What's Da Buzz?

Let me reword that title a bit. Is the following conduct a demonstration of being an American? I would venture a guess to say no but my experience is saying yes. On my job, I get to take 120 calls a day in an 8 hour time-frame. Of those calls, 10% or about 12 are from nice people. Another 10% or 12 calls are neutral from people doing what they need to do or just getting information. That leaves 80% of the calls or 96 of them that are not nice or neutral.

These 96 callers are flat out nasty, rude, mean or cruel. It does not matter if it is a pharmacist, a nurse, a doctor, or your neighbor calling in. My job is simply a pharmacy help desk. We give answers on data issues and computer procedures. But we are accused of changing insurance plan regulations, step therapy decisions, and not doing things the caller thinks we should do as opposed to what we can do. Just because a phone number is on a card doesn’t mean you can dial it for all insurance, pharmaceutical, and whatever else crosses one’s fancy.

Understand all of the aspects that impact your life!! It is your life so pay attention to what is going on that directly or indirectly impacts you. That line alone makes this in the Vested Wisdom category.

What you shouldn’t do is be hostile and demeaning. It will never help you. It will not make me want to help you at all on the phone. If you called the wrong number, you called the wrong number. I will tell you that and redirect you to the right number. But instead, I get showered with terms like the ones below 96 times a day because I can’t do the job that belongs in a different company.

The *s included below stand for the following vowels in this order i, o, and a. I’m not going to fully type out the words here but you figure it out.

Dip Sh*t – This phrase means the individual is completely stupid, a total moron, and has no idea what the right answer is. I get called this when I let them know they called the wrong number or recite the decisions of their insurance plan. So of course, I’m the idiot when they called the wrong place.

G*d D*mn whore – When they do not hear the answer they want, that obviously makes me a cursed woman who sleeps around with every guy. Naturally some jerk throwing a toddler temper tantrum can make up whatever they want because they do not know I’m a happily married faithful wife who follows Jesus.

Moronic slut – This is a combination of the above two. In this case, I’m not cursed but just a total idiot who sleeps around. Let’s see those geniuses handle these calls, troubleshoot computers while designing websites and speaking multiple languages.

Inbred hick – I had no idea what this one was at all so I had to ask my co-workers to define it. They apologized for the rudeness of the callers because I’m considered one of the nicest on the phone. This insult means my parents were brother and sister. The hick part means I have no social skills because of living in the wilderness of southern USA looking forward to getting married to my brother. I might have been more insulted if the stupidity of the insult wasn’t so funny. An inbred hick wouldn’t be answering pharmaceutical phone calls and computer troubleshooting calls.

Is it enjoyable being a college educated, multi-lingual immigrant being treated this way? Uh, no. I am proud to be a Filipino because respect is far more common in my culture. I now live in the USA but I have a problem.

I really do try to believe this line, but dealing with this everyday really strains the credibility of the line.

“Proud to be an American”

Ano sa tingin nyo? hehe!

Anah

Photo credits: http://blog.evaria.com