“Help will always be given to Hogwarts, Harry to those who ask for it. I’ve always prized myself on my ability to turn a phrase. Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of inflicting injury, and remedying it.” Albus Dumbledore
I am so thankful for many things, but currently, not only for my health and resilience but for my employer, continuation of work and pay check. We were given the choice and ability to work from home before mandatory lock down and within 3 days, all of us globally were given the connections and power to continue our daily work. I work for a global company that provides services to small businesses.
Three and one-half weeks ago when everything imploded, the call volume coming in to the service desk for small business customers went from 700 per day on average to almost 2,000 calls per day and wait periods from less than five minutes to almost one hour. A plea went out to the business for volunteers who had any bandwidth to help. Wanting to help and having a bit of time, I threw my name in the Goblet of Fire (sorry, couldn’t resist!). Immediately I was tasked with installing and setting up four different applications and attending a 2 hour crash course on client service support. Installation of apps was Thursday, training crash course Friday, Jumping in the deep end of the pool, Monday. I got cold feet and pushed it to Tuesday. Sigh.
Had I known what I was volunteering for honestly, I probably wouldn't have done it . During training we learned all the details and for the next two weeks, we were to help answer calls, direct Small Business clients to Federal, State and Local regulatories and answer questions on all of the new government assistance due to COVID-19 or guide them to where they could find answers. Well, being a person behind the technology, I had now propelled myself to the front line and had no idea how that was going to help anyone? However, we were all assured that the team would be there to support us and help us through. So it began.
I can honestly say that every single owner I spoke to was so kind and patient, they didn’t care that they had wait times of 45 minutes or longer and that it took me a while to get to the answers. They just wanted to have a real person that they could talk to, to help them navigate through this, to see what else they could do, what was available, how they were going to get through. Some who were completely shut down lost their whole businesses, had no money to cover employees and knew that they had nothing to come back to when this was over. I listened to this heartache every day and it tore up my heart. I was always in tears by the time the call ended. But I have to say, every single owner that I spoke with told me two things; their priority was taking care of their employees and they didn’t care how long they had to wait to speak to someone…..
Well it is week three of my volunteer effort and I have come to the conclusion that empaths on service desks dealing with owners who are severely impacted to the point they have lost everything and are besides themselves is not exactly a good “fit”. However, I have seen first hand how much our words are magical, powerful. How in any situation, it is words that can bring comfort, compassion, help, support, a life line to another human being when all is lost. And together, to each other, our words also gave us both the strength to continue to do what we needed to do; for them to take care of their employees best they could and for me, to answer that phone despite how battered I felt. They inspired me to know that most people care about other people and want to do the right thing. Oh my heart……..
But there was another side to this as well. The words that spoke to me the most was the appreciation from the team we were helping.
Every morning, they would post the stats from the night before and let us know how thankful and appreciative they were that we were here and how awesome they felt that we came in to help. How much of a difference we were making but more than that, how we jumped in when they really needed a life line.. And those words push me every day to jump into the deep end of the pool and do the best that I can even though tissues are hard to come by right now.
So what magic are your words making?
