So I worked for AT&T/DirecTV for 4 years. I got fired because FMLA can't seem to get on the same page and after 2 years of my Attendance team doing everything they could, then we're forced to fire me. Normally I would have been fired 2 years ago but they really try to help so I have no resentment towards them.
So I worked in Retention for this place in a call center and have had plenty of moments where I called them out or customers. Thought I'd share
There is a rule that if you are out of arms length of your computer you have to lock the screen. There was a few times my manager would be talking to their manager at another desk with their screen unlocked. I would walk up to my manager and have him hold out his arm and act like I'm measuring it then say “my eyesight must be terrible because your arms don't look 10ft long but I see your screen unlocked.” He would pull me aside later and tell me not to do that in front of his boss or lock the screen for him next time which I did for the most part but when he would call me out the few times I did it, I made sure I would return the favor.
Some times you have to put someone in their place. Boss or customer I don't care. This guy called in to lower his bill which is 100% ok. After pulling up his account I saw he hasn't paid his bill in 6 months, which they weren't shutting peoples service off due to covid. After explaining multiple times I would gladly lower the bill but don't have access to what I needed because he had a huge past due balance, he said I needed to waive his balance to help him. Explained I can't then he says I wouldn't do it because he was black and it was Martin Luther king day and wouldn't tolerate this and asked for a supervisor. The first thing I said was “we don't care if you are white, black, Asian, or dead. The bill still needs paid.” We didn't keep track of race on accounts just FYI. Called my supervisor line and the supervisor I got was black and said he would gladly take that call.
I stutter. Not bad but can happen more at times. I'd get customers who would say “stop stuttering and do your job” which I would always respond with “I naturally stutter. If that is something you just cant deal with you have 2 options. First is just let me do my job and stop asking me questions which won't help either of us or be an adult and let me do my job so I can try to help you. If you don't want help then either hang up the phone or we can sit in silence.”
My old job was a union job so I would just get talked to about some of this stuff but I always made sure I did it in a way that couldn't get me in trouble. Just because you work in a call center or retail does not mean you have to take abuse from managers or customers.