Doin' the technical support thing
 

I support system engineers, and usually I talk to a few people a day on the phone

I knew I had to call this gent back about delaying his system's uptime for an hour

I saw that he was in Atlanta and was named Caleb

So I decided that he was going to be a cheerful, sociable Atlantan. Southern dude, "What can I do ya fer?" type. A stereotype. And I set myself emotionally up to be happy, genuine, and easygoing. I find, if I match their emotional state, the calls go better.

Don't you know it played out exactly that way. He answered the phone and was immediately cheerful, sociable, genuine and easygoing. A joy to work with. I love guys from Atlanta. Sure, it's a stereotype. But it's true!

When preconceptions are good, it's very very good, but when they are bad, it's horrid.

I know a number of people in Georgia, some a like Caleb, some are definitely not. Do you find in the systems world the stereotypes are pretty accurate?

They do match from time to time, but more often they match the engineering stereotype closer than anything else... kinda on the spectrum... like me

I can think of some customers that "fulfilled their destiny":

Calgary: slowest talker I've ever spoken with

North Jersey: driven and purposeful

Community college admin: needs a lot of hand holding

So Cal: calm, "whenever we get it done is fine, s'all good"

:D

I love working IT in the Pacific Northwest. Most of the people I talk to at other facilities up here are super easy to work with.

That's 'cause they're usually a bit stoned. :D