For the past two days, I attended a Customer Service training class. Most of the people in that class are human resources folks who handle hiring so it made sense that the topics discussed were related to handling hiring situations. Still, I learned some generally useful communications skills and dealing-with-difficult-people skills. I guess most of the concepts aren’t new, but it never hurts to review and make sure you’re actually putting the tips into practice.

Today, one lady in my class casually asked me when I graduated from college. I hate that. Just say what you really mean. I know that what you really wanted to know was my age. I was caught off guard so I just told her. Even though it’s not a big deal, two things bug me about this. 1) It was sneaky. Yuck. 2) This place has a huge age discrimination culture. Young-ish people should be peons on the totem pole. Yuck.

We had a few interesting discussions during the class. At one point, someone asked about handshaking, and more than a few older women said they were taught to shake hands when meeting/greeting someone iff the other person offered a handshake. Women should not initiate handshakes. Wow. As for phone etiquette, pick up by the third ring, okay, but ask for permission to put someone on hold, weird.  I’m not an outsourced customer service rep reading from a script.  If I need to put you on hold, I’m just going to say hang on a sec (familiar), or just a moment while I xyz (formal).  That whole asking me for permission was always a bit bizarre to me.  What am I going to say, no?  No, I won’t wait.  Tell me the answer now.  Or, no I won’t wait.  Bye.  Kooky.