So I work at this place doing customer service stuff. It’s mostly answering questions from people who call in or send emails. We got a big screen where all the new messages pop up, like a big list, and whoever grabs them first gets to help that person. Some of these calls or emails are super easy, like “how do I reset my password?” Takes literally two minutes. Others are a real pain, like “my whole system is broken and I’m furious” or “I need to understand this super complicated thing.” Those can take ages, like an hour or more, and really drain you.
I’ve been working here for a few years now, and I’m pretty good at it. I’m fast, I know all the tricks, and I can get through a lot of cases in a day. We have targets, you know? Like, we gotta close so many cases every hour, and if you do well, you get a little bonus sometimes. So I always try to be at the top of my game.
Then there’s Sarah. She started maybe six months ago. She’s not bad, I guess, but she’s just kinda slow. Like, really slow. She takes forever to figure things out, and she gets stuck on the hard cases. It’s not my problem, really, but it kinda is because of how our system works. When new cases pop up on the screen, I’m usually right there, ready to click and grab one. I’ve learned to spot the easy ones right away. They usually have a short subject line, or they’re from a specific department that handles simple stuff. So, I grab those first. Boom, done in five minutes. Grab another. Boom, done. I can clear out like ten easy ones before Sarah even gets through one of her hard ones.
I mean, it’s just being smart, right? Why would I pick a case that’s gonna take me an hour when I can do twelve easy ones in that same time? That’s just good business sense. My numbers look great, the boss is happy with me, and I get my bonus. Sarah, though, her numbers are always low. She’s always got these super long cases open. I hear her sometimes on the phone, really struggling, trying to explain stuff to an angry customer, or digging deep into some old system to find an answer. It sounds exhausting. But again, that’s her choice to be slow, or maybe she just isn’t as good at seeing the easy cases.
Our supervisor, Mr. Johnson, he noticed it, of course. He came to me a couple of weeks ago and said, “Mike, you’re doing a fantastic job. Your efficiency is through the roof. Keep it up.” And then later that day, I saw him talking to Sarah in his office for a long time. She came out looking really down. I figured he was telling her she needed to pick up the pace, which, honestly, she does.
Things kinda came to a head yesterday. We were both on the morning shift. A bunch of new cases dropped all at once, like twenty of them. I immediately started clicking and grabbing all the quick password resets and simple information requests. I probably got like seven or eight of them in the first minute. Sarah was still trying to finish up a really complex email she’d been working on all morning. When she finally closed it, she looked at the screen, and all that was left were the really nasty ones. Like, “my internet hasn’t worked for three days and I want a full refund” types, or “I accidentally deleted my entire database and need it recovered now.” The kind of cases that make you want to go home.
She sighed really loud, and then she walked over to my desk. She kinda stood there for a second, then she said, “Mike, can you, like, maybe leave some of the easier cases for the rest of us sometimes? I’m always stuck with the hardest ones, and it’s making my numbers look terrible.”
I was kinda shocked she even said that. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Not do my job? Let a case sit there just so she can grab it? That doesn’t make any sense. So I just looked at her and said, “Sarah, the cases pop up, I grab them. It’s first come, first served. If you want the easy ones, you gotta be faster. That’s how it works here. I’m just doing my job.”
She got all huffy. “But you’re practically taking all of them! I can’t compete when you’re just clicking so fast. It’s not fair.”
I just shrugged. “Fair? Sarah, this isn’t a game. This is work. We get paid to close cases. I close a lot of cases. If you want to close more, you need to be more efficient. I’m not gonna slow down my work just so you can catch up. That would be stupid. My bonus depends on my numbers.”
She just rolled her eyes and walked away, grumbling something I couldn’t quite hear. But later, I saw her talking to another co-worker, Mark, and they were both looking over at me. I bet she was complaining about me. I just kept doing my work, closing more cases.
I don’t think I did anything wrong. I’m just good at my job. I’m efficient. The company wants us to be efficient. If Sarah can’t keep up, that’s her problem, not mine. I’m not purposefully trying to hurt her, I’m just doing what’s best for me and my performance. But now I’m wondering if I should have handled it differently. She made it sound like I was being a jerk.
Am I The Jerk? I really don’t think so, but I want to know what you all think. I’m just trying to be a good employee and make my money. I’m not trying to be mean.
