I want a man

[Akasa]

tropicsgoddess's thread about the Texan reminded me of this call.

This took place back in the mid 90's. In the entire call center there was only 2 women, including myself. Tech support was so male dominated that I had to be better than the guys to get ANY respect and got paid less.
The cue wait time was constantly at 2 hours. (They just would NOT hire enough people to cover the cue and bring the time down. That's a post in itself.)
I get this one middle eastern man who deems that I'm not good enough to talk to. The first thing out of his mouth is "I want a man." I try to work with him, try to get the basic information out of him, but no, I get nothing but "You're a woman, you can't know what you are doing. Give me a man." Yes he really had the nerve to say that. He decided to yell at me for trying to worm info out of him and *gasp* trying to fix his problem.
I mention that all other techs are busy on calls and I don't have the ability to transfer him so just let me try to help you. Repeat that I am a woman and can't possibly know what I am doing.
I'm pissed at this point. I'm better than 90% of the men on the floor and they know it, yet I'm not good enough cause I'm a woman and get yelled at for being a woman.
I drop him back in the cue. Statistics are on his side. Only 2 women are in the call center so he has a good chance of getting a man... in about 2 more hours. Since he wouldn't give me any information there's no proof he talked to anyone.
I swear if you have to hold for 2 hours for help, take what you get!

[jerkface11]

Good lord 2 hours? Our tech support has people answer the phone and take our info then they call us back if they're that busy.

[Ironclad Alibi]

The first thing out of his mouth is "I want a man."

In the sultriest voice possible, you could have responded: "So do I."

[Cookiesaur]

In the sultriest voice possible, you could have responded: "So do I."

Ahahaha.

We had the opposite problem in our bakery, which was predominantly female with the exception of one fellow who worked for us briefly one winter. He was told, point blank, by several customers that they would rather speak to one of us womenfolk, because they didn't believe a man knew anything about baking. Poor guy.

You handled that better than I would have.

[Nurian]

I had a friend who had something similar.
We had a 30 minute queue, a numbnuts guy gets her. He demands to speak to a man. She can't get a word in edgewise. Finally she says, "Alright, Sir. If you would like a man, you may call back." <release>

[Samaliel]

If they want a man so badly, they can call one of those lines that charge $1.34 on connection + $.34 / minute and ask to talk to Hector.

[Kiwi]

In the sultriest voice possible, you could have responded: "So do I."

or you could respond in a deep husky voice

well I might be Amanda now, but I was born Adam, can I help you now big boy?

[technical.angel]

The entire helpdesk is female. When my direct sup was male, I was just DYING for someone to pull that on me. Then, when my direct sup left, and I got a female sup with a female dept head, I was just ITCHING for someone to pull it on me.

Sadly, I've been in tech support for almost 7 years, and I've never gotten it.

[draggar]

I don't get this attitude. I worked with a female tech when I was in retail and she was incredible, especially with blackberries and the PDA phones.

A cuistomer comes in, wants to talk to me about this BB - I tell him let me get someone better knowledgebale with his device. Get her, he refuses her because "girls don't know tech stuff" well, then, I guess you're not getting any help.

[powerboy]

Great thing that I am not like that. I am happy if I can get someone who can fix it.

[Alpha Strike]

I realize that, by definition, SCs are idiots but that reaction is still surprising to me. Most SCs hate to wait more then 3 seconds for anything; I'm trying to imagine an SC who would rather wait two MORE hours then speak with someone who can help right then.

Hell, even if I were the world's biggest misogynist I'd take what I get after 2 hours on hold for tech support.

(And 2 hour hold times? That's insane! I thought that our 20 minute que times were bad but you folks take the cake!)

[JLRodgers]

If I was on hold for 2 hours I'd talk to a trained monkey-dog-goldfish team that were trained to make noises that resembled words - if it helped (you know, monkey to look up things on the computer, goldfish to do the support, and the dog to bark out the orders between them).


I'm a man who knows how to sew, cook, garden, and other things that are still (by some at least) thought to be "women's jobs" -- but can't do things involving cars/etc.... I once knew a woman mechanic who actually owned the place (or co-owned with her husband)... she had to say she was the secretary for people to drop off their cars - even though she was the head mechanic!

[Akasa]

I'm pretty sure he expected me to pass him over to a man immediately, not put back into the cue.
I just happened to be enough of a bitch to put him back in cue.

[digitalaether]

My first IT job was at a local ISP. One of the female techs there was a particularly good tech. She not only had the problem with misogynist customers, but she also had a disadvantage because she had a slight lisp. Slight mind you, she was easy to understand, but you can still pick it up listening to her. She probably only got to field about 1/4 of her own calls because so many people would ask to speak with a 'man', or someone who is not 'retarded'. *rolls eyes

[valhar2000]

I worked in one Tech Support Dept that was quite often only staffed with women. Our supervisor? Also a woman. It was highly amusing when we'd get callers who wanted to speak to a man and would hang up on us and call back.. again.. and again.. and again.. and--[...]

Is this the Stupidity Tax I keep hearing about?