(no subject)
Apr. 18th, 2008 04:35 pmWhat I did not need this morning was an obnoxious arsehole within the first ten minutes. Alas, that was exactly what I got. The notes from a previous wave showed that this bloke had been difficult before. While my interview with him was never plain sailing, it had looked like we were at least going to get finished - until he went off on one halfway through. What sympathy one might have for him for having a lung related disability that stops him working altogether, he lost completely by stopping the survey to launch into a tirade about how he was unhappy with this line of questioning and how, because of his condition, we should be able to "fill in" the questions without asking. I did my best to explain the way we had to go about things (and if he'd just got on with it, his survey would have been finished long before his tirade did) but I ended up getting cut off after about ten seconds of any sentence I managed to begin, just for him to launch into more of the same old vitriol. Finally he hung up.
As I went up to report the abandonment to Lesley, the duty supervisor, Rene was waiting in line. She too had had an abusive respondent. We moaned to each other while we stood waiting and I told Rene I felt like packing it all in. "You can't pack it in," she said, "if you do, everyone will."
A more amusing one came mid-morning when I interviewed a guy who, asked if he'd like to work longer hours, said no "as that'd mean paying more taxes to Gordon Brown and I can't stand the man". A few minutes later he made another reference to "dear old Gordon" - as the context was financial, I replied, in a friendly way, "It's dear old Alistair now, of course." The guy said "I say Gordon, as Alistair's just a puppet. A puppet with black eyebrows." I wonder if this man is a fan of ITV's hilarious Headcases?
Later, during a health and safety break, Karen passed me in the coffee lounge on her way back from the Ladies and stopped for a quick chat. I told her a little about the arsehole guy. She was pretty understanding and said "Oh, you don't need that, it throws you off for the whole morning." I also told her about Hawks blowing their play-off chances - she just made sympathetic noises. As she disappeared back into the unit she advised me to just look forward to my holiday in July...
Thank fuck it's Friday.
As I went up to report the abandonment to Lesley, the duty supervisor, Rene was waiting in line. She too had had an abusive respondent. We moaned to each other while we stood waiting and I told Rene I felt like packing it all in. "You can't pack it in," she said, "if you do, everyone will."
A more amusing one came mid-morning when I interviewed a guy who, asked if he'd like to work longer hours, said no "as that'd mean paying more taxes to Gordon Brown and I can't stand the man". A few minutes later he made another reference to "dear old Gordon" - as the context was financial, I replied, in a friendly way, "It's dear old Alistair now, of course." The guy said "I say Gordon, as Alistair's just a puppet. A puppet with black eyebrows." I wonder if this man is a fan of ITV's hilarious Headcases?
Later, during a health and safety break, Karen passed me in the coffee lounge on her way back from the Ladies and stopped for a quick chat. I told her a little about the arsehole guy. She was pretty understanding and said "Oh, you don't need that, it throws you off for the whole morning." I also told her about Hawks blowing their play-off chances - she just made sympathetic noises. As she disappeared back into the unit she advised me to just look forward to my holiday in July...
Thank fuck it's Friday.