Bad Day

[Eileen Davis]

I had to keep reminding myself, all day, that the only thing I control is my reaction to events. The day began with a phone call, which I ignored because I don't answer phone calls while meeting with someone who has a scheduled appointment. The caller contacted the receptionist, who sent me an email to tell me that one of our students (a customer of our center) was really angry, and told the receptionist that she felt as though I was jerking her around. After many calls (hers) to others in our dept., it came out that she didn't feel as though she was getting the service she expected from us, and was letting us hear about it. I don't mind complaints, but I want the focus to be on service: what we can do for the person who's unhappy. Maybe we will resolve this to her satifaction, and maybe not. What bothered me was that it made me question my ability, and, while I am human and make mistakes, I also try to do my best work at all times. I was able to recover my balance by 1:00 PM, so I guess I didn't do too badly. And I didn't allow myself to apply labels to the student, but kept my focus on the behavior, and the result she wanted. But boy, do I hate to be spoken to as if I were a misbehaving toddler.