Operator 8 should not be working in customer service at all.
Yesterday morning (January 2nd, 2025), between the times of 11:50am and 12:30pm my 10 year old daughter and I arrived at this office. We patiently waited as we were number 31 and arrived when the cue was at number 8. Things were moving along well and there seemed to be an upbeat and swift flow amongst the many staff working. Looked like a good rapport within the staff and the manager. As soon as 31 was called, we stood up immediately and then the number switched to 32 just as we stood up.
We were confused.
We walked towards two operators beside eachother saying we were 31 to be met with Operator 8 rudely communicating with an angry tone at my child and I saying, "I called 31!". We froze and were confused. I replied "I didn't hear anyone call 31, but we're 31."
She proceeded to reply in anger and annoyance "Ok, but I called 31!".
Wow. We stepped to her desk, my daughter kindly said to her she would like to renew her health card. This women looked annoyed at my child, ignored her, looked at me with further annoyance, then pointed her finger at me and my child and said, "I will not be speaking to her, I will be speaking to you as you're the parent." She then cut me off before I could talk and further chastised me that my daughter's card expired over a year ago. I told her one of my main reason ( not all as I could barely get a word in) as the offices hours conflict with mine, and I'm off this week.
Her angry tone escalated from there as though I was a bad parent for waiting this long to renew. I have valid reasons I shouldn't have had to justify to this terribly rude women.
At this point I put my hands up and asked why she was being so rude to us. She then raised her voice even more from the heightened volume it already was, drawing attention from the entire office of staff and customers waiting, to then accuse me of having been aggressive to her when I initially stepped to her desk. The manager stepped in, acted consolingly to this operator, not analyzing the entirety of the situation deeming me the problem.
She took over and clearly saw I wasn't rude or aggressive at all. She swiftly got our transaction going, however, Operator 8 then stepped back, leaned against a filing cabinet and just stared right at me constantly with a hateful expression. I looked up at her perplexed and asked why she was staring at me this way? She rolled her eyes and the manager assisting us told her to go have her lunch. I asked this manager how someone like that gets a job at a place like this? Her response: "She's actually my best employee."
How? From what I observed yesterday, if that's so, that's concerning my tax dollars are hiring people like this. I proceeded to say, we did absolutely nothing, this manager rebutted back "Well, we have cameras and I'll see from there" as though it was a threat towards our behaviour. We were not rude or aggressive at all, but on the defensive immediately upon arriving to her desk due to what we were met with.
We are Canadian Citizens, born and raised in this country. I have been working and paying taxes for 32 years, with zero criminal charges, and just a plain old kind and respectful human being with basic human rights. Yesterday my child and I were treated as though we were trash and unlawful citizens.
No one needs to be treated like this.
I've been in customer service for 3 decades. I understand stressful environments. But the analytical observation and just plain consideration, decency and respect were at its lowest yesterday with this employee. With an end result of increased anxiety and negativity for all involved. My 10 year old stated as we left, "That lady was so mean and we didn't even do anything!"
Thank you to this service for making my child and I at the start of our day and year feel like felons, when we're actually quite the opposite simply because an employee has no respectful customer service skills and defaults at her own trauma projections at innocent people. read more
