On the Other Side of the Phone

I stayed home all day today to compensate for my upcoming working Saturday :) SWEET!

By the end of the day, my credit card was charged $539. The mysterious charge was from a hotel that I never heard of.

So, I called the credit card company. Well, actually my mom called the company since it's a Chinese card. And, report the strange charge. The end, my card got frozen and was claimed lost. Go, credit card company! Fight my money back ;)

Well, the juicy part is when I searched for the hotel and called them to report this charge on my card. The reception guy spent 10 mins trying to get my name right. It's so funny sometimes that people on the phone cannot get my Chinese name right. First of all, this guy kept spelling my name wrong. And then, they keep calling me Ms. Yin and then swtich to Ms. Mo...then Mo Yin, Yin Mo... 15 mins later......"That was a painful phone call for that guy." Kason smirked. We both laughed hard.


Working on the phone all the time now, I actually understand how that guy may feel. I have great sympathy towards him, so I wasn't frustrated at all. Instead, I felt very related ;)

Last week, a Spanish speaking lady yelled at me on the phone for about 1 minute (I am glad that she didn't swear at me) because I didn't find the Maria whom she was talking about. FYI, she had at least 5 Maria with very similar but different last names under her account. Looking back, I handled that situation pretty well. In the end, she apologized to me: "I am so sorry that I was so mean to you earlier. I bet all those Spanish names could be very confusing......" I did appreciate her apology and felt glad.


Working on the phone is not technically difficult, but indeed challenging. I'm so glad that I am put on the spot to practice my temper and patience.


People calls for help, in which, most of times, they are very frustrated. Guess what? It is so easy to be that person who is kind in person but difficult on the phone. Maybe it is human nature, not seeing the person's face makes it a lot easier to be mean or attacking the other side without even having a second thought. I am hoping that I can serve people on my job with all my best. Eventually, I hope that I can just be simply a nice person with charity in my mind, to everyone who is either great or ordinary like me. I noticed that I did start to appreciate people's services more than ever......I take a bus home after work almost everyday. Sometimes, some bus drivers are super nice and considerate. When they smiled at me, I instantly knew that they had great attitude on the job. However, it's just as obvious when one person is absolutely hating the job and just trying to do the service in order to check off the to-do lists.


Anyway, my job has been interesting. I thought I'd be doing the same thing over and over again. Surprisingly, every morning when I go to work, I still have this "butterfly" - or anxiety - in my stomach. Because, every call, I have a completely different person on the other side. There are different voices, emotions, manners, and stories. I often wonder what is going on in that person's life, behind that voice on the phone. Also, I question myself how I can make their day a little bit better. So far so good.