I am relaxing after a long day at work. I work in a call center. This is not the best job for someone with anxiety. Or maybe it is a good training ground to work it out. In any case, I was approached by a coworker who asked me how my numbers are so good. I told her I did not know but I do know that when I worry about them they don't work out. If you have never worked at a call center you would be surprised at all the numbers we have to keep up with. They measure everything but breaths per minute. I keep waiting for the day when we get breath masks to use between calls. lol

Seriously, I encounter some very angry folks who spew a lot of venom and bile about the company I work for. It is a cable company and I am in tech support. If their cable box is not working I am tasked with fixing it or sending someone out to do that. Sometimes I get some really sweet folks on the line. I think that when I am having an "off" day it is when I focus on the stinkers. When that happens I get off kilter with my attitude and it goes downhill from there.

When I can catch myself on those times when I am sinking and stop the slide downhill for my own attitude it gets better. I am getting better about being able to do that. It used to be that one call (one bad call) could ruin my whole day. I still get stinkers on the phone but that doesn't mean that I have to be a stinker too. I don't have to let them ruin my day. Also, if I can keep my cool it helps me to focus on their issue and sometimes I can get it fixed. My job is easy but the hard part for me is to do the little extra things for the account. If I can't focus on what I am looking at for codes etc then I can't do my job.

I guess what I am really rambling on about is this: I will run across people that are angry that their services are not working. They have a right to the way they feel. If they are paying for something then it should work. They don't have a right to abuse others emotionally or mentally but they do it anyway. How I respond to them and how I do my job to the best that I can is my responsibility. I don't have to let that person who is angry make me feel bad about myself. No one can make me feel anything. I do know that certain types of voices, personalities do grate on me pretty badly. That is my problem not theirs. Maybe this job is not one that I would recommend for a person that has anxiety but I do see that if I stick with it (and I will) that I can not only get better at my job but I can get better with my anxiety.