Customer (Dis)ervice

There is one thing that can really get old about this job--being reasonably polite all of the time. This is usually not too hard since I can always pretend to care when I really have other things on my mind without being too obvious. There are times however where I would prefer to completely deconstruct a person's point-of-view. I did this several time while working at the theatre both with customers and employees. Here, however, that would be decidedly counterproductive in most situations.

Yesterday was the closest I have come to laying into a volunteer in quite some time. I was delivering my packets to leaders' homes and finally met a leader that I had not yet met up in the north part of my district. Apparently there was bad karma between this leader and the professional that he previously worked with. There really wasn't much conversation, just him ranting about a lack of support more than liberally sprinkled with obscenities. As I stood there stunned, he went on for a few minutes then abruptly stopped and walked back into his house without so much as a by-your-leave. If it were not for the shock factor, I probably would have lost my temper. Anybody who uses obscenity as the vast majority of their words especially in the first conversation with someone strikes me as small-minded. The other part that was frustrating was that he complained of a lack of support, yet I have personally left several messages for him that were not returned and know that Brian has tried to call him. His biggest threat was that he would step down and leave us the mess. This struck me again as small-minded; if he is mad at the professionals, taking it out by abandoning the kids he works with is not going to help things. I can survive people being upset with me; Lord knows I had enough of that at the theatre. What I cannot abide by is taking out your frustration on an uninvolved party. It is simply terrorism at that point so I will have to do something to keep the peace and keep the kids involved.

I'm not really sure what precisely I will do from here. One thing is that he is in Brian's service area so he is technically his problem. Of course I still have to advise Brian on what to do and give him a heads-up. At this point, smothering him with decency while seeking to replace him seems like a good strategy.

Yes, he did get me a little cranky. Suprisingly he was the only one especially since I did not call to warn anyone that I would be stopping by to deliver their packets--why waste another night on calls when they will need time to look at the information to have answers for me about their recruitment plans. One more strike in the paradigm shift I am attempting here in my district.