You might think I'm being fruedian with the "Elders of Zion" riddle I just
recently posted, and maybe I am, but it's purely unintentional. Then I guess
to be -truly- fruedian, it would -have- to be unintentional, wouldn't it?
Anyway, I'm having a bit of a problem where I work. My job involves handling
member service issues in a call center for a Medicare replacement plan.
Naturally, this means I talk to a lot of people who are in their 70s or 80s,
sometimes even 90s - don't recall talking to anyone over 100 yet, but I won't
be surprised when it happens. In any event, as you can probably imagine a
person has been put through just about everything a person can be put through
by the time they get to be that age. Many of them have lost significant
numbers of family and loved ones, including children and spouses.
I don't know if it's just the tone of my voice or what, but I seem to get an
unusual number of these folks who begin to unload on me and sometimes end up
in very horrific emotional states. I guess everyone gets them once in
awhile, but I seem to get a couple every day. I am a good listener and I
don't try to hurry the call just to make my numbers look good, and I know
many of my co-workers do. I am much more personable than a lot of service
reps - it may eventually end up with me being weeded out of the call center
for not being "fast" enough, I don't know, but I really just don't know how
to be any other way. I am frequently told by callers that I am the first one
there they've talked to that is patient and helpful and not trying to rush or
confuse them, or at least one of the few. There are a lot of very young reps
just out of school, and I understand it when I hear them being somewhat
"hurried" about their call volume, so I'm sure some of our callers really do
have some pretty irritating experiences. I know there are plenty of reps
there who are like me as far as being patient and not rushing the call, it's
just that some members don't appear to have much luck when it comes to
whether or not they'll end up with that kind of rep. But even my patient and
laid-back co-workers don't seem to get as many tear-jerkers as I do, and it
has me concerned. I've tried paying attention to what I do just to see if I
can pick anything specific out, and I just can't.
On top of that, I don't know - I mean, I guess a person needs to let it out
sometimes, and that's a healthy thing when it happens, but I don't want to be
"invoking" their emotional responses and am afraid that maybe it's something
I'm doing that's causing it to happen when they would otherwise have been
relatively okay.
So if you were someone still reeling from the loss of a loved one or perhaps
from other changes in your life, what kind of service rep experience might
cause you to open up and bleed to a complete stranger like that? And should
I just be glad that people feel they can open up to me like that, or should I
try to become more impersonal?

I have asked my trainers and some of those monitoring the calls similar
questions, and they really don't have any ideas that are helpful to me. No
ideas at all, really, they just tell me it must be just "one of them things",
and shrug it off. That may be so, but if there's something I can do to
alleviate the situation, I'd like to. Ideas? :-?

I don't know if it's just the tone of my voice or what, but I seem to
get an unusual number of these folks who begin to unload on me and
sometimes end up in very horrific emotional states. ... I am
a good listener.