[NorthMountain]

It was then that calls routed to my desk started to become, shall I say, less good-mannered, or more ill-tempered.

Gee ... ya think?

After wasting time fighting with a (*&^ ^%$# (*I) *&^% ^%$# (*) &^%$ %$@ ROBOT, customers were mildly perturbed!

Shocking, I tell you! I'm shocked!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Back when I was a happy little cog in the Mega-Corp Machinery I had a yearly fight over our receptionist. They kept on wanting to replace her with a phone tree. It was just as good.

I always managed to keep her in the budget because I had done CS work and I knew exactly what was going to happen if they took her happy, helpful voice out of the mix.

When I moved to another facility they finally managed to get rid of her. And a few years later I was talking to my replacement and he was telling me how MEAN everyone was who called him. They were just so angry and frustrated.

I asked him if he had considered replacing the phone tree with a receptionist.