No one understands meh!

[Crescent Cat]

This is a rather old one from my previous job. I worked in the technical support department for an online school. Our support center is 24/7 (even open on Thanksgiving and Christmas but with limited hours) so I was working early one Saturday morning and there were no enrollment/academic counselors available. The supervisor for my department was not going to come in for another two hours.

No big deal. Imma big girl and I can handle the work load by myself.

Regardless of how well I perform my job (fixing technical issues and such) there are some things that I just don't have the information for.

So, one woman calls in because she has a residency in about eight months and needs to know the exact date in order to ask for time off.


Ahhh . . . well, you see, we lowly life forms at technical support are typically not told of when or where a residency will be taking place until the day before - if we're lucky. Most of the time we don't realize there's a residency until we get students calling in with issues about it.

So eight months in advance. I'm sorry, but I just don't have that information.

"But I need it." the woman says. "I need to know what days to request off for it."

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but I don't know. I just don't have that information." I replied.

To this the woman scoffed as though I had insulted her mother. "I don't think you get it. I work a government job. I need this information now because we're required to schedule time off eight months in advance."

Holy shit!

Look, I understand the woman's situation. I understand she needs to know the date for her job. But I can't give her information that I. Don't. Have. Again I explain this but she says she has to end the call because she has someone waiting and mutters something about how unhelpful I am.


Sorry, but the reason as to why you need this information does not change the fact that I don't have it.

Do people like this think we're deliberately withholding information from them? What reason would I have had to not tell her if I knew or could find out? Would it have been better if I just pulled a random time out of my ass?

If I was still working there I may have decided to do that for the next time. Apparently that would've been more "helpful" that the truth.

[slavetotheman]

"Ma'am, if you want me to pull some arbitrary date out of my backside I will, but don't blame me if it turns out to be a bunch of crap!"

[freeatlast]

Where I work, requests to have charges waived from customer accounts have to be emailed to someone else and we can't make any adjustments until we get a reply giving approval. Of course, many customers have a big problem with this. So our standard answer is "If you insist on an answer now, the answer is NO. If you are willing to be patient and let me contact the appropriate person with your request, you may get the answer you want." Most of the time, they are speechless.

[persephone]

Do people like this think we're deliberately withholding information from them?

Yes, they do. I'm not sure why, but so many people just cannot believe that someone wouldn't know something they want to know. They want to know, they are the most important thing in the universe so OF COURSE you must know.

People are dumb but yes, plenty of people think that way.

[EvilEmpryss]

Freeatlast, I like your style. On my suckiest day that one would make me stop and laugh!

[tollbaby]

Eight months in advance??? I'm sorry, but I call bullshit on that one. I've worked government jobs for the last 12 years, and the furthest in advance I was ever required to notify was TWO WEEKS.

[Ashaela]

"Ma'am, if you want me to pull some arbitrary date out of my backside I will, but don't blame me if it turns out to be a bunch of crap!"

I have actually used something similar once.

Physician applicant wanted to know when his license would be issued. We have NO WAY of knowing that until the application is completed and approved.... I explained all the factors that could affect the length of time, I explained the whole process, gave him general estimates, but he kept insisting that I had to know exactly when it would happen, which quickly became insinuations that I was either (a) incompetent for not knowing such a simple thing, or (b) evil for knowing and not telling him.

After the fourth or fifth time he insisted on me giving him a deadline by which the license would be issued, I just flat-out told him "Sir, the answer to your question does not exist. I can make up any random date if that will make you feel better."

The applicant wasn't too happy with me, but my boss didn't seem to mind at all.

[Magpie]

I used to get sub-contractors calling to get the list of bidders. Now, even if I had that information, it was company policy to not provide that list. Unfortunately (for me) the number that was on all the drawings was mine (the co-op student's). I suspect that these people called the number thinking they were getting the project manager, not realising that the number was standard to all the drawings, but it doesn't explain why they continue to try to argue with me, even after I explained that I was a student, and didn't have that information. I'm not sure if they thought it was a clever story a project manager was making up just because they hated that particular sub-contractor, or what, but honestly. No, the co-op student isn't given access to controlled information that she doesn't need. And do you really think that I'm the person to argue with about company policy?

[Andara Bledin]

Eight months in advance??? I'm sorry, but I call bullshit on that one. I've worked government jobs for the last 12 years, and the furthest in advance I was ever required to notify was TWO WEEKS.

Not necessarily bullshit.

I used to have a friend in some sensitive position whose department had to schedule vacations ten months in advance.

The money would have to be incredible for me to be able to put up with that.

^-.-^

[MrsEclipse]

Also, re: 8 mos in advance. Well, you know how customers have a poor sense of time? Like, how only five minutes will have passed in normal time, but in the sucky customer's realm of existence he'll have been waiting a half and hour? Or how the time between phone calls from the tech doubles or even triples between the worlds? Perhaps she's a severe sufferer of this condition.

*snerk* Excuse me.

[Aethian]

I can assure you that six months is sometimes the norm around the post office.

Depending on the number of people working in a particular office is how many space we can have for people off at one time. For my current office that number is one. Starting with highest to lowest senority our vacation holder goes around and askes for full weeks. Once everyone has been asked they then go around for individual days. After that point the book is closed for two weeks to give the boss enough time to imput the vacation times into the computer.

After that the book is re opened to first come first taken. So sometimes we need to know of dates well in advance because what we want might be at the end of the current six month cycle and if you don't get it first time through you might not get it off.

[KitterCat]

Not necessarily bullshit.

I used to have a friend in some sensitive position whose department had to schedule vacations ten months in advance.

The money would have to be incredible for me to be able to put up with that.

^-.-^

I’ve actually got a friend in one of those ‘sensitive position” jobs who works as an engineer. Asked her once how they could get a day off since they was really overworked at the time. Answer was pretty much “place in a request last year or end up in the hospital“. Pay was outlandish. As in Oh dear googly moggly that’s a lot. I still however wouldn’t want to take a job like that. I just don’t like the idea of having to have my life that boxed in like that.