I work on a help desk and it often surprises me how many people are grumpy and cantankerous when they speak to me. It’s as if it’s my fault that they are having the problem.

And it’s difficult to not get defensive when they direct their frustration at me.

Of course, there are lots of people that are nice and are happy to ask for help with the issue that they are having. It’s so much easier to help someone that appreciates your help.

Don’t shoot the messenger, man.

It was only recently that I realized that I’m one of those pain in the butt clients, too.

I was trying to access an online account and was trapped in a loop. It wanted my user name. But when I provided my user name, it said my user name didn’t exist.

Then it sent me to a different page to find out what user name was associated with my phone number. And the user name it provided was the same one that it said didn’t exist! Back and forth I went.

So I called the customer service number. And went through many menus to finally get to a human being.

Was I polite? Not really… I don’t think I was rude, but I was grumpy. And frustrated.

And I was kind of taking it out on the poor service person who was able to help me.

I caught myself and changed my tone. I expressed gratitude when they were able to resolve my issue.

But I thought to myself: I’m exactly the kind of client I hate dealing with.

Ouch.