So my Comcast Xfinity On Demand went out, and I called up the help line, had to wait five minutes, then got connected to this really nice woman named Lauren. Described the problem and error message, told her I had already reconnected and done a cold boot on the box, and that my cable and phone were fine. She sent a zap to reset the box, and then we sat and chatted for five minutes while we waited for stuff to reset.
It kind of made more sense than just sitting there in silence, so I asked where she was, and she is in Pittsburgh, and both of us agreed that we are sick and tired of snow and that neither of us can find rock salt anywhere, talked about the Olympics and her favorite sport is hockey, so we talked about the Pens and how disappointed we have been with the Steelers lately, and so on.
At any rate, the problem is now fixed, but honestly, 90% of the time when I call help lines I am not mean or irate, but matter of fact and stern and forceful about what I want done, but this time, I just decided to roll with things. And you know what- I didn’t get agitated or internally angry, she was super pleasant and the issue was resolved, and it was just nice.
I am going to make a very concerted effort to not be such an angry person in the future. I’m not outwardly angry, and I never berate folks just doing their job like Lauren (because I was in retail and the restaurant industry and I know how awful people treat those workers), but I’ve spent too much time internally angry and bitter.
This approach seems so much better for everyone.