clevermanka (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clevermanka) wrote2014-06-16 09:47 am
clevermanka) wrote2014-06-16 09:47 am
Entry tags:
Customer service
Every summer I say I'm going to quit doing stuff for the Center for the Study of Science Fiction's summer stuff and every year I find a way to shed a little bit of my responsibilities to it. This year I'm done. Absolutely done. I have no more spoons to give these people. I'm going to hand off the housing responsibilities to someone else--anyone else. I'll be the first contact person for financials because a non-KU employee can't access the payment and registration systems, but any actual issues will be routed through someone else.
Last week![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
msmitti posted about how she's not cut out for a customer service job. It made me think about why I like what I do (the part of what I do that is actually most of my job description and not the extra tasks I've accepted). I don't mind helping people, and in fact I like making people's lives easier and more enjoyable, but it absolutely must be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Otherwise I get frustrated and fed up.
I am a solid and recognizable presence for the graduate students. When I help them, they are immediately, incredibly grateful. They also know (or quickly learn) that there are consequences to ignoring my instructions.
The CSSF summer participants don't know me. To them I'm a vague concept who magically solves problems behind a curtain. I only hear their complaints and deal with the problems they cause. If they fail to do something per my instructions nothing bad happens to them. I have to deal with the fallout, mitigate the damage, or arrange to pay (often literally) for their mistakes. Of course they continue to do the same things, year after year because they see no repercussions. There is also no institutional memory from year to year like with the graduate students who hear from other graduate students Listen to Clever Manka. She can save your life or ruin it. Don't fuck with her.
I cannot and I will not continue to provide customer services to the CSSF summer activity participants. It's not healthy for anyone--especially me ormckitterick. It's bad enough that they take all of his time and energy so that we barely see each other for a month. I refuse to continue to let them take my time and energy to the point where when I do see him, I am either too exhausted to enjoy his company or I'm being rageful and and angry in my interactions with him.
I'm done. This week I'll be in contact with someone to take over this last responsibility and if she can't/won't do it, I'm still quitting.
Summer 2015 will be better. I'm not doing this again.
Last week
msmitti posted about how she's not cut out for a customer service job. It made me think about why I like what I do (the part of what I do that is actually most of my job description and not the extra tasks I've accepted). I don't mind helping people, and in fact I like making people's lives easier and more enjoyable, but it absolutely must be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Otherwise I get frustrated and fed up. I am a solid and recognizable presence for the graduate students. When I help them, they are immediately, incredibly grateful. They also know (or quickly learn) that there are consequences to ignoring my instructions.
The CSSF summer participants don't know me. To them I'm a vague concept who magically solves problems behind a curtain. I only hear their complaints and deal with the problems they cause. If they fail to do something per my instructions nothing bad happens to them. I have to deal with the fallout, mitigate the damage, or arrange to pay (often literally) for their mistakes. Of course they continue to do the same things, year after year because they see no repercussions. There is also no institutional memory from year to year like with the graduate students who hear from other graduate students Listen to Clever Manka. She can save your life or ruin it. Don't fuck with her.
I cannot and I will not continue to provide customer services to the CSSF summer activity participants. It's not healthy for anyone--especially me or
mckitterick. It's bad enough that they take all of his time and energy so that we barely see each other for a month. I refuse to continue to let them take my time and energy to the point where when I do see him, I am either too exhausted to enjoy his company or I'm being rageful and and angry in my interactions with him.I'm done. This week I'll be in contact with someone to take over this last responsibility and if she can't/won't do it, I'm still quitting.
Summer 2015 will be better. I'm not doing this again.