Twitch .. gibber ..

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Talking to someone whose entire demeanor on the phone suggests he's so uptight that if he sneezed his butt would explode, tends to put me just the slightest bit on edge ..

Comments

[the-ninja-style.livejournal.com]

I get people like that and they make me uncomfortable. I'm use to joking around with the people on the phone. When I get someone who is strictly business without no sense of humor, I don't really know how to respond to them.

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Be businesslike right back at 'em -- and be brisk, get 'em the heck off the phone so you can go back to the fun people. Bonus: the stiffs usually respond pretty well to it.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is that, but ..

"Active listening" techniques that usually reassure the person I'm talking to that I am indeed listening to them shouldn't trigger the bristle/talk louder response. That shit really bugs me, when I'm genuinely trying to go out of my way to sound polite and even *that* backfires.

And using whole paragraphs of fluffy anal-retentive language to say what basically boils down to "I'm convinced $employer didn't design this right and it's all your fault that $extremely_unusual_action causes a hang in $third_party_app" doesn't exactly get on my good side either. I hope I didn't manage to make my polite responses sound too much like I was thinking "I'm smiling on the outside, but I'm smiling and squeezing your throat until you turn blue on the inside". I think I succeeded. I do businesslike entirely too well for my own good ..

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's that,too. I was lucky, most of my stiffs were short-spoken, 'get this over with so I can go back to being important around people who care' types.

Most of my blowhards, alas, were so-called IT professionals at my customers' facilities who wanted to make sure I knew how very techie and superior they were to me. (Yes, while I was fixing their fsck-up.) *eyeroll* On the flip side, after I fixed their first major problem after being assigned to me, most of them would unbend enough to ask what certifications I hold. The reply was a cheerful, 'None!' What was my college major then? 'Creative writing!' (They didn't need to know I also had two years of mechanical engineering before switching and have been playing around in and with computers for longamany years.) It was so much fun listening to them trying to figure out how to gracefully accept that a girl with a flaky degree just bailed out their overpriced butts. *grin*

[kingogre.livejournal.com]

LOL I like that...

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Btw, true love for the 'exploding butt' comment. It's still making me giggle chuckle oh who am I trying to kid, I'm giggling -- lo these many hours after the original read.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Sounds like me when I've overdosed on Caffiene.

Typically, that takes Caffiene Pills, BTW, so doesn't happen often.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

....Damn you, now I want to test that theory with the passion of a thousand burning suns