Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Lady Snowdon]

While I'm not a supervisor, I do handle escalated calls at my call center. Today I had one because a customer who lives in Utah was angry that the letter we sent yesterday (February 6, 2013) from Florida wasn't at her house today (February 7, 2013).

It took me five minutes to finally get through to her why she wouldn't have gotten the letter yet. I did offer to fax or email it to her, but she didn't want anything to do with that. She just kept insisting that the post office should have gotten it to her by now. 

I had one of these the other day too!  A guy called in and wanted to know why he hadn't received the letter confirming that his claim was approved; he thought whoever he'd talked to on the phone had been messing with him and that his claim really wasn't approved after all.    That part kind of made my brain hurt too - I don't know why he would think that's likely to happen.  Anyway, I looked it up in our system, and saw that we had approved his claim and set up the letter to go out on Wednesday.  Our letters only go out once a day, so it probably went out Thursday.  This was Friday, and the guy is on the opposite side of the US.  I tried to explain that he needed to allow for mail time for the letter to reach him.  I don't think he ever understood or believed me, but eventually he just hung up the phone. 


Then there are the people who have extreme views on what information we should have once their claim is filed.  On the one hand are the people who believe that filing an insurance claim gives us access to their entire lives, and are stunned to find out it doesn't work that way (no, I can't see that you just got a promotion/went to your doctor yesterday/filed a police report).  I had one guy yell at me for 10 minutes because I told him that I couldn't see in my system that he'd visited his doctor's office earlier that day.  I shouldn't need to ask those questions, because I should already know!    On the other hand are the people who don't want us to have any information, and spend half the time they're on the phone with us yelling about how we don't need this information and we're just going to use it for nefarious purposes.  One guy refused to give us permission to contact his doctors for information at all, and was infuriated when we denied his claim due to lack of supporting information.  Apparently we were just supposed to take his word for it as to what happened, because he's a trustworthy person. 

[Reika]

Then there are the people who have extreme views on what information we should have once their claim is filed.  On the one hand are the people who believe that filing an insurance claim gives us access to their entire lives, and are stunned to find out it doesn't work that way (no, I can't see that you just got a promotion/went to your doctor yesterday/filed a police report).  I had one guy yell at me for 10 minutes because I told him that I couldn't see in my system that he'd visited his doctor's office earlier that day.  I shouldn't need to ask those questions, because I should already know!    On the other hand are the people who don't want us to have any information, and spend half the time they're on the phone with us yelling about how we don't need this information and we're just going to use it for nefarious purposes.  One guy refused to give us permission to contact his doctors for information at all, and was infuriated when we denied his claim due to lack of supporting information.  Apparently we were just supposed to take his word for it as to what happened, because he's a trustworthy person. 

I get the same exact calls, but then again, I think I work for a similar type of insurance.

[suzieQ]

My mom has caused me plenty of brain-hurting moments with computers, too, so I feel your pain, Miss Tickle. She really, really tries and has actually learned to do some stuff on the computer on her own, that I don't know how to do, because she really wanted to do it. But then she'll call with a problem and can't really explain it to me with words I understand, and can't answer the questions I ask, and can't do simple things like copy and paste or type an address into a browser, and we both just end up really frustrated.  I'm not at all a computer person, I just use them a lot more than she does, so I really don't want to be "responsible" for her computer use and maintenance, but I also don't want to be totally unhelpful.

I apologize if someone else has pointed this out, but if I don't post it while I'm reading this post, I'll forget. You can download a program called "Crossloop" onto your computer and your Mom's computer (next time you are at her house). With this program, it's really easy to link to her computer over the internet and you control her computer. Makes fixing things much easier without having to leave your house!

[Luci45]

My mom has caused me plenty of brain-hurting moments with computers, too, so I feel your pain, Miss Tickle. She really, really tries and has actually learned to do some stuff on the computer on her own, that I don't know how to do, because she really wanted to do it. But then she'll call with a problem and can't really explain it to me with words I understand, and can't answer the questions I ask, and can't do simple things like copy and paste or type an address into a browser, and we both just end up really frustrated.  I'm not at all a computer person, I just use them a lot more than she does, so I really don't want to be "responsible" for her computer use and maintenance, but I also don't want to be totally unhelpful.

I apologize if someone else has pointed this out, but if I don't post it while I'm reading this post, I'll forget. You can download a program called "Crossloop" onto your computer and your Mom's computer (next time you are at her house). With this program, it's really easy to link to her computer over the internet and you control her computer. Makes fixing things much easier without having to leave your house!

You both have to have the program, right?

I wouldn't mind if daughter and son have access - they won't abuse it! and neither would I - but would worry that anyone with Crossloop could get on my computer.

[Diane AKA Traska]

My mom has caused me plenty of brain-hurting moments with computers, too, so I feel your pain, Miss Tickle. She really, really tries and has actually learned to do some stuff on the computer on her own, that I don't know how to do, because she really wanted to do it. But then she'll call with a problem and can't really explain it to me with words I understand, and can't answer the questions I ask, and can't do simple things like copy and paste or type an address into a browser, and we both just end up really frustrated.  I'm not at all a computer person, I just use them a lot more than she does, so I really don't want to be "responsible" for her computer use and maintenance, but I also don't want to be totally unhelpful.

I apologize if someone else has pointed this out, but if I don't post it while I'm reading this post, I'll forget. You can download a program called "Crossloop" onto your computer and your Mom's computer (next time you are at her house). With this program, it's really easy to link to her computer over the internet and you control her computer. Makes fixing things much easier without having to leave your house!

You both have to have the program, right?

I wouldn't mind if daughter and son have access - they won't abuse it! and neither would I - but would worry that anyone with Crossloop could get on my computer.

I'm pretty sure that there's a password system involved. 

[lilfox]

I foresee a brain-hurty conversation on Monday.

My company, like all companies, has the occasional budget issue.  Currently, money is being harvested from the research groups to go to other areas of the company, so although our budgets were approved at the start of the year, any money allotted for each month that is not used during that month is considered "extra" and taken away.

Which would be fine - use it or lose it - but the thing is, research requires a certain amount of data collection.  Two projects have had unforeseen and out-of-our-control delays that required the data collection to be moved to later in the year.  But the budget system was locked right after the initial approval, so we can't also shift the allocated money to later in the year.  So all the money we budgeted up front is not being used and thus about to be taken away.  This is bad, since it means when we finally are able to run our data collection, we won't have the money, and therefore, won't be able to do the data collection.

So, in an effort to forestall the budget removal, our project manager just sent an email saying essentially "Spend to your plan!"  But we can't because nothing is as budget-intense as data collection, which we simply can't do now.  And because the system won't let us move the money out to when we'll need it, it now looks like we have buckets of unused money.

Think management would approve a last-minute team-building data collection exercise in Hawaii?

[Kimblee]

Oh man! You just gave me trauma flashbacks. TAAS and TAKS were the nasty words in our house.

Weirdly, I always (except one year) did great on them. But the leading up to them was always brutal. And one year they lost my essay portion to the english test and I failed my grade because of it. (How they lost it is a great mystery. If I remember correctly the thing was attatched to the booklet! But seven kids' essays disappeared.)

Yikes I bet heads rolled over that.


A few years ago a troubled student burned down a historic HS near me. The TAKS tests had been counted and locked up the principals' office to be shipped back to TEA. They burned. The kids had to retake that round of tests - there were death threats against the boy and his family.

Not sure. I had to retake the test in summer school, and I hated everyone involved with all the hate my heart could hate.

Second time around, I got a perfect score though. But I did NOT get to go to sea world like the kids who got passing scores on the first round. I'm still mad about both that and the Accelerated Reader program. I was the top reader for the entire year... until the last week when a girl who previously had 38 points suddenly jumped up to over 700,000 points. Her mom was one of the parent volunteers for the program. Think it might be related? So she got a scholarship and I got the honor of smiling graciously holding my second place plaque in a picture for the local paper.

Even now, 13 years later I'm feeling my blood pressure rise as I remember it. You'd think I would have let it go by now, but nope. Still mad.

[Kimblee]

I had insomnia last night and ended up coming down to the couch to sleep, finally falling asleep at about 4:30am. At 7am the kids started getting up for school and DH got up as well, everyone moving around the house woke me and I got up to help the kids with a few things. At 7:30 DH told me to go up to bed and he'd come wake me in a few hours. I had just drifted off at about 7:45 when I heard someone crossing our very creaky bedroom floor. I looked up to find DH there who said "Did I wake you? I was just checking to make sure you were asleep." I said "Well, I was..." and thought "When I'm coherent again this is going in the brain hurt thread!"

I know he was just being concerned, and I love him for taking care of me, but yeah. 

A co-worker was telling me how when her son was an infant, she would poke at him and wake him up while he was sleeping, to make sure he was still alive--she was a very nervous first-time parent. I will admit to having stared at certain people to make sure they were still breathing in their sleep, but actually waking someone up seems a little counterintuitive to me.

Hand mirror. Seriously.

When we first got my baby cousins living with us, Girl!Cousin was kinda sickly and my mom would wake her up to make sure she was still alive.

So I got my makeup mirror, held it beside her nose and mouth and showed mom the steam. Until that poor kid was four, a compact sat on the table beside her bed. Then when I tried to put it back in my purse she cried because it was "hers" so I give it to her.

Kimblee, may I say if I'm ever sick, I'd want you (or someone like you) to look after me? You combine compassion, cleverness and common sense so well.

Sounds good. Just move to north Texas and gimme a call when you need me.

I like taking care of sick people. It give me something peaceful to do and I'm really pretty good at it. I've done everything from sick baby care (the mirror trick works great with toddlers and kids that have flu too.) to sick elderly care. (Which is when I found out I can indeed change an adult diaper. But that I prefer getting them to the bathroom instead.)

Oh, and want a real brain hurter? The home care nurse who I was "helping" (That means doing the job of because she was leaving my kinda-grand dad on his back long enough to get sores) told me to let him go in the diaper because its easier than getting him to the bathroom. I managed to resist punching her, but it was hard. My white trash roots run deeper than I thought.

I need to find a profession I would be useful for. Nursing is out because its not a one-on-one kind of care. And I'd probably lose my mind in the paperwork. A friend is an RN and she says she does more paperwork than sick people care. I wonder how much education it takes to be a home care aide.

[Acadianna]

I wonder how much education it takes to be a home care aide.

Is there a community college near you?  (We have Austin Community College, near where I live.)  Community colleges often have programs like that, and they could probably advise you about how to get started.

I hope you go after this, because from your posts it sounds like you'd be just awesome at it!

[Dr. F.]

Not an exchange, but something I saw that made my brain hurt.

I was at Target recently and saw a toddler-sized onesie with "Single and LOVING it!" written on it.

WHY?

[Softly Spoken]

*snip*

Kimblee, may I say if I'm ever sick, I'd want you (or someone like you) to look after me? You combine compassion, cleverness and common sense so well.

Sounds good. Just move to north Texas and gimme a call when you need me.

I like taking care of sick people. It give me something peaceful to do and I'm really pretty good at it. I've done everything from sick baby care (the mirror trick works great with toddlers and kids that have flu too.) to sick elderly care. (Which is when I found out I can indeed change an adult diaper. But that I prefer getting them to the bathroom instead.)

Oh, and want a real brain hurter? The home care nurse who I was "helping" (That means doing the job of because she was leaving my kinda-grand dad on his back long enough to get sores) told me to let him go in the diaper because its easier than getting him to the bathroom. I managed to resist punching her, but it was hard. My white trash roots run deeper than I thought.

I need to find a profession I would be useful for. Nursing is out because its not a one-on-one kind of care. And I'd probably lose my mind in the paperwork. A friend is an RN and she says she does more paperwork than sick people care. I wonder how much education it takes to be a home care aide.

Have you considered HOSPICE? 

[suzieQ]

My mom has caused me plenty of brain-hurting moments with computers, too, so I feel your pain, Miss Tickle. She really, really tries and has actually learned to do some stuff on the computer on her own, that I don't know how to do, because she really wanted to do it. But then she'll call with a problem and can't really explain it to me with words I understand, and can't answer the questions I ask, and can't do simple things like copy and paste or type an address into a browser, and we both just end up really frustrated.  I'm not at all a computer person, I just use them a lot more than she does, so I really don't want to be "responsible" for her computer use and maintenance, but I also don't want to be totally unhelpful.

I apologize if someone else has pointed this out, but if I don't post it while I'm reading this post, I'll forget. You can download a program called "Crossloop" onto your computer and your Mom's computer (next time you are at her house). With this program, it's really easy to link to her computer over the internet and you control her computer. Makes fixing things much easier without having to leave your house!

You both have to have the program, right?

I wouldn't mind if daughter and son have access - they won't abuse it! and neither would I - but would worry that anyone with Crossloop could get on my computer.

I'm pretty sure that there's a password system involved. 

Yes, the person who wants help has to call or text or whatever a passcode that is generated each time they request help. You put the passcode in on your side, they click to connect, you click to connect and all is good. And it's a different code each time.

[Iris]

Not an exchange, but something I saw that made my brain hurt.

I was at Target recently and saw a toddler-sized onesie with "Single and LOVING it!" written on it.

WHY?

See, that actually amuses me and I usually hate that kind of thing on babies/toddlers (or adults for that matter). Possibly because my brain interprets it as a mockery of the whole idea of writing your relationship status across your chest, but maybe that's just me.

[Amava]

Not an exchange, but something I saw that made my brain hurt.

I was at Target recently and saw a toddler-sized onesie with "Single and LOVING it!" written on it.

WHY?

See, that actually amuses me and I usually hate that kind of thing on babies/toddlers (or adults for that matter). Possibly because my brain interprets it as a mockery of the whole idea of writing your relationship status across your chest, but maybe that's just me.

Or maybe the interpretation of the word "single" is "only child", and the onesie is for the child of parents who are sick and tired of their relatives asking them "So when are you going to have another one?" 

[Iris]

Not an exchange, but something I saw that made my brain hurt.

I was at Target recently and saw a toddler-sized onesie with "Single and LOVING it!" written on it.

WHY?

See, that actually amuses me and I usually hate that kind of thing on babies/toddlers (or adults for that matter). Possibly because my brain interprets it as a mockery of the whole idea of writing your relationship status across your chest, but maybe that's just me.

Or maybe the interpretation of the word "single" is "only child", and the onesie is for the child of parents who are sick and tired of their relatives asking them "So when are you going to have another one?" 

A far more likely interpretation.