Hello from the other side

My phone rang. I saw a number that was not on my contact list. I did not know who it was (note: this was before Truecaller). I assumed it could have been from the company where I had applied for a job. I answered the call.

"Hello," I spoke in my professional voice.

"Hello sir. I am calling from Service first agency. I want to talk to you about the car services we provide. May I speak with you for two minutes about what services we can offer to you", said the woman on the other side.

I was furious for two reasons. First it was not the call I was expecting. Second, despite hearing my voice the caller called me 'sir' instead of 'madam'. It was absurd.

I was fuming and I responded to let them know my feelings, "first of all, call me madam. Do you not understand whether the person is a man or woman? Or you just robotically follow your call center script? Just unbelievable".

"Sorry sir, let me tell you about the service," the woman went on without either listening or understanding what I said.

I had lost my temper at that moment, "you are still not understanding. Just five seconds ago I told you that I am a woman and still you are calling me 'sir'. Is it hard to understand or you have no capacity to understand. Besides I am not interested in your service whatever it is. I hope this call gets recorded. I want your management to know that they have hired people who are robotic without a mind of their own", I said and hung up.

When I hung up call, I saw that my friend Kira was looking at me. I could not read her expression, it looked like it was a blend of anger, surprise, and disappointment.

"What was that?" Kira asked me.

"Well she had to learn the lesson. Twice she called me sir. It is apparent from my voice that I am a woman. These call center people are just robotic. They just follow the template without using any thought of their own," I still could not get the conversation out of my mind.

"Not that. What you said towards the end about calk getting recorded and management should know that they have no mind of their own. What was that?" Kira was staring at me as if I had committed a crime.

"Isn't that right? How else they are going to learn the consequences? Working in service industry is tough. They need to be attentive," I explained. In my opinion I was not wrong anywhere.

"That was just mean. The caller was doing her job. She is going to get paid for this work," Kira was upset.

"And she is not doing her job well. If there is a penalty, she should get penalized," I was firm on my opinion.

"You know, maybe her appraisal and raise would get affected because of this. Would you like if the same thing happened with you?" Kira's question hit home.

"On the second thought I think I was rude with her. I cannot imagine what I said in anger. Maybe I should not have said about management should listen to the call. It would probably result in bad rating. God, I feel so bad now," I really understood what I had said and what could have been a potential consequence of it. I regretted every word I said in anger.

"Nothing can be done right now. But next time onwards when you respond to such calls, remember that their rating depend on what you say. You do not want to be the reason for the dip in their rating. You could be right for fighting back but that should not affect anyone's progress," Kira said calmy while sipping her coffee.

That conversation gave me a valuable lesson to be polite even in anger. For I did not want anyone's progress to decline because of me.