Alrighty. When I was first hired for this office position, I was not expecting this level of customer rage. Now, I have about a decade of retail experience, so I am well aware of what to expect when it comes to extreme customer entitlement and anger. What I was experiencing was absolutely not at a normal level in any shape or form! I spoke to my manager and he claimed these calls were completely normal. I spoke to coworkers and they basically treated me like I was some sort of Princess for even mentioning it. I realized nothing would be done about it. So, I started to take the initiative and came up with solutions to the customer's problems. Two (three?) years later and I almost NEVER deal with angry customers anymore. It's almost night and day difference. Now, even the infamously rude customers are completely normal, if not friendly.
So why was I dealing with that ridiculousness in the first place? Well, my Boomer coworker (henceforth BB) threw me under the bus for years! BB's mantra was basically to wait until the customer called screaming to start working. My job was to be the first point of contact, so essentially BB was leaving me to deal with customer's ire, while BB spends every single day online shopping. The worst part is most of these world-ending issues took seconds to fix. When ignored, these issues would take hours out of my day. So BB's shenanigans made me the customer punching bag with an added sprinkling of leaving me with tons more work to do.
At this point, my only hesitation is that I have still not been able to secure another job. Honestly, I'm so sick of this place. This is why I am anti-work. This is why I don't get people who claim we all need this current paradigm. Everyone must work 40 plus hours. If you can't find a well-paying job, just work anyway?! Work even when it doesn't pay the bills! Just work, no think! Completely ignore that forcing slackers to work with threats of starvation will only encourage them to put in just enough effort to not get fired. At some point, it's just easier and better for all involved if BB just stayed home!
Honestly, I'm lazy, too. Still, I would rather be the unlucky sucker who had to keep working, while everyone else enjoyed their lives. Rather than this current system where you are constantly on the verge of being fired all the time if you don't put out every single fire left behind from your coworkers. Is making everyone suffer with you (forcing everyone to work) really worth it if it makes you suffer more? Make it make sense.