Dealing with customers, Being around people a lot

[becomethepath]

Let's say your job requires you constant interaction with customers, customers will range from rude to nice. Will this constant interaction with customers everyday drain energy? Does it affect aura?

[Flolfolil]

If you let it, yes.

 

Also i find that being "fake" (as in pretending to smile and be happy when you are not) is very draining on me

[Chang]

Let's say your job requires you constant interaction with customers, customers will range from rude to nice. Will this constant interaction with customers everyday drain energy? Does it affect aura?

Yes it cannot but have an effect. Being able to deal with the negative energy of others is a very high accomplishment and is certainly not something I can claim to have mastered.

 

This is one reason why those on "the path" have sought to withdraw themselves from society so as to be able to pursue their aims.

 

Constant interaction with others can be draining!

[hagar]

Let's say your job requires you constant interaction with customers, customers will range from rude to nice. Will this constant interaction with customers everyday drain energy? Does it affect aura?

 

2 reflections:

- The reason why you feel drained is not necessarily other people or any "auras" but that you let your attention, and thus "shen" or mental/spiritual energy disperse. Take frequent brakes, or fuse your awareness with your inner body repeatedly, or take a quick nap at lunch time. We all disperse our Shen, and will gain energy and feel awake when the Shen is back into the body.

- The other perspective is that nothing outside of yourself is actually the origin of any problem, depletion or drainage. It is your perception of yourself as "me" and them as "other". This does not get solved mentally, and will not change if you just think that others are not "others". If you feel this in your heart, interaction with others will change. How to do this?

Find in yourself, the space where there is no difference between "I" and "they", between inner and outer. This is space, stillness, peace, immaterial. Rest there for a while, and take this into life. It is life.

 

h

[zanshin]

It is a good opportunity to feel empathy and compassion for people. The rude person probably feels terribly misunderstood and it's sort of cool how you can become friendly with the right interaction, so potential for good spiritual exercise. It can also be draining, so I think it's helpful to have sort of transition ritual when you leave and when you get home, maybe just wash hands really well and then do it again and change clothes, avoid taking work related stuff home. For balance, allow time alone and to rest.

[ChiForce]

Be compassionate.....have a genuine interest in the customers. I know, is a hard skill to master for most people. FYI, I used to be a store manager of one of the large retail chains. For 6 years. I can deal with all sorts of people and had many loyal customers of whom I addressed them by their first names. Those I couldn't deal with were thieves and shoplifters. If you are an ass, I can keep the conversation to the minimal. If you are an ass and unreasonable, I would hide behind the "store policy" to avoid in helping you.

 

 

[Jainarayan]

Energy and emotional vampires; they suck the life out of you.

[becomethepath]

I realize when I deal with a rude customer, at the end of the end I think back about that "incident" and kind puts me down a little. Sometimes I just tell myself, "they are just having a bad day, I shouldn't let their anger affect me".

[hagar]

The thing staring you in the eye is usually the most potent: thought about finding another job?

 

h

[Jetsun]

One guy at my work was always real nice to customers and even started helping an old lady by bringing her shopping to her at home, she ended up leaving him £20,000 when she died.

[Songtsan]

Let's say your job requires you constant interaction with customers, customers will range from rude to nice. Will this constant interaction with customers everyday drain energy? Does it affect aura?

 

yes and no...I have spent much time in customer service believe it or not, and I did well as an introvert. You can adapt to anything. Ideally though, it would be healthier for certain people to only be around people that they gelled with. Sometimes however, as in my case (being an introvert and socially immature for my age), you will grow as a person. It's much like karma yoga. If you are constantly stressed out and it goes on and on, day after day, do not hesitate to look elsewhere for work.

[Sloppy Zhang]

I do customer facing tech support. Which means that customers only contact me when something is broken, lost, or they can't figure something out. 90% of the time, they're pretty angry and abrasive.

 

You'd be surprised how nice people can be very mean people in a bad situation. I'm sure if you thought about yourself when you are mad, frustrated, swearing up a storm, hate the moronic corporations taking your money and keeping you down, etc etc etc.

 

So one thing that is nice about the position (and I am quite the introvert to begin with) is that you can see this shift after you have helped resolved their issue. They are happy, nice, they love the hell out of you, want to come back for repeat business, etc. So if I were to say that for every one unit of bad energy at the start, I get anywhere from 2-5 units of good energy at the end.

 

And of course some people are just going to be grouchy no matter what. That's completely their issue, not yours, and you need to recognize. Something is wrong with THEM. Be very careful about internalizing someone's bad attitude as a reflection of themselves onto you.

 

There are some things I have no power over, such as making the product do something it was not designed to do. Some people want something else, in that case, they need to get something else. They can hem and haw and insult me and my company and my manager and my product as much as they want. It flat out will not change the situation. For people like that, I acknowledge, but "ignore" (for lack of a better term). They obviously have some issue, and our product "malfunction" was just the stimulus that flipped the switch of everything that was going on with their lives- bad home life, bad professional life, poor night of sleep, low quarterly revenue, etc etc.

 

In some respects, I can understand their position and sympathize, and so it doesn't feel like they're angry at "me." But sometimes they do hate "me" in which case I have many units of positive energy built up throughout the day, so I can get on with it

 

The thing that drained me was sales, because for the most part that's putting my energy out and only getting energy back maybe 5 or 10% of the time.

 

"Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no."

"Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no."

"Hey you wanna buy this product?' "yes."

"Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no."

*end of month rolls around*

Manager: "hey you should increase your performance."

 

So since you can't make those 4 people who said "no" say "yes," (well sometimes you can, but it's a lot of work) you really just have to find 4 new people. And for me, it was just a constant energy sink.

 

At least in my position now, even if it's bad energy, I still have some energy to play with

[ChiForce]

One guy at my work was always real nice to customers and even started helping an old lady by bringing her shopping to her at home, she ended up leaving him £20,000 when she died.

Here is Karma at work, I think... Besides, as a defender of the dharma, you are supposed to find yourself in the mist of human suffering. Your role is to help others....

[ChiForce]

I do customer facing tech support. Which means that customers only contact me when something is broken, lost, or they can't figure something out. 90% of the time, they're pretty angry and abrasive.

 

You'd be surprised how nice people can be very mean people in a bad situation. I'm sure if you thought about yourself when you are mad, frustrated, swearing up a storm, hate the moronic corporations taking your money and keeping you down, etc etc etc.

 

So one thing that is nice about the position (and I am quite the introvert to begin with) is that you can see this shift after you have helped resolved their issue. They are happy, nice, they love the hell out of you, want to come back for repeat business, etc. So if I were to say that for every one unit of bad energy at the start, I get anywhere from 2-5 units of good energy at the end.

 

And of course some people are just going to be grouchy no matter what. That's completely their issue, not yours, and you need to recognize. Something is wrong with THEM. Be very careful about internalizing someone's bad attitude as a reflection of themselves onto you.

 

There are some things I have no power over, such as making the product do something it was not designed to do. Some people want something else, in that case, they need to get something else. They can hem and haw and insult me and my company and my manager and my product as much as they want. It flat out will not change the situation. For people like that, I acknowledge, but "ignore" (for lack of a better term). They obviously have some issue, and our product "malfunction" was just the stimulus that flipped the switch of everything that was going on with their lives- bad home life, bad professional life, poor night of sleep, low quarterly revenue, etc etc.

 

In some respects, I can understand their position and sympathize, and so it doesn't feel like they're angry at "me." But sometimes they do hate "me" in which case I have many units of positive energy built up throughout the day, so I can get on with it

 

The thing that drained me was sales, because for the most part that's putting my energy out and only getting energy back maybe 5 or 10% of the time.

 

"Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no."

"Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no."

"Hey you wanna buy this product?' "yes."

"Hey you wanna buy this product?" "no."

*end of month rolls around*

Manager: "hey you should increase your performance."

 

So since you can't make those 4 people who said "no" say "yes," (well sometimes you can, but it's a lot of work) you really just have to find 4 new people. And for me, it was just a constant energy sink.

 

At least in my position now, even if it's bad energy, I still have some energy to play with

Well, then, I have to give you some coaching...you don't ask open-end questions. You should have said that "I can save you some money by signing up to our discount card...." Or "you need this extra batteries because it would prolong your whatever...." "Or this item only has a 90 days warranty but I can sign you up for our extended warranty, It covers for 3 extra years, no questions asked."