I’m having my lunch break, and I decide to watch a YouTube video. To not bother anyone else, I use the headset that’s connected to my work laptop. (We may use our laptops for personal use, as well.) The laptop is also used to patch through calls, but I’ve put the setting on “lunch break”. If someone wants to call me through the system, they can see that it says “lunch break”. My “public” schedule also says “lunch break”.

Suddenly, I get a call patched through. This has never happened before, and since it’s an automatic system, I get it thrown into my lap and I can’t decline it.

Me: “Eh… hello? This is [My Name]?”

Coworker: “Ah, [My Name], I have a client who wants to change their appointment. It’s [address] and—”

Me: “Whoa, whoa, one moment. You’re going way too fast. I’m sorry, but I’m on my lunch break and I’m not logged in.”

I quickly log in to look for someone who can help my coworker.

Coworker: *A bit grumpily* “Then why did you pick up?”

Me: “I didn’t. I was watching a video and the system connected us automatically. But I was set on ‘lunch break’, so…”

Coworker: “Well, I don’t know anything about that! I was told to call someone from [department].”

You can only see our numbers if you look into our call system. You see the name, a little dot that shows availability (yellow for inactive), and the availability/status: available, do not disturb, lunch, etc.

So, she first looked up our department (which has our public schedule connected to it), found my name (with my schedule), and called me, ignoring both the blocked, clearly labeled “lunch break” status and the yellow dot indicating that I was inactive. 

Me: “Eh, well, I see that [Coworker #2] is still available. You could try her or maybe send a chat message to check if she is available.”

Coworker: “Fine, fine, goodbye.”

She sounds grumpy, but she’s new and maybe the client has been unpleasant. I decide to just let it go. And, just in case, I decide to watch the video on my phone, closing my laptop. 

When I log in after the break, I find this email.

Coworker: “I don’t know who you think you are, but you were very rude to me. I was told I need to call [department] with rescheduling and that’s what I did. I didn’t know you were watching a video. How was I supposed to know you were on your lunch break? You shouldn’t have picked up the phone if you were on break.”

I forwarded the email to my manager. They talked to [Coworker] and told her that “lunch break” in both the schedule and in the call system means someone is having their lunch break.

I heard from other coworkers that [Coworker] complained that she now has to go “on an investigation” to find out if someone is “kind enough” to do their job. Since it was only hearsay, the manager couldn’t do anything about that, but he did promise to keep an eye and an ear open. 

[Coworker] is still working with us, but she hasn’t called me ever again.

I work as a translator for an insurance company that’s connected with a bank. I also do a little freelance translation on the side through an agency, but it’s very clear in my freelancer profile that I cannot do any work for a bank or an insurance company because of a conflict of interest. Most of the people at the agency who contact me are very respectful of this.

One Friday afternoon, I get a call from an agency person I haven’t spoken with before.

Agency: “Allo. We have this rush document that has just come in. We know that you are fast and good and that you do your freelancing on weekends. Could you have this file done by Monday for us?”

Me: “I’d love to help you out. Who is the translation for?”

Agency: “Let me see… Ah, oui, it is for [Bank].”

Me: “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s stated right in my freelancer profile that I can’t take any work for any banks or insurance companies because it would be a conflict of interest with my day job.”

Agency: “Ah, bon? Okay, then, chérie, don’t do it for the bank. Do it for me!”

UGH, no, thank you.

I come from a trucker family, so I understand many of the difficulties of being on the road for the long haul. What I don’t understand is someone who spends over a hundred hours a week on the road having no idea where they are.

At work one day, our warehouse received a call from a delivery driver who was having issues finding our location. We were located in a small complex of fewer than fifteen warehouses off of I-70 in Colorado. We were located between the city of Aurora and the town of Watkins, which isn’t exactly known for having much in the way of buildings. Between GPS and basic directions that all truck drivers receive with their loads, the driver on the phone should not have had an issue finding our general location.

I was asked to jump on the phone call after two people unsuccessfully tried to direct this driver.

Me: “Hey there. Can you give me your current location?”

Driver: “Uh, yeah. I’m on I-70 West. Can’t seem to find you guys.”

Me: “Can I have the nearest mile marker?”

Driver: “No idea.”

Me: “Exit?”

Driver: “Nope. Got nothing.”

Me: “Well, what do you see around you?”

Driver: “I passed by a dinky town a few minutes ago. There’s a bunch of trailers on my left that I’m passing now.”

Me: “Oh! I know exactly where you are. Okay, you’re going to drive past those mobile homes and go under an underpass. You’ll go about four miles, I think, before you come to [Exit] for [Street #1]. At the end of the ramp, take a right and follow that to the next light. You’ll take a right at that light onto [Street #1]. Follow that past the [Company #1] sign. You’ll cross a set of railroad tracks and then turn left at [Street #2]. You’ll see [Company #2] there on your left. Go down to the next warehouse, and that’s us. You’ll want to go to the stop sign and make a left. The truck entrance is near the other end of the building. You’ll pull into the parking lot and go around the building for unloading.”

Driver: “Right. Should be there in a few minutes, then. Thanks.”

Me: “No problem.”

Twenty minutes later, the phone rang again, and I was called to the desk to deal with a very irate truck driver.

Driver: “I followed your directions, and now I’m on my way to the airport! You gave me bad directions! You wasted my time, and now I’m behind schedule!”

Me: “You got off too soon and went onto E-470, which is a toll road. You need to turn around and follow my directions.”

From there, I gave him step-by-step directions like you would your senile grandmother who should have given up driving a decade ago. He argued with me almost every step of the way, especially getting back onto the toll road to go east again and when he realized he was passing the warehouse. I explained to him that he had to pass the warehouse to get to the frontage road on which we were located. He became very angry when he saw signs for companies I hadn’t mentioned before, which I was no longer having him pass because I had him coming in from a different road instead of the highway.

All told, I spent over an hour giving this trucker directions to a group of warehouses that were basically in the middle of nowhere, with clear directions on how to exit the highway. I gave him exit numbers, street names, which turns to take, and landmarks to look for. It really wasn’t a difficult place to get to. It certainly wasn’t like trying to navigate in Denver or another large city. You had only so many options to get to us.

I got a stern talking-to because I was now behind on my own work and because the truck driver was unsatisfied with my assistance. I told my boss that he could waste an hour of his time giving directions to someone who shouldn’t be driving an 80,000-pound-plus vehicle.

I work at the front desk of a clinic and have this conversation at least once a day.

Me: “Okay, you’re all set for your appointment with [Doctor] on Thursday, September 8th at 3:30 pm.”

Client: “What day was that?”

Me: “Thursday.”

Client: “What was the date?”

Me: “September the 8th.”

Client: “With [Doctor]?”

Me: “Yes.”

Client: “What time?”

Me: “3:30.”

Client: “In the afternoon?”

Me: *Dying a little* “Yes.”

Client: “Okay. Thanks!”

I have a client who makes requests at all hours of the day and expects immediate results. She calls me one night at 10:30 pm.

Client: “The slideshow on my homepage is going too fast. Slow it down.”

Me: “Okay. I’m just finishing up some other work, but I’ll fix it right away.”

After only fifteen minutes, the client phones again.

Client: “It’s too slow now. Could you speed it up?”

The funny thing is, I never even got to make a single change to the slider. I left the slideshow as it was and it was never mentioned again.