The Ex-Employee

I don't know what's up with Tuesdays lately, but the last couple of months, every Tuesday has sucked. I was hoping that today would end the Tuesday curse, since it was the first day of Spring and it was a such a summer like day. Nope. Within the first hour of work, my week of 1 lunch meeting increased to 6 (including a whole office lunch for tomorrow that consisted of me ordering 35 pizzas....), the pest control guy that comes in came in before the front door unlocked and he gave me 'tude when I (half jokingly) asked him "why are YOU here so early?!?" (but seriously, go away, why are you here before I even got my tea??) and then of course, there was my first caller.

I barely got my monotone "thank you for calling..." out before I was rudely talked over.
"I AM A FORMER EMPLOYEE, I GOT LAID OFF (BLAH BLAH BLAH), I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO SPEAK TO HUMAN RESOURCES BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL AGAINST ME, BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH."
I'm not even kidding, she "blah-ed" on for 8 frickin minutes. She was screaming so loud I had to rip the headset off my head before I started bleeding from the ears. As I held the phone out miles from my head, I began to slowly tune her out and only listen to key words.

All angry employees that work out one of our stores get sent to one unfortunate lady in HR. I honestly have no idea how she handles these callers. As much as I love complaining, I absolutely hate listening to disgruntled employees screaming about whatever is upsetting them.

Pretty much, this lady was mad, felt she was wrongfully terminated, and she *tried* to talk to HR, but they didn't pick her side of the argument, so she needed to speak to the CEO of the company otherwise she was going to...

wait for it....

wait for it....

it's my favorite line that 98% of angry callers scream at me...

otherwise, she's going to SUE THE COMPANY.

::GASP:: Oh! The horror!! Oh my! I didn't realize how seriously upset you were, let me bend over backwards, go against protocol and let me send you right on over to the CEO. Yes, she will definitely be able to fix your problem. Of COURSE she handles angry people we fire!

Are you freaking serious? Do you really think the CEO even knows the store you work for? Nope! Do you think she really cares? NOPE! Do you really think saying you're going to sue is going to do anything??

Go ahead and sue, what do I care?! AND even if you do sue, the CEO still isn't the right contact - that would be legal. So naturally, what do I do? I sent them over the CEO's assistant knowing full well that she's not in. (And let's me honest, even if she was in, I still would have sent it to her to get this crazy lady away from me.)

Immediately, like all callers, she calls back and complains she got a voice mail. She goes off on her threat to sue and then REPEATS HER WHOLE 8 MINUTE STORY while I'm sitting there trying to interrupt her by saying "MA'AM!!! I'm not.." "MA'AM!!! I'm the reception--" "MA'AM!!!!!!"
over and over again.

Welcome to my life. Are there any other receptionists who get this sort of shit daily? Do callers threaten to sue the company in hopes that we will just bend over backwards to help them? Are we supposed to bend over backwards to help them?

Luckily she only called 4 more times before NG came in and I made her take over. Better her than me, right? ;)