Comments | grassyneal: "You 'think'"?

grassyneal

"You 'think'"?

Nov 11, 2005 11:57

(and now Jon will get rid of some negative energy by yelling at nobody in particular ( Read more... )

rant

Comments 17

richardf8 November 11 2005, 18:22:18 UTC

Ah, you got HER on the phone, didn'tcha?

grassyneal November 11 2005, 20:09:10 UTC

For those of you just joining us, RichardF8 is not just another far-away LiveJournal correspondent. I spend at least 30 hours a week just four feet away from him. We do the same kind of work, deal with the same people, start emitting the same sort of burnout smoke once in a while...I highly recommend his LJ to you guys.

But no, didn't get any really memorable user on the phone. Just thinking about irritants that walk around in human form lately...

eatsoylentgreen November 11 2005, 18:22:56 UTC

my friend jenny f_o_n_y is good with dealing with cranky customers with computer problems.

grassyneal November 11 2005, 20:40:10 UTC

Heh I see that!

slinky76 November 11 2005, 18:27:57 UTC

YES! You speak of the "extremely literal, sequential, non-ambiguous" folk which demand and exact the same boring standards from you to which they hold themselves. As a person who tends to speak in generalities and exaggerations, I have been fighting the good fight with this type since I learned to communicate! Lighten up! Accept ambiguity! Free your mind! All of these have been knee-jerk responses to their dull goadings and inquiries. Lately, though, I have become mockingly sarcastic. ie. "Oh, terribly sorry, of course I KNOW I will be there. You know what else I KNOW? Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Oh, wait, even *that* is still a THEORY. Let's all calm down a little, shall we? Can I buy you a beer?"

:)

grassyneal November 11 2005, 20:23:28 UTC

It's almost no fair to end your argument with "Can I buy you a beer?". It has such universal appeal. It makes everyone forget or accept everything that has been said before. Stephen Douglass would have whipped Lincoln's bony butt at Gettysburg if he had put the offer out there at the end of his speech. Lincoln would have been talking, and everyone would be like "yeah, yeah, that's all well and good, but that nice man offered to buy me a beer!" :)

slinky76 November 11 2005, 20:28:44 UTC

Well now...I can't be accused of taking *myself* too seriously in return, now can I? ;)

half_iowan November 11 2005, 18:44:07 UTC

As my stepdad would say: "Are you writing a book?" If my reply was, "Yes" he came back with "Leave that chapter out and make it a mystery."

grassyneal November 11 2005, 20:47:51 UTC

Very good!

Reminds me of a carpool a long time ago, some guy started singing/humming a tune. Joe (the guy driving) said "Who sings that song?", with a semi-interested air. When the answer came, he said "Well, why don't you let him sing it."

half_iowan November 11 2005, 20:52:46 UTC

Whenever someone asks me that same question, my answer is, "Me!"

f_o_n_y November 11 2005, 18:49:39 UTC

i just wrote about something similar:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/f_o_n_y/565098.html

it's all about the presentation!

grassyneal November 11 2005, 18:52:51 UTC

Alas, it's protected. Add me? :)

f_o_n_y November 11 2005, 19:05:15 UTC

i did!! hmm. i'll check again.

grassyneal November 11 2005, 19:23:36 UTC

OK, I can see it now.

I see where you're coming from with that one. And normally, I can take a situation like that and defuse it, and leave the person a little less unhappy, and a little more patient about getting their problem fixed.

I think right now, I'm suffering from a sunshine deficiency. I can get through working with customers, but I'm about dry for any other troublesome interactions. Call it sleep deficiency, call it new fatherhood, call it helpdesk burnout, call it lack of being the "star of the show", any show, for quite some time, I don't know.

This was quite a blurting. Sorry, new person, for the dump.

Thread 6