#CAwarm

[calllinerantsandraves]

Forgot to check my list

There’s a certain call line where the people are about 90% either not listening, rude, condescending or dismissive.  I like their format so I keep hoping they get better.  My hope feels like it’s in vain. 

I’ve talked with 2 people who identified themselves as a supervisor and a manager.  I’ve expressed my concerns.  But they seem to be either unable or unwilling to improve the actions of the staff.

Some of them talk to their co-workers while they’re talking to you.  Some of them are typing so loudly about other calls.  Most of them are not respectful or even have decent manners.

I talk on a lot of call lines.  I’m not asking for the moon here.  I know what’s possible and what’s not.  I call volunteer lines that are better run and have more respectful call takers than this line.  This place pays its workers.  If volunteers can manage to be decent, paid people should be able to muster it.

Today, I tried the line again.  I keep hoping that for me, it only takes a couple good people take make the line usable.

It started with a friendly voice.  She was pleasant and nice.  She even seemed to empathize.  Just as I trusted her with a personal piece of information, she told me that I had a couple more minutes to talk.

This line is supposed to give 20 minutes per call.  But this girl decided that at 9 minutes, I only had a couple more minutes.  When I asked about it, I was told that it was a 10-15 minute limit that I guess she just decided that she makes up the rules.  I was so disappointed.  Another dud.  Another call taker who was dismissive and self-centered.

I called someone else to vent about it.  After I felt a bit better about it, I went to my list to make sure I didn’t talk to her again. 

Imagine my chagrin when I already had her name listed with POS after it.  I should have checked my list better before giving her any trust.  I’m sure she did exactly the same thing last time.  In fact, IIRC, she cut me off after 8 minutes the last time.  smh

People try to tell me that sometimes it’s just that call takers have bad days or that maybe they were just off that day.  My experience, from having called a lot of them and keeping really good notes, is that they’re identical with every call.  If they’re really bad on one call, they’ll do exactly the same thing the next time.

#012020 #sf-cawarm

[calllinerantsandraves]

Self-important call taker - 10 minutes

I was calling a warmline. . . a warmline.  Warmlines are lines where they don’t take crisis calls.  But on this warmline, they supposedly shorten the calls to give other people a chance to talk.  But they make the rules up as they go along.

Given how petty and chidish that staff is, I don’t think it’s a good idea. 

I’ve found that people who don’t like you will give you 10 minutes when the normal time should be 20.  There’s not much anyone can say in 10 minutes.

There’s a woman who thinks she’s so clever in telling me every time that they’re busy and she only has 10 minutes for me.  What a stupid, self-important, self-absorbed girl she is.

I talked for 10 minutes and hung up.

In hindsight, I wish I had hung up before the call because it was more irritating than helpful, knowing that she was playing a game.

I wish there were more warmlines available in the morning/day.

#022420 #CAwarm #Annie

[calllinerantsandraves]

Is this face to face, real life?

I was feeling happy for once.  I wanted to share my excitement with someone so I called a warmline.  I was telling her how I found some online support groups that I had never heard of and was excited to check them out.

Instead of just being happy for me, she had to ask.  . repeatedly. . . is this face to face?  Is this in real life? 

Considering I told her that these were online support groups, she either wasn’t listening or didn’t care.  If this was just another of the myriad of people who don’t listen on the phone, I might have just hung up.  But this was someone that I thought was nice.  I’m disappointed.

Her judgmentalsm wasn’t expected.  I thought that she would be more open-minded than she was.  She sucked the joy out of my excitement.

#022220 #CAwarm #dawanna

[calllinerantsandraves]

Petulant girl is a . . . supervisor

I was telling a call taker about how hard it is to find people to talk with in the morning.  She starts telling me about how hard it is to be a call taker and how they’re just human and how I have to be patient and try to understand.

No, I don’t.  That’s not my job.  They’re the ones getting paid for doing their job.  She’s expecting more out of me than herself and anyone else there.

Then she tells me that this call is voluntary, that I can choose not to call.  What a childish, petulant thing to say.  But I’ve talked with her before and she was the same.  I wasn’t surprised.

They hire a lot of privileged, elitist and petulant people at that line.

She tells me that I can place a boundary around these call is they’re not helping.  Well duh, Captain Obvious.  Of course I can hang up.  And maybe I should have. 

But instead I tried to patiently explain why I’m trying to get the call line to be better.  Because it would really help me out.

When I told her that there are people who are super helpful on the line, she stopped talking for a second and started to listen.  It shouldn’t have taken that.  Listening should be the default.  But I guess I should give some credit that she got a little less petulant.

Then she told me she was a supervisor.  Then she told me that she would work hard to make things better.  I don’t know how she would since she’s not very good at this herself. 

I’ve been a bit more sarcastic in this note than I actually feel.  Yes, she’s petulant and very alienating and not very good at listening.  But I think she was trying.

#012320 #sf-cawarm #annie

[calllinerantsandraves]

*Her* boundaries

I was trying to explain how hard it is to get support on the lines.  She obviously wasn’t listening during the whole first half of the call because I was telling her all about the call takers I was having trouble with. 

I told her that I didn’t have money for therapy.  She offered me a resource where I could find a therapist. . . for money.  Hello?

Then all of a sudden she decided that she didn’t want to hear about call takers anymore.  She tells me that it’s her co-workers and her job, so she’s drawing a boundary.  Nevermind that I had been talking about the same subject for the entire call while she obviously wasn’t listening.

That call line has some of the worst call takers ever.

Yet this morning, one of them really helped me out.  I wish I could just talk to those ones.  There’s only less than a handful of them.  But you can’t request them.  I have to waste your call on people like this.

#012220 #sf-cawarm #sydney

[calllinerantsandraves]

Newbie

I called a new person.  She asks if I’m new.  Only new people ask that.  Other people get to know the numbers and people.  She didn’t get it.  She was nice enough.  But she did all the newbie things.  She was defensive when I told her that I knew she was new.  She tried to tell me her fancy title to impress me that she knew what she was doing.

Not putting her down.  It just reminded me that when people are frustrating, they’re often new.  Sometimes I take it personally when I shouldn’t.  Their newness shouldn’t be my problem.

#010820 #sf-cawarm

[calllinerantsandraves]

Manager in disguise

Had a nice conversation with a call taker.  He was listening, attentive, affirming and understood my frustrations with the system.

After I took a survey, it turned out that he was a manager.  Makes sense.  I’ve talked with managers before.  They’re good at it.  They talk to a lot of people and can see things from multiple sides.

I’m slightly hopeful that line will improve.  It was one of the worst lines before.  But I’ve talked with some really nice people there in the past couple weeks.  I hope it’s getting better.  With some good call takers, that could be a good resource.

#010520 #sf-cawarm

[calllinerantsandraves]

Best of the worst

Second time talking to someone who was really great, listening and reflecting really nicely, in a helpful way.

This used to be one of the worst lines across the country.  Even the best person was one of the worst call takers on this line. . . until now.

I’ve talked with at least 3 really nice people on this line lately.  There are still a lot of super unhelpful people, but maybe this line is getting better?  I hope so.

#010420 #sf-cawarm