Things That Irritate Me, Part 7,297
I just have to say that it's really obnoxious when you make a joke that bombs and then you keep pushing it, even though the other person clearly wasn't amused the first 3 times. I had someone do that to me on the phone today. I answer the phone by saying "Good morning, (name of my department). May I help you?" This yobbo decides to say, "Is that Mr. (my department) or Mrs. (my department)?" First of all, I clearly sound like a girl. No one ever confuses me for a man. (Unless I have a MAJOR head cold.) But more importantly, my speech when I answer the phone is already 14 syllables, so why do I also need to add my full name? I'm the only person who answers my phone. If you want to know my name, try, "Good morning. This is Jerk O'Reilly. Who am I speaking to?" But this - well, he neatly fits into the same category as people who say, "Teehee. It's AFTERNOON!" when you say "Good morning" post meridian. You know, MORONS who have nothing better to do with their time.
So I pretend I don't get it, and he repeats it. I say, "OK. This is (the big seester). Can I help you?" (which should have rectified the situation, right?) and he says, "That was a joke." And I say, "I see. Can I help you?" and he says, "Well, you know, I was trying to make a joke, because of the way you answered the phone."
If I didn't work for a religious organization, I swear I would have hung up on him.
So I pretend I don't get it, and he repeats it. I say, "OK. This is (the big seester). Can I help you?" (which should have rectified the situation, right?) and he says, "That was a joke." And I say, "I see. Can I help you?" and he says, "Well, you know, I was trying to make a joke, because of the way you answered the phone."
If I didn't work for a religious organization, I swear I would have hung up on him.
posted by The Big Seester | 3:22 PM
9 Comments:
At a certain point, I usually have to fake a little giggle and then move on from there. It usually satisfies.
Before you ask, the reason you sometimes have to fake amusement (as opposed to them giving up on the joke) is because it's better to be polite, even when it's stupid.
See, here's where I have a problem with the fake giggle. If you make a joke, fine. If someone doesn't get it, too bad. But to keep on pushing it, is, in a way, a form of bullying. "I'm going to keep beating this dead horse until you give me the reaction that I want." And I have a real problem with that. So by fake giggling, at best, you are giving a completly clueless yob encouragement to keep pulling this crap. At worst, you are giving into a bully.
TBS
I tried to post this yesterday, but had Blogger trouble.
And my problem with your approach, TBS, is this: What are you accomplishing by sitting, stony, while Joe Yob presses on with the unfunny joke?
Answer: prolonging the agony and raising your blood pressure.
My attitude is this: I'm at work. I'm here to do a job. Part of that job is being pleasant to the clientele. Some of them are yobs. But, Lord willing, my encounters with said yobs will be relatively limited. It's still part of my job to make the encounter as pleasant as possible for Joe Yob. And I do that pretty well. That's one reason the university dumped some money into my account yesterday.
If I sit, stony, and refuse to give Joe Yob the satisfaction of even a fake giggle (which, by the way, does not have to be terribly convincing), I'm going to come across as rude. Whether Miss Manners would agree or not is an open question. But my manager is probably going to think I should've just faked a laugh, and the customer is definitely going to think I should have just faked a laugh, so what exactly am I trying to prove by sticking to my guns on this one?
I've always been more of a people-pleaser than TBS, though. I'm still looking for the job where they pay me just because I'm me, and I'm such a nifty, superduperterrificinteresting person, and it doesn't matter if I'm occasionally rude to someone who bothers me. If you see it posted, let me know.
(We could appeal to Miss Manners on this one, but be forewarned that I have yet to have her answer any of the questions I've directed to her in past.)
OK, wow. Chill out. I think this is The Clam on double espresso.
First of all, they don't pay me to laugh at the jokes of morons. They pay me to be polite to morons. Which I was. Nothing I said was impolite. I just wanted to move on in the conversation. I also never say, "You jerk. That's not funny," when someone corrects me as to what time of day it is. Actually, what I want to say is, "It must be nice living on No Mistake Island."
And, you are completely forgetting the reason I answer my phone the way that I do. Because I have the old phone number for our FREE Immigration and Legal Services Office. Which means I get beaucoup phone calls from all over the country from people looking for legal help. Some of them are calling from prison. Most of them cannot speak English. I actually went so far as to have a Spanish script written so that I can talk to them. And I am invariably polite to them as I direct them to the correct number. Even though this has been my number for over 3 years. Even though they didn't bother to listen to the menu (spoken in English and Spanish) which would connect them to the correct office if only they had bothered to listen to it.
And even though it's not part of my job description, and I was offered a brand-new phone number which would have eliminated this annoyance, but would have left these people without the information they need.
When you have had your phone ring every minute for 25 minutes, because it's a collect call from a prison and you cannot accept the charges, and you also cannot relate to the person why you cannot accept the charges, and when you have fielded phone calls from people who are sobbing because their brother isn't being let into the country to visit and they are scared he is going to commit suicide (a 45 minute phone call), or people who get angry because (even though I have a script in Spanish) I don't speak Albanian (or Russian, or Serbian), THEN you can decide that I'm a jerk because I don't feel like playing along with Mr. Jerk O'Reilly's "joke."
And you know I'm not mad at you now, I'm just explaining my position.
I understand what you're saying about the phone number - though why they can't route that number to the appropriate department and give you a new one is beyond me. And this isn't The Clam on double espresso; this is The Clam on a week of fighting a cold and not being able to get enough sleep to save her life. No matter what time I go to bed, I still have trouble getting up in the morning.
But back to your story. Bear in mind: Joe Yob has NO idea of any of this. Odds are he's just some schlub who likes external validation. And to someone who DOESN'T know the whole backstory about the previous phone number (like Joe Yob), the 14 syllables with which you answer the phone might sound funny, right?
My guess is that Joe Yob thought you sounded like you were having a bad day and was trying to lighten your mood. He just did it badly, and I would venture to say ill-advisedly. Kind of like DJ's admin pestering him about drinking diet pop. Not the best idea, not the best execution, but the best of intentions.
Have you been taking your Nyquil?
TBS
Don't change the subject. :-p I didn't take it last night, but I'd been taking it faithfully all week. I'm sleeping (except when I wake up to hack); just not enough.
I did NOT change the subject - I wanted to make sure you were getting enough sleep!
Back to the subject:
1. Because Immigration moved out of the building, they couldn't take their phone number with them (apparently). I was the second person to inherit the number, and IT told me the choice was: disconnect the number altogether and assign me a new one, or help the people who call in. I chose to help them, because I'm a people person, dammit!
2. I realize Joe Yob doesn't realize that. Most of the people who call me don't realize it. It doesn't stop me from being pleasant to them. But for the life of me, I don't understand why saying, "Good morning, Acme Corporation, may I help you?" isn't pleasant enough for some people. It's freaking LONG. If I had to say all that and then add my multi-syllabic (semi-ethnic sounding) name to it, I would be in a bad mood by the time I finished talking. Not to mention that at least 50% of my calls are from co-workers, all of whom know who I am.
3. I wasn't having a bad day until I talked to this clown, so he wasn't "trying to cheer me up." Actually, I wans't even having a bad day after this clown. It was just annoying, not day-ruining.
4. He may have had the best of intentions, but the fact is, he needs to learn when to let it go. Even Don Rickles will tell you that when a joke bombs, you move on. You don't repeat it over and over.
I guess we'll just have to chalk this one up to 'I suffer fools more gladly than you' then. :-)
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