Today is not going well for me. I’m pretty sure I’m struggling with mild depression anyways, but on top of that, the first call I got at work was from a very disgruntled customer who felt that our company was purposefully ignoring his calls and refusing to resolve his problem. And when I couldn't help him but promised to find someone who could, he basically threatened me and said he'd better hear from someone or he'd call me again tomorrow and "not be nearly as nice." Great.
This doesn’t happen very often, but it seems that whenever it does, people get mad at me for not being able to fix all their problems. There are three reasons why that’s an awful thing to do.
A) I’m just the receptionist. No matter how mad you get at me, no matter how much you threaten me, there is almost NOTHING I can do to fix your problems.
B) I really do try! I actually call ahead to make sure that they won’t get a voicemail, or to just double check that I won’t waste their time by transferring them to the wrong person. But if I ever come back to them with an answer they don’t want to hear, they accuse me of lying. That’s the thanks I get for doing all I can personally do to help them.
C) That is not what Christ teaches we should do.
Christ also taught to turn the other cheek, so I am trying to do that, but sometimes I just can’t handle these kinds of angry calls. As you (hopefully) read in last month’s blog post, I have a chronically weak emotional immune system. I don’t bounce back easily from personal attacks. And enough things happened to me this morning to already put me in a depressed mood. So yeah, this really hurt. I actually started crying, and the only reason I was able to stop was because I’m a receptionist--I can’t afford to cry in front of everyone coming and going.
Anyways, it just really motivated me to write this blog post, to remind myself (and others) that we have no excuse for being outright rude to others. Just like my dad taught me that I never have any excuse for speeding--getting somewhere just a little bit sooner is not worth the cost of maybe accidentally killing someone because you’re driving recklessly.
That’s an extreme example, but is it? I mean, I have mild depression (I think). How would it be if I actually had suicidal tendencies? You never know what someone else is dealing with, so don’t be reckless with your own emotions and possibly ruin the life of an innocent receptionist you’re screaming at. I already feel like I have no one I can cry in front of. I already struggle to find any reason to be happy with myself or with my life. So to be personally attacked when I'm just barely limping along is a real low blow.
This quote kept popping up on my Facebook feed, and I think it says it better than I can:
I don’t really know what else to say about this except to be kind. "Bridle your passions." Obviously there will be days and situations when you can’t help but explode, and there will always be people who seem to deserve our backlash, but really, better to be safe than sorry.
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