Avoiding Customer Service

If there is one type of career path that a typical Nice Guy should avoid at all costs, it is any type of customer service job where you deal directly with the general public.     Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you should be sitting on your ass making a dent in your mama's couch instead of working.   In this economy some of us are lucky to get any job we can land, but let me explain why a customer service job should be a Nice Guy's last resort as a career path.  I know about this firsthand, as I've worked customer service for years.


First off, customer service is a THANKLESS job.    You will work lots of frustrating, stress-filled hours with little to no appreciation from customers or higher ups.  You will also have ZERO input on most company matters.  Also as a customer service rep your attendance and tardiness will be held to a higher standard than your bosses.  You are just an easily replaceable worker bee and you will be treated as such.   The very nature of a customer service job is clouded in negative energy because usually a customer only contacts you when there is a problem.   It's very rare that a customer calls or emails to tell you what a fantastic job your company is doing, so you are constantly interacting with people who are in a negative (upset) frame of mind.    Talking to people with negative energy all day long eventually will take its toll on you, and you will find yourself in a negative mindset as well.  If you are going to work in customer service, you should approach it with the goal of becoming a customer service manager.

Secondly, customer service requires you to be a subservient ass-kisser.    You know, because "the customer is always right".   Nice Guys are usually subservient and like to avoid conflict anyway so this comes 2nd nature to us, but when you are trying to change who you are as a person, a customer service job is counterproductive to your goal.     You can't spend 8+ hours a day kissing people's asses, agreeing with everything they say whether its right or wrong, and then expect to go home and be "The Man" in your relationship.   Even if a customer is wrong, usually you don't have a leg to stand on to try and defend yourself.    You just have to say "Yes sir" or "Yes ma'am" and do what the customer asks.  

Finally, there really isn't much of a tangible reward for working hard.    Let's say you are a computer programmer.   You go balls to the wall and bust your ass Monday through Wednesday.  Typically that means you can slack off a little on Thursday and Friday since you busted your ass earlier in the week.   Same can be said for most jobs.    Let's say you're a customer service employee in a call center.   Let's say on Monday you're gonna bust your ass and take as many calls as possible.   When you come in Tuesday, guess what?   You'll be doing the same thing on Tuesday because the calls aren't going to stop coming in.   So that basically means whether you slack off all week or bust your ass all week, the calls are going to be the same.
The perfect analogy for this is pushing a boulder up a hill all day on Monday.   When you go back to it on Tuesday, the boulder has rolled all the way back down the hill and you have to start over.  Same for Wednesday, same for Thursday.    It's like spending your entire day shoveling a pile of shit only to come back the next day and discover the pile is still there.

These behaviors are all counter productive when you are trying to make yourself into a new person.   A person who stands up for himself.    A person who knows when he is being mistreated and knows it is not acceptable.   Only take a customer service job if you have to, but don't make it a lifelong career path.