No Need To Be Sarcastic..?!

[TwistedAlice]

Not too sure if this is the right place to post this as this is my first post, so lets give this a shot!

Well I'm not a retail worker, but I have my fair share of the general public answering the phones for my bosses. I'm not on the main switchboard and I only know the people in my immediate department.

This happened first thing on Friday morning, being a Friday I'm in a pretty good mood, means couple of days off work are looming. Then my pretty little Friday bubble is popped...

C: Client
Me: me

Me: Good Morning! <company name>, how can I help you?
C: Is <Boss A> there?
Me: No, sorry, he's on holiday.
C: *sigh* When is he back?
Me: One moment, let me just check the diary *calls up the diary on the system*
C: *not waiting* You mean you don't know??
Me: Sorry, I don't work for him directly and his secretary is also on holiday, if you give me one moment the diary is just loading.
(Now I've been told that we are expected to be friendly and even a little jokey with clients and the like that phone up, make's us seem a nicer bunch of people)
C: I don't have time, is <Boss B> there?
Me: I'm not sure, I know he is not on holiday, one moment, I need to stand up to see over the partitions as I am too small and have a look for him (said in a nice friendly tone)
C: There's no need to be sarcastic. I'll call back. *click*
Me: ....

Now, I'm tiny, only just over 5ft tall, and when I'm sitting down it is impossible to see over the partitions in the office, and <Boss B> who he wanted to talk to, is only an inch or so taller than me and likes to sit on a spare desk over in the corner when he is busy so he does not get disturbed by his phone going off.

After staring at my phone in shock for a few moments trying to process what had just happened, and how someone could be that grumpy on a nice sunny day like today I trotted over to talk to <Boss B> to explain what had happened.

Boss B is cool with it and actually found it quite amusing, we had a little chuckle over it and he said not to worry, C most likely thought I was being cheeky calling Boss B small, and if and when he phones back he will put him straight. He doesn't like people talking down to me like that, especially when there is no reason and I was just trying to be chipper first thing in the morning (which is what they asked us to try to be).

I'd not even had time to get a cup of tea, and it put me in a pretty upset mood for most of the morning. I wasn't aware that calling myself a short-ass was being sarcastic?!

[Broomjockey]

Re: Title.

There is ALWAYS a need to be sarcastic

Sorry you had to deal with a twit like that. Impatient people are annoying people.

Also, Welcome!

[Snowbird]

Welcome!

I'm sort of stumped as to why the SC would say you were sarcastic at all. Maybe he thought you were being facetious about being short and physically looking for Boss B? Either way, that was just a plain odd response!

[TwistedAlice]

I'm not sure, I've said it to loads of other people, that I'm short so I can't see over the office partitions and they normally laugh.

Maybe he had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed, or maybe his PA swapped the coffee for decaff???

Hello! Thanks for the welcome

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

Not a morning person, perhaps? I can piss several people off in the space of an hour just by greeting them a Good Morning at 8:30.

[stargirl195]

There are always customers that you can't joke with - for example:

When I start my computer in the morning, there's always ONE program that takes forever to load. Unfortunately it's one of the important programs - we do almost everything to do with customer's accounts on it.

So, the first caller of the day, I never want to just say, 'Just hold, the computer is slow this morning'. It's just an opening to much incredulous SC behaviour. Instead, I try and inject some humour; when I ask them for their account number and name I say: 'Well, the good news is - you're the first customer of today! Bad news - the computer will need some time to start up and access your account!'

I get some laughs; usually people calling that early are as slow and tired as I feel and can understand that computers can be tempermental on occasion. Others though, like your SC, either take offense because they think I'm being smart myself, or they go 'hhummphh' and get snippy when they have to wait more than 10 seconds ...

You definitely did the right thing and I applaud you for having the willpower to beam positive energy to people who, by their sucky behaviour, don't deserve it in the least.

[BowserKoopa1]

Ah yes. I have had that happen to me quite a few times in my 13+ years of retail experience.
I remember one particular day I went into work when it felt like everything seemed to be just clicking for me. I was in a really good mood that day (especially since I had just won $40 on a scratchoff
Things continued to go good as the day proggressed. Customers were friendly, polite, etc. I had absolutely no problems at all with any of them, and not a single 1 of them gave any indication at all of being unsatisfied withy my service.
Then somewhere around the 2nd half of my shift after I had gotten back from lunch, I am pulled into the manager's office, where I am told that a customer had complained on me and said I was rude and uncooperative. I quickly explained to the manager my side of the story and told him that I was in an extremely good mood and couldn't recall any unhappy customers that day, and that I had no idea what I could've possibly done to make anyone mad at me. The manager let me off with a warning, but my day turned sour after that. And I guess like some sort of crazy domino effect, the table turned on me and things started going badly. And it all started with that stupid idiot who thought I was rude to them when I wasn't!
Welcome to customerssuck.com btw.

[XCashier]

The manager let me off with a warning, but my day turned sour after that. And I guess like some sort of crazy domino effect, the table turned on me and things started going badly.

Unfortunately, that's how it goes. All it takes is one jerk to make a good day go bad PDQ.