move to Atlanta. I think that, once we do, I'm going to try to get out of the industry. I want a steady schedule, more money, better benefits, and less dealing with customers. I'm a trained medical and legal secretary (and that education includes university level biology). I'm better than this. I can do better than this.

[fireheart]

I suspect that I'm getting to that stage. Whenever I get a regular I'm usually OK because we go through simialr motions and I can sort of trust them. With other customers though I end up getting somewhat paranoid. Whenever I get one of our regular ASSHOLES however, THAT triggers me off badly.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Sounds like you need the kind of job I want (video surveillance. Would be So COOL).

*Pat-pat*

[Food Lady]

I'm burnt-out, too. I'm not afraid; I'm angry. I want to lump all my customers in one group. But it only takes one SC to make a complaint with my name on it (which is an automatic probation), so I guess I am a little afraid. Mostly, I'm annoyed. I don't like being second-guessed. I made a bagging mistake the other day, and the custy asked if I could correct it, and that was totally fine 'cause she was really nice about it. I don't mind at all; my response was, "Oh, you're right; I just realized that wouldn't work." But so many of them get an attitude or don't say anything while hovering over me, making weird hand gestures or trying to bag it themselves. They stare at me, boring holes into me. I never had such control-freaks in CA, just scammers constantly. I'd rather have the scammers.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

In many ways I've been doing customer service my entire working life. Almost every job I've had has involved dealing with the public in some way, though sometimes less directly than others (or having my coworkers be my "customers" because they were the ones I supported). I'm burnt out on life in general, or at least most of it - the good parts make it worth sticking around - but fortunately I'm still able to feel good about helping people who are nice and thank me for my efforts. I'm sure I won't be able to stand working in a call center forever, but then again I'm not much interested in the work itself or all the rules I have to follow. Sometimes the customers aren't as bad as the worry over whether I missed something on a call that is going to get graded "at random" that week...