Page 1 of Their Greatest Strength

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BLAKELY

My ass isnumb from sitting in my chair all day. The tightness between my shoulders is impossible to roll out as I lean over my desk and stare at the time on the corner of the computer monitor.

4:53.Only seven more minutes until I can get the hell out of this prison and back home. I take the next customer off hold and speak into my headpiece.

“Thank you for calling Wavelink. My name is Blakely. What can I do for you today?” I ask, reading off the script that’s become imprinted in my mind.

There’s a very loud, very male huff. “Finally! I’ve been on hold for twenty minutes. Do you people just sit around doing nothing all day?”

I smile tightly despite nobody being here to see it. I’m in a tiny cubicle surrounded by fifteen other tech support workers, and not a single one of us gives a shit about the other. We’re all here for a paycheque and nothing more.

“I’m sorry, sir. What can I help you with today?”

“Do you not talk to one another over there? I’ve already explained this issue to three other people before you!”

“I’m sorry. Can you just repeat the issue one last time?”

Or, depending on your attitude, I can wait until you’ve explained it and send you to yet another worker to do it again.

“My bill is completely wrong! I’ve been charged three times more than I have been the last several months. I’m not paying this!”

“I understand. Can you give me your account number, please?”

He rattles it off, and I quickly type it in before opening his last five phone bills. Despite only being on a call, I swear I can feel the dude breathing down my neck as I scroll through them.

“Have you been keeping track of your bills, sir?” I ask.

“Of course I have. What type of person do you think I am? Do you think I’m dumb?” he attacks.

I inhale, letting his anger roll off my back. “No. I’m just asking because your last bill was only twenty dollars higher than the previous four, and I’m seeing that you’ve added on another phone to your plan.”

“I added another phone but didn’t agree to a price raise!”

“You added an additional phone plan to your account. Every phone has its own charges, so it wasn’t possible for you to stay at the same price,” I explain, hoping I don’t sound as shocked by his stupidity as I feel.

Even after doing this job for three months, it never fails to surprise me how assuming some people are. And just downright rude.

News flash: if you expect help from someone, you should at least try to keep your asshole comments to yourself until after you’ve gotten it.

“You’re kidding me. Why wasn’t I told this when I added another phone?”

You absolutely were.“I’m not sure, sir. But there isn’t anything I can do to lower your bill for the past month as the charges were what they were estimated to be. The only thing I can offer is to remove the additional phone if you don’t want to pay extra in the upcoming months.”

“No!” he screams into the phone. “I need the second phone! If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have added it. God! Do you know how to listen at all, or are you deaf as well as stupid?”

4:59.

I’m burning with rage both inside and out. Reminding myself that this is just part of the job isn’t working this time. Maybe it’s my lack of sleep last night from taking care of a sick teenager or, honestly, just a lack of patience for men who don’t understand how to treat people—women specifically—with respect.

I show up to do the same job as thousands of other people, and I’m good at it. Even though I constantly feel like I’m wasting my days away slouched over a computer desk with the same rehearsed speech on my tongue, I continue to show up because I need the money. Still, there’s only so much a person can take, and three months of this has worn me very thin.

I’m not lesser than anyone because of my job or my gender, and I’m really, really fucking tired of feeling like I’m a piece of trash they’re shoving to the bottom of a garbage bin. I may need this job, but I’ve never wanted it. If it weren’t for needing to put food on the table for my brother, I wouldn’t be here at all.

With a white-knuckled grip on my computer mouse, I watch the time change on the monitor and let loose.

“You know what? The fact you didn’t even think for two seconds that you’d have to pay for another phone plan makesyouthe stupid one. And I mean that in a really offensive way. Come on, you have to pay for everything in this economy! Why would you ever get a phone plan for free? Are you the freaking owner of the company? Or are you just like the other millions of people in the world who believe that you deserve whatever you desire on a silver platter? Wake up, buddy! Because I can promise you that the world really isn’t all that great or kind and that spending your time yelling at me won’t change that. Now, pay your goddamn bill and decide if you want me to just delete your account so you’ll never have to pay another bill to us ever again!”

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