Suckitude at work →[More:]
The only good thing about this week is that Monday was a holiday and I didn't have to be in the office. My two days in the office (Tuesday and today) have sucked beyond belief.

I work in an Alternative Dispute Resolution service at a fairly senior level dealing with complaints against banks and other financial institutions and by the time cases land on my desk they usually involve either complex issues or difficult/crazy complainants, and usually both. More often than not earlier attempts by junior staff to mediate a settlement have failed, leading the complainant to become even further entrenched.

Just about every letter I received this week was nasty - from combative at best to downright vile at worst. Here's an extract from one of the nicer ones. The complaint was utterly hopeless but the complainant is difficult. I wrote the most sympathetic letter I possibly could when I turned down his complaint.

"Pursuant to my appeal I now also submit my serious and justified doubts about the impartiality and probity of [essexjan] in the matter relating to my complaint.

This is because the matter has been through three of your officials, starting with [KS, who works in our call centre and has a purely administrative job] who sounded very sympathetic and favourably judgmental.

The [my employer] didn't like this so it appointed [LG, a junior casehandler whose job it is to see if there's a 'quick fix' to complaints] who sounded even more favourably disposed towards me. He too was unacceptable to the bank and [employer] until they decided to appoint [essexjan], probably a dishonest nasty piece of work endearing herself to the bank and your management taking her time to come up with absolute rubbish. I challenge this wicked-sounding entity to clean up her act and confess the pressure placed upon her by the bank."

The letter goes on to demand that I be replaced, not just on this case but in my job. Oh, and he's also complained about me to the Law Society to get me struck off (disbarred).

Of course, it is all totally without merit but it will now involve me having to deal with the Law Society complaint as well as the internal complaint about me, both of which will take several months to be resolved.

Like I said, this is one of the more pleasant letters I've had this week. I really do love my job, the work is interesting and very worthwhile but the amount of written and telephone abuse that we're having to endure is getting worse.

Thank gawd I'm working from home tomorrow.