Emily Post, where are you?

It's 6:30 on Thursday night.  I worked a regular full time day then came home to our cheerful little house, where cleaned the kitchen, swept the floor, made some coffee, and now I'm sitting in the living room with my trusty laptop.

What do I do at work, you ask?  Well, it's secretarial/accounts payable/accounts receivable/coffee buyer/supply orderer/filer/you name it. 

And I answer the phones.

And due to the fact that this is a very homicidal time of month for me, I am very crabby, tired, headachy, and crampy.  I'm struggling with being in a good mood and being polite.  Struggling, but winning.

sort of like this guy, but not as whacked out.

I had a very hard time yesterday with a caller who was checking status on a payment, which is code for her saying "I hate my job, I'm helping someone else, I'm condescending, I'm rude, I'm smarter than you are, I'm impatient, I'm discourteous, and in short, I'm a huge, gigantic beeyotch."

As always, I was patient.  I was kind.  I tried to be helpful, but kept being interrupted by the snot on the other end of the phone.  I'm not sure what bug crawled up her rear and took up residence, but let me assure you that it was one of those BIG bugs.

I kept my cool.  My reward was hearing her hang up on me. 

I never get an answer to this, but why do people act this way?  Just because you're on the phone doesn't mean you can be nasty.  You wouldn't burst into my office, shaking papers in my face, interrupting me and being a complete ass, would you?  Then what makes you think it's ok to do this on the phone? 

If I could remember her name, I would look her up on Facebook just to tell her that. 

Better yet, I would look up her mother.