At some prior employment of mine, I would work second level customer support,
when the first line of defence couldn’t satisfy customers
who were frustrated with their email or cell phone subscriptions
with our company.

Folks would find they’d been charged on their cell phone or credit card bills
– sometimes for months –
for a subscription they knew nothing about
and I had to explain to them that I could refund them
for the current month’s cost,
but not anything else.

People would be so upset!
They would curse out the agents, and curse me out.
I would never say this in the calls, but they could have looked more closely
into what they were signing up for.
There’s always fine print to read.

Meanwhile, I should have looked more closely
at the fine print of the company I was signing up to join
when I asked about the subscription services we offered
to our customers.
I figured it would make more sense when I got into the trenches
and learned more about the business.
It definitely did end up making more sense.

The money was good, and the work was interesting,
so I ended up sticking around,
but there was always a pull on my conscience,
one that I never paid enough attention to.

The day I was let go,
I had presented my new supervisor a report of the customers’ distaste
over our sales’ policies.
I wasn’t told that was the reason I was fired,
but I was an at-will employee.
They didn’t have to rationalize my dismissal at all.
So I don’t know for sure the reason I’m not working there today
(other than the fact that the company doesn’t exist anymore).

All this is to say
that I don’t have much of a spine.
If there’s a body to bury,
I’m your guy!