Yelling at Tech Support Does More Harm than Good

Jan. 26, 2008— -- There will be blood.

OK, maybe not blood. But there will be music on hold, and rising tempers and quite a lot of yelling, because it's Friday and your computer crashed and you need to finish that report and the tech support guy is not helping.

Quotidian computer complaints, frustration and feelings of helplessness are pretty standard for people who spend their workday sitting in front of a monitor. So, too, is the temptation to chew out the tech support professional at the other of the phone when you're staring at a blue screen or can't get your e-mail to work.

But before you bite off the head of the help desk analyst, consider that your actions might have real consequences.

"One guy just wouldn't listen to the help we were trying to give him," said Adnan, a tech support pro at a large insurance firm in New York, who asked ABC News not to use his last name.

"He was just screaming and cursing. No matter what I said, his sole response was just to curse. I think because I don't have an American name, he figured I was in some call center in India," he said. "I told my boss, who escalated it to the HR department. They had a meeting with him, and we never had any more problems from him again."

People tend to be more emotive over the phone or in an e-mail than they would ever be in person, said Tory Johnson, a workplace expert and ABC News contributor.

"On the phone and especially in e-mail, we say things that we would never say face-to-face. In the workplace the customer is always right, but sometimes a customer can get out of hand and needs to be put in their place," she said.

A comment you might call snide or just a way to blow off steam might be construed by a help desk attendant or even the HR department as a rather serious workplace offense -- bullying.

"One person might describe their behavior as being annoyed, dissatisfied or snippy. But someone on the other end of the phone might perceive those comments as belligerent or bullying," Johnson said. "If someone feels they are being bullied or intimidated or disrespected, they have a right to complain."