Press "1" If You Hate Your Job

I work for a rather large, very annoying multi-national corporation. That's all you need to know. And I really don't like my job. Let me be clear, I like my customers. Some get under my skin and misdirect their rather entertaining anger at me, but I need them, they provide my paycheck. The company itself is my problem.

Today's hardship? Phone calls. People that come to see me to solve their problems don't realize that I can do very little. My super-duper, solve-all-problems tool? My telephone. I have a LONG list, a Rolodex and a colorful collection of Post-It's ALL over my desk because these are my lifelines to solve my customer's problems. Which is fine, I really don't have a problem sitting on hold while I'm at work. What else do I have to do? Work? Psshh. My problem begins when I look at my handy dandy list of short cuts to get a hold of a specific department. After dialing 0, then 4 twice, then running around the building and then hopping on one foot, they just turn around and transfer me again. And then these department reps talk to me like I'm the crazy one for calling the wrong department. Umm, yeah. I have a list. It tells me where to go. It told me so, but apparently this widely distributed, highly in-demand list is wrong. I think my personal record for being transferring the most times is 10 or 11. Just to resolve one customer's issue.
And here's the scary part- I have shortcuts and resources because, DUH, I work here. Again, I have my LONG list, a Rolodex and a colorful collection of Post-It's ALL over my desk. How do customers handle it?? I guess they don't, this is probably why they come in to see me and have me jump through those hoops. I don't blame them, really. I'd do the same thing. It's not like they haven't tried. I had a customer who had taken notes on her hand from a conversation trying to resolve her own problem and ended up with an arm full of writing. I asked who she'd talked to in a certain department and what they'd said and she had to look at the outside of her elbow to answer it. Insane. But coincidentally, that was the high point of my week.

But yeah. That's a big part of my job. I've learned to live with it, but still... I will not miss it when I'm finished with school and leave this not-so-fine establishment.