"I can hear you…"

So this was back in April after I first started working from home.

We were given new headsets with a mute button on for silent holds which I used pretty frequently to either bitch about my customers or just cough/sneeze. You know, the usual stuff. I’m also a pretty loud talker on the phone, I have relatively poor hearing so I’ve always been a pretty loud person but I’d also had a couple comments from people saying they couldn’t hear me on the phone since WFH.

So I’m helping this guy with his order, and I tell him I’m gonna go quiet for a couple mins whilst I put it through for him.

At this point, I start singing (very loudly and very badly) “oooh whatya saay” (yeah, THAT song), and my partner shouts me from upstairs asking:

“Why are you so loud when you’re on the phone?!”

Me: “Because if I’m not loud nobody can fucking hear me!”

Customer: “Oh I can hear you”

Me: heart drops “Oh sorry about that… Just working from home problems y’know nervous laughter hoping the call isn’t listened to?”

Customer: “Haha yeah…”

At this point I swiftly wrapped up the call and curled up on my sofa to die for a while before moving onto my next one. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more fearful for my job than in that moment but thankfully I never heard about it again.

Few things I wondered at the end of this call: 1 – how many fucking people have I talked shit about and have blatantly heard me 2 – what the hell was this guy thinking when he heard me spontaneously come out with singing in the middle of a phone call 3 – WHY DIDNT HE SAY ANYTHING BEFORE I SWORE

I did mention the fact that the mute button didn’t seem to be working for me to my manager and apparently it was/is a known problem.