Customer service, I won't miss you

Likening customer service to purgatory is extreme but it feels like it some days so I'm working with the melodrama. For many reasons, I'm in a much better situation than most. Still, this line of work can't be my life forever. At least, when I leave, I can say that the way I view customer-facing workers has shifted drastically. For the better. Don't get me wrong, sometimes they suck, sometimes I myself will withhold help because I've been pissed off or I don't have the energy to attempt the task. But knowing why I fall into these pitfalls myself helps me be more forgiving of others who also do this; none of us are being paid or respected enough (by customers) to return favours.1 Big generalisation because most customers are fine, lovely even, but there's some really irritating encounters. I get harassed and undermined a lot. Emphasis on undermined, it's a very common occurrence for customers to ask the same question they asked me to one of my male colleagues, even though our answers…