I mourn the loss of civility in our society.

So I was at work yesterday. I have to reschedule this one family because the day I originally scheduled them for turns out to only have one late and inconvenient MRI slot left. But when I called back to talk to the family, they said that it was okay. Sweet! Got a family scheduled!

But now it is 4:55 and I HAVE to call back to the MRI scheduling people and snag that last MRI time. I know it's rude to call right before closing, but I just can't risk losing that last time slot. Besides, all I have to do is schedule the appointment, right? Not that hard.

So the lady answers, I apologize for calling late in the day, but say I just need to schedule this kid on this day at this time.

She sighs, heavily.

She starts plodding through the scheduling process. Name? Birth date? Address? What time do you want? All the while, she's chatting with her coworkers. So on my end it sounds like this:

"Name? Yeah, I know, I can't believe I got stuck on this call. Birth date? I don't even know why I picked up the phone. Address? I'll come as soon as get this taken care of. What time? I thought I had the phones turned off, I can't believe this one got through."

But, you know, that's okay. I understand. It's time to go home.

But then things begin to go wrong. And for whatever reason, she can't figure out how to schedule the appointment. Which really has to be a problem if you are the MRI appointment scheduler.

So she takes it up a notch. Now she's talking to both others and herself, but not so much me. I'm mostly just listening to her not know how to schedule an appointment.

"Why isn't this working. I can NOT believe this phone call. I have to go pick up my daughter. This is ridiculous. What is wrong? Sherri, do you see this appointment? I know I made this appointment. Is it coming up on your computer? I can't see it on mine. His name is John Brown. Brown. John. What's his date of birth?"

Pause.

"MA'AM?? I'm TALKING to you! You need to pay attention. We're having a little problem here in case you couldn't tell."

Oh, she was talking to me there. That's fun. Stupid me. I totally should have known that that last question was directed at me when the previous 10 minutes consisted of talking about the stupid phone call as if I, the stupid phone call, couldn't hear.

"I really can't believe this. I really have to go get my daughter."

Um, so how about you shut up and schedule the damn appointment, then? I mean, I do apologize for calling right before closing, but I don't think it is unreasonable to expect you, the scheduling lady, to know how to schedule an appointment. I, too, have kids waiting at daycare to be picked up and that would go faster if you would stop being incompetent.

But you don't hear ME muttering rude things.

It finally got done, and I got the appointment time, but it was forty minutes on the phone with this lady who was all mad at ME because she answered the phone and couldn't do her job.

When did it become acceptable to behave this way, at work, in front of customers?