Member-only story
I Was Mistaken For a Robot
On an almost-daily basis.
Whenever I chat with a support agent, it’s always a little unclear whether or not I’m talking to a human.
And I’ve been on the other side of that. I’ve been in a position where I’m struggling to hit my quota, so I’m using the same text over and over. I’m playing a balancing act between quality and quantity, and the goal posts are always changing. Spend too much time on a case, and I won’t hit my numbers. Go too fast, and risk making a huge mistake…or worse, incurring someone’s Twitter wrath.
It’s never good when the CEO of a company is checking their Twitter and sees an irate customer who is splattering a screenshot of your case all over social. It’s frustrating to be told to go faster and faster, only to be told to relax, take it slow, when you inevitably make a mistake.
Yes, I was mistaken for a robot. But we are continuously asked to be robots.
Two years ago, I ventured out to try to make a living based on being a human. It’s been rocky, to say the least. I try to take jobs where I have to be creative, and where I can’t go on autopilot. It doesn’t always work — a job is a job, after all, and most of us have had to take on jobs that make us feel a little less than human.
