Laura Fay: Night Shift

Laura Fay reflects on a support desk call that reminded her to be patient.

I had a project deadline and was running behind schedule. Then the internet went out.
I tried everything. I checked for system outages, rebooted the modem and router. Nothing. Then I called product support. An agent picked up after twenty minutes of elevator music interspersed with repeated assurances that my call was important.

“Have you tried restarting your router?” the agent asked. I had. She walked me through it anyway, at what felt like a glacial pace.

My blood pressure was escalating. I could feel my deadline inching closer. I interrupted her repeatedly. Her accent was challenging for me, and each time I asked her to repeat herself my tone signaled it was her fault. At some point I irately told her the product was rubbish.

But she stayed calm. Completely, professionally, unnervingly calm. While we waited on the third reboot, I asked where was she located. Manila, she said. What time was it there? Almost three in the morning, she said.
That stopped me. A young woman in a call center in the Philippines, working through the night so her hours would line up with mine. Talking to people like me. I asked if she had family. Yes, she said after a small pause.

At the end of our session, she thanked me for my patience, which was generous to the point of fiction. I thanked her, hung up and made my project deadline.

Afterwards, I reflected on that call. The young woman’s patience never wavered once during the ninety minutes it took to solve what turned out to be a complex problem. My patience on the other hand, had collapsed inside the first two minutes, making everything much harder than it needed to be for both of us, and despite working nights, she navigated a stressful interaction with complete grace. I won’t forget that in a hurry. With a Perspective, I’m Laura Fay.

Laura Fay is a retired technology executive, writer and environmental advocate. She lives in Los Altos.