Unnecessary Rudeness

Today I had to call a doctor's office, which is a pretty mundane activity, however, the thought of it made me cringe. Why is that? Because the receptionists at the office are horribly rude! Call me crazy but when they take jobs as receptionists, they should expect to be answering calls and dealing with people all day; so it's not as if I was making these people go out of their way by calling the office. However, this is the case every single time that I call this office, so it's not even a fluke that I can easily brush off without a second thought.

Years ago, my family and I changed doctors because we were tired of their horribly low standards for employee etiquette but I needed some information from them and every time that I dial their number, I have to mentally prepare myself for what I'm going to have to deal with. I absolutely hate it because it's not as if I should be preparing for battle just to call a doctor's office but that's how it feels.

Now, I'm a secretary at a flower shop and before that, I worked in customer service at a local grocery store. So I know what it's like to answer phones all day. It's not difficult but you do get the occasional rude person on the phone or the customer who was dissatisfied with their service. Hey, it happens. However, no matter how rude that person is, I never give them the same treatment back.

Call me old fashioned but I believe in common courtesy and I think that there are so many people in the world who have forgotten what customer service really is. It's almost as if it dishonors them when I have to take them off of their high horse, bring them back down to reality and force them to remember that they are not as special as they think they are. I mean, they're not the Queen of England of anything; they're regular people just like me. If they weren't, they'd be the ones having their employees answering the phones, right?

I don't think that it's that much to ask for someone to be pleasant or agreeable when you need help and you have to speak to them over the phone. If they hate their jobs so much, they should quit or get an attitude adjustment. If I had been rude to them, I might think that it would warrant the behavior to an extent but to be rude for the sake of being rude is just unnecessary and changing small behaviors like this one at a time will help make the world a better place. Until then, I really hope that I don't ever have to call that office again.