I want to be "Closed for the Weekend"
Saturdays suck at the office. It's the busiest day of the week at work, but there are far fewer staff to handle the workload. In addition to it being the busiest day, it is also the day I get the most supervisor calls and these customers tend to be far angrier and much harder to placate than the customers I deal with during the week. For those long-term readers that might be confused, I'm not a supervisor anymore but I take supervisor calls as do the other techs at my pay level (which is definitely NOT supervisor pay.) Since many of the techs at my level are former managers just like me, we all know how to handle the calls and it does make some sense that we would take them. Call it a side effect of demotion.

But to get back to the callers, it's unfortunate that they wait until Saturday morning to call because 99% of their issues are with other departments that are closed for the weekend and there is little I can do for them other than be their verbal punching bag. And I don't particular enjoy being a punching bag. It's not that I'm unsympathetic to their situation. I know they work all week and have things to do in the evenings so that Saturday is often the first day they feel they have time to call in about their issue. But why would someone think that calling in to demand a supervisor and then verbally abusing that supervisor would get their problem resolved any faster? Do they really think that if they scream and threaten me that I can somehow magically contact someone in the department that is closed for the weekend? Yes, they do. And no, I can't. Though I can occasionally perform miracles, my ability to do so is severely hampered if I can't talk to anyone because that department is CLOSED FOR THE WEEKEND.

I've found that "closed for the weekend" is a phrase that becomes increasing hard for people to understand as more and more services become available 24/7. They seem to think that *they* should be off on the weekend, but no one that provides them any sort of service should have that opportunity. I'm old enough to remember when 24/7 coverage was only provided only for essential services - hospitals, firefighters, police, utilities and the like. In fact, when I was a kid, the sidewalks rolled up at 6 pm in this town except on Thursdays when stores were open until 9 pm. A few places had Saturday hours and virtually no one was open on Sundays, including most restaurants and all the grocery stores. Somehow we managed to survive quite nicely without 24/7 service, it just took a little planning.

I'm not in favor of a rollback to those times, but I think the 24/7 service concept has been stretched a bit far these days. At that rate it's going, we are causing increasingly large numbers of people to work shifts they don't want to work and giving people work hours that displace them from their friends and family. And for what? So a company can make more money being "competitive" while providing services that can hardly be considered essential.

If you call me on a Saturday or Sunday morning and yell at me about your 15 minute hold time, then threaten me when I can't get someone to fix your issue immediately, you'll find me sounding apologetic and sympathetic on the phone, but what I'm really thinking is that you are just one more entitled asshole that I have to deal with on a weekend where I'd rather be spending time with my family. As Rob's mum would say, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."