This story came from an old running joke between Jared Mehl and myself.
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Dedication
The call centre headset squealed before cutting out. It always did that when hung up.
Jim stood up in the greenish florescent lighting of his cubicled office and stretched, arms wide, behind his chair.
“Hard work, saving lives?” Claire said from the next cubicle.
“Nah, have you seen my numbers? I’m like a superhero.” Jim finished his stretching and rested his hands on the back of his cheap office chair. “I figure I’m averaging six calls an hour.”
“Jim, I think this is one area where quality outweighs quantity.”
“And that’s why,” he pointed, “I’m junior assistant shift leader, and you’re just a standard rep.”
“Junior assistant shift leader to the rescue!” Claire said with a smile.
Jim made a motion like he was ripping open his shirt to reveal a superhero logo. Then he straightened. “A cubicle is way better than a phone booth anyway. And let’s not forget. We’re minimum wage superheroes. What’s-his-face was pro bono.”
Claire shook her head and turned back to her desk, reading over the management approved script.
A voice came over the building intercom, “Will security please come to reception? Security to reception, thank you.”
“Seriously Claire, I think you try too hard. You can’t help everyone. And you need to stick to the script. That’s why your calls are so long. You improvise. Long calls means less calls per hour, which means lower scores.”
She looked up and rolled her eyes where Jim could see. “No, it’s called listening. You should try it sometime.”
The intercom again, “Security to reception, repeat, will security report immediately to reception.”
Jim sat in the cheap office chair and lifted his small headset off the stand, settling it over his ear. He rubbed his lower back, then leaned forward to take another call.
The door to their office burst open and banged against the wall stopper. The inset glass shattered. Screams like headphone feedback filled the office, and Jim spun in his cheap chair to see a bearded stranger with an upturned pistol in hand.
Jim eardrums filled with pain as the man fired the gun into the ceiling. Dust drifted down from the drop-tiles above, alighting on shoulders and desks like snow.
“I’ve called you people for weeks, and all I get is hold music!” beard-man shouted. “It repeats and repeats that stupid weather channel jazz, and I just want someone to listen to me. So no one wants to help? Fine!” he brought the gun down like it was getting too heavy, and he stopped with it pointed at his own head.
And every face turned… to Jim, the junior assistant shift leader of their crisis hotline office. The bearded man followed their eyes and settled his focus on Jim.
Jim stood up, nervous acid churning in his stomach around his thirty minute fast food lunch, and the headset cord went taut, stopping him halfway out of his chair and yanking him back down. He fumbled the headset off with both hands and tried again, this time making it successfully to his feet.
The bearded man had a confused expression on his face, as if asking, “Are you serious?” The gun dipped away from his temple, just a little bit.
Jim glanced at his script. “Uh, you don’t want to do this, sir. Oh wait, sorry, I mean, what’s your name?”
The man’s jaw hung open.
“Right,” Jim rambled on, thumbing the stapled paper, “well, you have so much to live for… people that care about you… don’t do it…”
The gun came down and pointed at Jim.
Jim’s hands shot out in front of him, “Wait! Dont’ do it! You don’t want to do this, we can get you help, we can get you anything you want. You want money? I’ll give you money.” Jim started to fumble with his wallet.
Claire removed her headset, placed it next to her script on the desk, and stood. She angled herself at a forty five degree angle to the man, making herself less of a target and appearing less confrontational. She kept her palms up, emphasising her empty hands and her desire to help. And she earned credibility with the man, turning and speaking calmly to Jim, “Stop talking, Jim. And sit down, please.”
It took her longer than Jim’s ten minute call average, but she got Raymond, the bearded man, talked down. No one was shot. And after the dust settled and everyone was safe, Claire was called into a meeting with district management. She was promoted that very month to general manager. (Jim’s boss, several times over. Until she fired him, that is.)
Jim got a job in telesales , one floor down in the call centre building.
Claire changed the hold music.
18 March, 2009 at 3:34 am
Very nice, Jezza. I like the story, to be sure, and the pacing and timing is great.
18 March, 2009 at 5:09 am
““And that’s why,” he pointed, “I’m junior assistant shift leader, and your just a standard rep.””
Typo: ‘your’ should be ‘you’re’.
18 March, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Thanks Lernie. And the error has been corrected, thanks.
18 March, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Good story – I liked the pace and the sudden shift to the call centre becoming a place of danger. I also found it interesting as it made me consider how other people ringing into call centres must feel (I hardly ever bother since the call takers care so little but some people don’t have a choice).
Look forward to reading more. Z
18 March, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Hey Jezz.
I will first of all make it clear that I am not a literature critic. I had Bs in both of my lit courses and primarily read plot-driven stuff. What I am going to share is purely intuitive and feeling based, not academic.
That being said… I think you’re descriptive writing style is fantastic. In some ways, I could almost feel the dust from the tiles coming down. Decent character development to start, but then I feel like things got a little messy. Can deeper qualities of each person be expressed than just the speed with which they handled the situation? The guy just goes from being cocky to timid, but… why? What else goes on? I would like to see you digg a bit deeper there. Same with the girl. We knwo she likes to take her time with people but why? Where did that come from? What does she say? How does she listen? I would’ve liked to seen what was said to the man with the gun that was so important, not just that it took a long time. Why was the man on hold for two weeks? Was that the girl’s fault for taking too much time? Also, the interaction between the girl and the man with the gun felt like it wrapped up awfully quickly.
Working in social work, we talk about this thing called the anger curve. Think of your typical curve. You can either catch someone going up and de-escalate them or you can help deescalate them as they come down. However, when they are at the top, they’re irrational, impulsive, explosive, etc. A girl putting her hands up and posing limited threat will certainly be helpful, but the situation will remain intense despite…
I get the message and theme you were trying to communicate, however, it felt a bit spoon-fed for my liking. And… I”m not great at literature analysis by any means.
Those are some ideas i can come up with. Great first story. Lets see more!
Jared
20 March, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Zoe, for a very short time I worked in a call centre, and I feel that it steals the soul of both the caller and the callee, simultaneously.
“Stick to the script!”
In hindsight, maybe I should have had that as banners around the office, and had Jim see them when panicking, further justifying his use of the paper in trying to help that guy.
20 March, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Jared, I’m slow to argue because I tend to think if the reader reads it a certain way, they’re right, period.
To respond specifically to one of your points though…
1.) The guy goes from being cocky to timid, why?
He is initially joking with a co-worker. He then has to talk an armed gunmen out of harming himself and others. And he has to do this in front of his office. And he’s probably like 19 if he’s on minimum wage, which he says he is. Is it really that much of a stretch?
But as I say, if you’re not seeing that connection, it’s my own writing that needs to change.
22 March, 2009 at 11:08 am
i think its easy to see why the guy goes from cocky to timid, afterall its not so much timid as scared stiff. After all you can tell from the first few lines that he thinks a lot of himself and sees himself as a self confessed superhero that is untouchable, and he takes pride in mouthing off to his colleagues who he looks down upon (even if it is in a joking way, there may be some sort of grain of truth behind it all). Then, suddenly with the arrival of the bearded man, he realises that he is out of his comfort zone, in a panic situation and craps himself because figures arent going to help him in this situation, are they?
I also like the way that we don’t get to hear what is said to the bearded man, after all this story focuses primarily on Jim, not Claire. it leaves an element of mystery and often it is not what is said that makes a difference, its the way it was said, the level of empathy expressed, the body language involved.
interesting point about why the guy was on hold, and if this could have been partially claires fault. though in my opinion two weeks seems a bit extreme. I would imagine (though of course could be wrong) that if you were in a crisis you would try to call these people, and if you couldn’t get through, yes it would be frustrating, but you would try another number. in relation to the curve mentioned above, this would mean that this guy would have been hovering at the top of this curve for two weeks – two weeks of irrational thinking and deep inset anger and resentment. perhaps a shorter timeframe may be more believable??? Not an overly important point though i guess, just something i noted.
Good work, i enjoyed it. thanks for sharing.