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Managing emotions… wait, you mean my emotions?

IMG_7787I’ve become unhinged today. The short story is that it involves Microsoft tech support, two separate calls (so far) and four hours on the phone and remote access to my computer. I saw the better side of me slip down the side of the cliff. The truth is that I saw me acting like one of “those people.” I watched as an observer in slow motion as they pressed the reconfigure Microsoft office button. This set in motion an action that not only did I not understand. But I didn’t think had anything to do with the solution I was seeking. In addition I thought it was as close to “erasing the hard drive as I wanted to get in my lifetime. Oh and I was late for a breakfast meeting.

The undeniable truth was I was annoyed before that. It might have been yesterday when I “accidently” said yes to delete certain set of files that included years of historical emails regarding clients. Let’s just say I’d be in a world of hurt if those files actually disappeared. That’s the nice version. I get that it was totally my fault in the action of pressing yes to delete. I get it. Intellectually I don’t really have any connection to the person who was on the phone. Yes, now I am acting like it wasn’t me.

Here’s what I wished I had done:

  1. Ensure I had plenty of time to make the call. (who knew it would require 4 hours)
  2. Check to ensure that my end goal was clearly in my mind.
  3. Find that Zen spot where I could say, “I know I backed up my hard drive a week ago and how much data could be lost?”
  4. Be nice. Adhere to the adage; if you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all.
  5. Allow for the controlling monster that is Microsoft to set up a Live.com account as a part of the process of getting to that end goal that is clearly in my mind.
  6. Stop fighting the redundancy of getting through the voice activated phone center.
  7. Activate my sense of humor.
  8. Accidently hang up after I realized that I didn’t have enough time, and the woman tech support was unsure on what to do. It’s not like they don’t know who I am or will get back to where we were.
  9. Get a local (or virtual) technician who would take my call and appreciate the ongoing work.

As someone who clearly has a temper and teaches others to manage that “kind” of behavior there is a lot of shame in what I am writing. But after the better part of my day spent in anger/fight mode I ask myself “how do I calm down?” I thought, spitefully, I am going public on Facebook. But really what was I looking for? I was as much a part of the problem as I was in the way of the solution.

What do you suggest I do when I answer the phone tomorrow for the schedule “level 2 tech support” call?

 

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