Call Center Chaos!

     So much has been written over the last seven years over the mind-boggling tragedy that occurred at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, that it’s a daunting task to even approach the subject. The most compelling reading has come from those who offered first-hand accounts of the tragedies…the survivors…whether policemen, fire-fighters, stock brokers or janitors.  The families of the fallen have offered bittersweet stories of their last contact with loved ones, and their suffering continues to this day, as many still haven’t received the closure which they seek.

     While I can’t hope to offer the same type of account, or do justice to the families or the memories of those lost, I can offer a window on how this terrible event changed the lives of about 300 people in a call center, hundreds of miles away from New York and Washington, D.C.

     By the time September arrived in 2001, we were already reeling from several tragedies.  When you work with so many people, you have, at least, passing contact with all of them.  You get closer to more people than you stop to realize, until the worst happens.  One of our coworkers had recently passed away.  Though she was elderly, it was still a shock.  Many of us attended her memorial service at a local park, which gave us a chance to get out in nature and reflect on the cycle of life.  More shocking was the very recent suicide of one of another co-worker, whose funeral we attended two days after the attacks.  It was profoundly sad to discover that someone was hurting so much that she took that final step, and so few of us, out of 300 employees, even knew that she was going through a crisis.

     We had people that were effected by the bombings.  My manager lost a dear friend who was a firefighter working in one of the towers at the time it collapsed.  My boss would go on to honor his friend’s loss by serving for a year in the army in Baghdad.  Several other employees would be called up in the reserves, or would have family members that would be called up to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nearly everyone had someone who was affected by the 9/11 attacks, or who were caught-up in the aftermath.

     In addition to being depressed, we were divided.  One of the most contentious elections in U.S. history had occurred less than a year earlier, with George W. Bush narrowly defeating Al Gore.  Conspracy theories regarding the outcome of the election abounded, and time between calls always led to polical discussions…which frequently turned into arguments.  When customers discovered they were talking to someone in Florida, it was not at all uncommon for them to give a hapless agent a piece of their mind regarding how people in Florida were too stupid to vote.  We couldn’t read our ballots and couldn’t even punch through the cards properly, leaving the notorious “hanging” or “pregnant” chads.  The caller’s party affiliation didn’t matter…either we lost the election or we nearly lost the election, so we got blated from both sides and were the butt of everyone’s jokes.

     On the morning of the 11th, I woke up and flipped on CNN Headline News to get my quick news fix while I prepared to go to work.  Getting up for me meant 9:30-10am, as I worked nights. As I slowly came to life and my blurry eyes focused on the TV screen, my first reaction was that I had the wrong channel.  I thought I was watching a re-run of The Siege on HBO.  The vision before me was so unreal, that it had to be a movie, and the scene looked like one right out of the 1998 film starring Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis, about a terrorist attack on New York City.  I had just recently seen the movie for the first time, so it made a lot more sense to me.  I couldn’t fathom that I was watching a passenger jetliner full of people slam into the most famous landmark in the New York City skyline.

     In a few minutes, a friend called from work to let me know that everyone was being sent home.  My jaw hung open, and I was unable to speak, beyond, “this can’t be real!” for several minutes.  I’ve been fortunate to avoid major tragedies in my life, but I have experienced moments of horror and absolute shock.  Nothing has compared, before or since, to the complete feeling of unreality that I felt at that moment.  It washed over me in waves, as if I’d fallen asleep on the beach on s sunny day, only to awake with the high tide sweeping over my body and threatening to pull me into a stormy sea.

     A very strange thing happened, though, when we all returned to work.  As expected, people were talking about the tragedy, discussing their personal connections, and, in general, finding a way to cope with something they never imagined would happen in their wildest dreams.  What wasn’t expected…the peculiar sense of hope that emerges when people share a horrible event.  Everyone was wearing American flag T-Shirts that proudly stated “United We Stand!” American flags were everywhere, on our cubicle walls, on our cars and hanging on the front of our homes.  We were determined that we “weren’t going to let the terrorists win” and would carry on with our lives.  We raised money and gathered supplies for the victims, as we would do when the war in Iraq began.  Even those who were chanting “Hail to the Thief!” months earlier rallied around President Bush, as we began clearing the rubble and braced for the next attack.

     Today, we find ourselves depressed and divided as a nation.  We’re going through an economic crisis that makes it harder to provide for our families and gives us all more immediate anxiety than the lingering threat of another terrorist attack.  We’re approaching an election that may well eclipse the contentiousness of the 2000 contest, and promises to provide an even more tumultuous aftermath, as our country heals from the rift revealed by a campaign that increasingly divides us along lines of race, gender, preference, age, economic status and beliefs.

     I applaud both John McCain and Barrack Obama for taking the time to visit Ground Zero and for honoring the memories of those lost. It’s unfortunate, though, that it takes a profound tragedy to bring us all together.  I have witnessed the power that 300 people in a call center can have when they put aside their differences and pull together to cope with sorrow and face a common threat. I can’t imagine a crisis or threat that can bring us down, if 300 million of us could work together the same way.