Rude...

I never experienced so much rude before, but there are a LOT of people who call my office and are rude.

The clients are mostly okay so far. They seem to genuinely be looking for some help and want to help themselves. I'm sure I'll get a few that are trying. (Doing insurance defense, the ones with the small policies tended to ignore any calls from counsel's office, so I had a few that just did not return calls, which got me a little stressed when discovery deadlines loomed.)

But, man, I did not know how rude adjusters could be. They were always nice enough when they called the office when we were on their side, but they seem like they would gladly squish me like a wayward ant if given the opportunity now.

Plus, I think it's hilarious how attorneys' secretaries will get snotty and rude with me.

This was today's conversation:

Me: Hi, I was just calling to follow up on those possible deposition dates we discussed last week.
Mean Secretary Lady: Well, I was waiting for you to notice them.
Me: Oh, well, actually you mentioned that you wanted to check with your clients to see if they could be available those dates.
Mean Secretary Lady: Oh, that's right. Well, I don't know, but I will check with my attorney. (even though she knows his schedule, it's the clients she needs to check with.)
Me: Okay, now you know we are planning on doing these deposition in [city in between our cities]. (Our last discussion she insisted that it had been agreed we would have the depos at their office three hours away and acted shocked when I mentioned a city in between.)
Mean Secretary Lady: Well, my attorney says they have to be at our office.
Me: I see. Well, my attorney was specific about saying I should schedule them in [city in between].
Mean Secretary Lady: Well, they are our clients.
Me: Well, I believe the statute is pretty clear that we can compel your clients to travel up to 90 miles.
Mean Secretary Lady: Oh. Well, I'll ask my attorney but he's not going to like this.

Like I give a tiny rat's ass if your attorney expects you to able to bully me into having a depo three hours away from here when I know that not only does my boss NOT want to drive in city traffic for three hours, but I don't even have to have this conversation with you. I could just notice the depo and not even give you the courtesy of asking and make your precious clients drive 89.9 miles (just for kicks) to boot.

Needless to say, the attorney called me a little while later and was much nicer about asking if we could help him out, which made me feel more like helping him by choosing a location a little closer to them.

Sheesh.

And I've noticed that being super calm and ultra-polite with people who are snotty really, really irritates them, so if course that's what I do.