Real-Life Decision Making
You are working as a telephone operator at a large college campus. There
is a team of six of you. You all work hard at trying to maintain the lines,
keeping all of the phone lines moving in a constant flow.
Operator Patty Jobs works at a college campus. "We answer from 3,000 to
6,000 calls on a good day. Usually, everything goes smoothly, but since you
have such a large number of telephone calls, it isn't unlikely that once
in a while you get an angry and hostile person on the other end of the receiver.
Part of your training as a telephone operator is good communication skills,
and the ability to handle clients such as these."
Jobs is in charge of five students manning the phones. She
says that her students "handle as much as they can, but are not required to
deal with abuse. There have been times when callers have used very foul language
towards them for no apparent reason. They definitely do not have to take this."
You have a person on the other end who is insisting you listen to their
complaint. This particular person is very unhappy about how he was treated
by one of the other operators. He doesn't know the operator's name.
He also can't remember when it happened. He is quite irate, although
not necessarily rude.
You listen to his story and offer your apologies, but that doesn't
seem to be satisfying him. He is even more frustrated with the number of times
he had been transferred. Often, he was transferred before he could fully explain
his story, only to get a machine.
You are the first real person that he has been able to reach. He talks
and talks and talks, and you listen patiently.
You have now listened to the caller's story for at least 10 minutes.
You have four other lines ringing. Your co-workers are looking at you. You
know you have to do something.
What do you do?