Hello, How May I Punch You in the Face?

To work directly with people, one should be a very very friendly person.

What held up the start of my job was Human Resources. It wasn't that there was just all kinds of paper work we had to do to make them happy, but it seemed they tried to be as unhelpful as possible. And it's not just one person (although she the most unfriendly one is the one you have to deal with first because she's the one who answers the main phone line), but there's more of them! The last couple weeks, I've been trying to get an answer to a simple yes or no question. I left two messages with two different phone numbers attached and our wonderful secretary has also left two messages and no one ever thinks they should maybe call us back. In fact, the voice mail of the woman states that if it's an emergency, call... leading me to think she never answers her phone or returns messgaes.

I understand HR people or Customer Service people must get all kinds of stupid questions. But that's their job! Recall the Unfriendly Woman at Direct Loans. If your job is to assist people, regardless of the type of inquiry (i.e. stupid or not stupid), you can't let the stupid questions make you mean to other people who actually need your help. In fact, when I worked as a manager at Putterz (fka Putt-Putt), I was EXTRA nice to the stupid, rude people. Not because I felt they deserved it but because 1) it was easier on me and 2) I like to think it made them feel bad for being so stupid.

So, the moral of the story is: If you are a stupid, crotchety person, don't pick HR or CS as your job. (PS I'd like to give a shout out to all those HR or CS people who are actually helpful and friendly!)