Be kind to your call center friends
I’m going to subvert the system and try to connect with humans I talk to in call centers as humans … at least until they are all replaced by AI.
Figure 1: “No good deed unpunished, from Brazil” courtesy of MENTAL FLOSS may be copyrighted.
My life has taken a turn where it looks like I will be talking to lots of customer service people on the phone: medical stuff, tax stuff, insurance stuff. Oh joy.
It’s no fun for me, but even less fun for them. They are likely working an 8-5 job (at best), dealing with angry frustrated people for low pay, having their calls recorded by “the man”, fed to AI for analysis, graded on how quickly they get people off the phone, with often no knowledge of the big picture, and no empowerment (or encouragement) to actually understand and solve problems that are not on their call script….generally a bad place to be.
I’m going to try to subvert the system with each call. My goal (beyond getting insurance bills corrected, etc) will be to connect with the human on the line. To get their name, to read their mood, to connect on some human topic, likely small.
Some will likely be annoyed or threatened by anything that takes them off script or out of their role or adds 3 seconds to their measured time on phone per call, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the humans in the system when we do manage to get past the AI chatbots.
I/they may be rewarded with Winston Smith (1984)/Sam Lowry (Brazil) torture in the end (or just having the system refuse to fucntion in mindless fashion), but I think the small act of humane rebellion will be it’s own reward.
#57 of #100DaysToOffload take 2.1, https://100daystooffload.com/