What do I do?
I started a job a month ago. I was really excited to start but I haven’t really found my feet.
Today I made a huge mistake.
I had someone on the phone who was being extremely difficult. Berating me and calling me names, saying they wanted all these discounts. I said I would put them on hold and get a manager. I thought I had them on hold but I didn’t.
I told my manager that this lady was being horrible and unreasonable and told them all the things they were saying. When I finished my conversation the customer announced that she heard every word. She is now demanding basically hundreds and nearly thousands of pounds of work from the company or she is going to write a review.
My manager is having a meeting with the big boss in a few days.
I feel awful, should I just quit? I was already feeling like I wasn’t any good at this job. Now there’s going to be a whole investigation into my mistake and it’s going to be a huge thing.
I feel like I should just try and find something new because I don’t know how I can come back from this.
Comments
You feel awful for explaining to your boss that a lady was acting how you described her? Did you use other words than what you put in this post? Is your manager backing you up on what was said? It be different if you said “hey boss this lady is being a bitch, can you talk to her.”
To me it sounds like you maintained composure, described the situation accurately, and tried to find a solution to a problem above your pay grade.
Don’t run from the fire you’re human not hopeless. Own it with guts and you’ll earn more respect than if you played perfect.
New employees always always make mistakes. It’s normal.
Something as minimal as not putting a customer on hold is a small mistake.
I wouldn’t quit. I would persevere, give your heartfelt apology to your superiors.
Try to work more competently and don’t take sbit from customers. Always escalate to a supervisor if it gets abusive
If your employer is A-Okay with one of their employees being berated by someone (especially someone this hell bent on not paying full price for services) then I’d highly suggest you find somewhere else to work anyway. Lifes too short to put up with that BS.
Running away from the problem accomplishes nothing. It’s common for new employees to make mistakes, go to your boss and say this has been a learning experience and that you will do better next time. This is a good exercise to get used to facing your mistakes and taking ownership of them versus running away.
It’s okay if, even after the dust settles, you feel this job isn’t right for you. But don’t run away in shame leave when you’ve processed the situation and made a decision with a clear head. That’s how you take back your control.
Do not quit. You do not have the perspective to make this choice. Own it, own the mistake and be professional in your work execution. If they decide to fire you then let that happen.
(Extorting freebies under threat of a bad review is nuts. )
Shit happens, it was a honest mistake and unless you called her names, that she heard, it’s not that bad.
The investigation is probably just a formality and/or a learning opportunity. Acknowledge your mistake and think about how you can improve.
Your manager should also have been able to sort it out with her on the phone.
Last, if her final threat is to leave a review, it shows she doesn’t really have much of a leg to stand on.
F that Karen bitch and her threats.
Don’t quit. Get better at the job (you only just started). It was just a single mistake.
If you have a half-way decent boss, they will tell you that the customer was at fault instead of you, and will ask you to be more careful with the hold-function in the future. If you have a lousy boss, he may get mad at you, and that would be a good reason to quit and look for something else. But own up to your mistake first, apologize to the boss, and see how they respond first.
A dear colleague of mine (not the youngest and actually very experienced) had this once, many years ago. She was a secretary to the CEO and thought that she was in the process of connecting a nasty customer with him, while she was calling the customer names and everything. But something went wrong. The customer was still on the line, very mad, and screamed “I’ve heard everything!” My colleague replied with a very nice and polite voice “I’m really sorry, it wasn’t my intention for you to hear that” immediately followed by “BUT I MEANT EVERY WORD OF IT!” She told the CEO later, and he just laughed, out loud, like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
If I were your boss, I would probably come up with a better training process for putting people on hold.
It sounds like you did everything else right.