Well, I've worked my last day of customer service. Well, maybe I shouldn't be so hasty, you never know when finances will dictate a second job.

As of Friday, I have been laid off/quit. A little of both. First they told me I was laid off, then they told me they had room for me and asked if I'd like to stay. I couldn't - the university I'm beginning at Monday said I cannot hold outside jobs without their permission, since in addition to my grad studies I'll be teaching a class. So I politely turned them down.

After around ten years of customer service, I must say it's had its ups and downs. There's nothing like finding an answer for a truly distraught consumer, particularly when its an answer you had to work for, and hearing the gratitude in that customers voice when you provide them with a solution. On the flip side, I've been told to "go to hell" because a customer couldn't find her favorite soap and to "put a f***ing supervisor on the phone" by a customer to whom I hadn't said much more than "hello." Ups and downs like any job. I'll remember the ups fondly, and laugh at the downs.

So I'm off to begin a new career shaping the impressionable minds of America's youth *insert evil cackle here*. But the next time you pick up your phone to call customer service, or approach the customer service desk at the store, remember me and be kind. We are the front lines, we proudly weather the abuse (some of it justified) prompted by policies we don't establish concerning products or services we don't design, but we do it not just for the pay (which, with the exception of my last job, I never considered impressive) but for the satisfaction of representing our companies and respresenting them well. Sometimes we're worn raw from the weathering, but trust me folks, most of us care.

Best of luck to the co-workers I've left behind and all my peeps in the csr business. Keep your head up, do your best, and may you always keep those customers in mind who make it all worth it.