Your Freudian Slip is Showing...

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Have you ever tried to speak while something else was on your mind, and your words came out all wrong?
I'm a late-night phone-monkey, and i just thoroughly embarassed myself.

Between calls, me and a couple other guys were talking about random things, and just as one of us related some incredible experience and one of the others said, "Jesus!", i got the beep signalling an incoming call, so i turn around and unmute, beginning my opening spiel:

"Thank you for calling Jesus--er...oh man...Thank you for calling [company name]!! How can we help you today?"

The rest of the conversation was peppered with me trying (and sometimes failing) to control my giggling.

Has anything like this happened to you folks?

Comments

[random-c.livejournal.com]

Er, similar. For assorted reasons, I didn't sleep night before last, so by 5pm yesterday, I was a little sleep. Enough that I fell asleep while IMing a coworker, and started talking about feeding ducks. I can apparently still type while I'm asleep...

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

I had this happen to me a few years ago, actually, though not at work.

I was IMing my girlfriend and managed to have a moderately coherent conversation about Marvel superheroes before i went off the deep end and started babbling about penguins or somesuch.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Technically that's not a Freudian slip; a Freudian slip would have been if the department admin had walked by and it was cold in the room and you'd said "Thank you for calling Nipples, how may we help you today?" And not realized it until much too late.

[methedras.livejournal.com]

I'd have said "Thank you for cold Nipples, how may we help you today?"

It still fits. Hehe.

[aegion.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have to be sexually related to be a Freudian slip.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Well, not on the phone that I immediately recall, but waaaay back when I got my first job, for a minute there I worked at a Burger king (uhg. Not something I normally admit. They were the first place to hire me, I worked there while I saved some money to go on a trip to Europe at the end of the school year, went, came back and had another job within a week.

There was a day when I was working in the drive-in, and you know, the order gets taken, you give 'em the total and you say "Please pull around."

Problem that day was that I kept saying "Please fool around."

No one actually caught it (or if they did, they didn't say anything.) But the managers couldn't figure out why I and the coworker running the window that day kept getting little giggle fits.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

I've acidentally answered the phone on a helpdesk with the name of another company once or twice - usually because I've just switched jobs and the brain's on auto pilot. Whoops not good when it is a competitor! :|

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I went from working for one company whose name begins with 'I' to another company whose name begins with 'I'. For the longest time I struggled with that one when answering the phone. Then I switched to saying "(Software Name) support" instead of "(Company name) software support", and that fixed it.

[tiepilot.livejournal.com]

Was consulting for a company working late late one night. I had just finished talking to my girlfriend when a call came in from a client. Finished up solving the problem over the phone while packing up my stuff and ended the call with "OK, love ya, bye." Pause... Ummm yeah...

[wibbble]

That was a standard game at my last call centre job. Finish the call with 'love you' and see if they reply.

[starzz.livejournal.com]

lol

[pogle.livejournal.com]

I have a recurring fear of doing just that at work. I'm always concentrating on not saying it when on the phone now.

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Haha! I could see myself doing something like this at some point.

In fact, i think i may have done that on a previous job...

[linguafranca.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha!

I don't think I've ever done that, but I went through a small string of jobs that involved answering the phone, and by the time I got to the third one, I'd say, "Thank you for calling.... uh..."

[kallell.livejournal.com]

Doctore, I just had a fruedian slip. I was having dinner with my mother-in-law and meant to say, "Would you please pass the butter?".

But instead i said "You stupid Cow, You ruined my Life!"

[insaint.livejournal.com]

Not in a tech support job, but I once spent an entire shift primarily by myself at the drive-thru of a local coffee shop. Then the phone rang and I answered it with "Welcome to Tim Hortons. What can I get for you...err...Hi."

[teiru.livejournal.com]

I've done that very exact thing before. XD Though I was answering my personal phone. @.@

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

I almost tried to end a call with my mom the other night by saying, "Anything else i can do for you this evening?"

I managed to catch myself BEFORE i did that, thankfully.

[pellucidae.livejournal.com]

I am on a mission to eliminate the phrase "No problem" from my vocabulary, because more than once I've apparently been unable to decide whether I'm going to say "No problem" or "You're welcome" and come out with "Your problem!"

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! I've already manages to get "no problem" out of my regular usage. Somehow, somewhere along the way that managed to change itself to "no worries." I occasionally get asked if i'm from the UK or Australia for that.

[medusa-nw.livejournal.com]

In a call centre job many, many years ago we used to play all kinds of tricks. Our favourite was to have a perfectly normal conversation with a customer and randomly throw in the word 'armadillo'. Good times. :-)

[wibbble]

When I worked at Nokia we had a major issue where one network provider's handsets were all fucked, and since it was apparently Nokia's fault for selling them shit software we had to take the calls.

Part of the instructions for fixing this involved getting them to type '3b' into their handset.

These were the stupidest people I've ever had to talk to, and many of them failed at this so fucking badly.

It was a really busy and stressful few weeks, so we played games (like doing a Mexican wave when we got one of these calls).

My favourite was to make them say 'badger'. I'd say "enter the number three and the letter 'b' for 'badger'", they'd say 'b for bravo?', I'd reply with 'yes, b for badger', and most of the time they'd reply with 'b for badger'.

This was around the same time that the guy I worked next to took the last 30 minutes of the late shift with his headphones on under his headset listening to 'badger badger badger' on repeat at full volume.

The total lack of professionalism is the only thing I miss from working there.

[hemlock-martini.livejournal.com]

I've done that, sure. Although in this case, I probably would have just run with it.

"Thank you for calling Jesus. Uhh...peace be with you, my child. How can We help you today?"

[reyvin.livejournal.com]

LoL. I've done that. Can't think of an exact example but I often screw up what I'm saying if I hear someone else talking at the same time and/or someone just spoke. I'll repeat what they said completely out of context like that.

I worked at my previous job for 8 years and answered the phone the same way every day for those 8 years. "Helpdesk, this is Kathleen." Now I'm third level PDA support, NOT helpdesk and I still have to stop myself from saying that when I pick up the phone and it's been a year. Hehehe.

I think my worst verbal screwup of all time was with my second husband while we were still dating. I was tipsy so that was part of it but I was trying to be all coy and sexy while we were kissing and I pulled back and looked at him in all seriousness and asked, "So...you gonna throw me on the bed and make fun of me?" ... Talk about breaking the mood. We were both just silent for a second and then burst out laughing. Took awhile to be able to get back to business. XD

[theemerged.livejournal.com]

Usually for me it's typing -- that is, I'm typing what I'm saying instead of what I'm trying to put into the ticket. There is one "tired brain" incident I don't think I'll ever live down though. After working second shift, I met my mother early the next morning before I went to work. When I went to say grace I instead closed my eyes and began, "Thank you for calling $company..."

[brothersterno.livejournal.com]

Tony: Hey eric, I have Ulf On the phone.. (presses conference button) OH SHIT I LOST ULF!
Ulf: No you didn't.
Me: HI ULF!

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

HAAHAHAAA! That's hilarious.

[jecook]

I'm trying to remember the last time I screwed up on the phone... It's been a while.

edit: Well, there was that one time where I think someone was challenged to take an entire call talking like Forrest Gump. I think he lost.