Recently I enjoyed reading a blog posted by my colleague Geri Eakins entitled Power Reboot. it was a delightful rendition of her foray into techy turbulence territory and her amusing encounter with a technician from India. I chuckled as I read her story and emphasized with her frustrations of feeling at loss with computer issues that seemed out of her understanding.

Now I don’t think I am alone in dreading the call in to the help line. How much is this call going to cost me in time, patience and aggravation? This is what I am thinking as I expect to battle automated directories, endless wait times, being put on hold and possible disconnection which inevitably means back to square one.

Well after much procrastination I made the call in today to the “help line” to address an internet issue which my comcast device cheekily told me  in a message “if your internet was a heartbeat it would be flatlining” So when your devices start making fun of your devices… well you’ve just entered technical twilightzone lol.

Now this call did take over an hour but it was a delightful experience and I truly think I give the credit to Geri’s power reboot blog which clicked in the back of my brain to shift my thinking around what this call for help could be.

As soon as the technician asked me how I was today it clicked for me, this is a person, and I asked how he was in return and truly meant it and saw him as more than an aggravation to vent my pent up frustrations on.

As it turns out we easily solved my long delayed problem and while it was solved we had a conversation, I learned he lived in Montreal where my daughter had lived, he had a wife who taught in the University and  was looking to relocate west, possibly Kelowna. He had lots of questions for me  about living in the west and funny enough I was able to help him as much as he helped me. We had a mutually beneficial interaction which somehow felt more human to me. By bringing the humanity back into a technical call I was able to ground the whole experience and in that centred grounded place I completely believe it alleviated any turbulence that might have elevated my technical issues. The matter was solved rather effortlessly and ended with a smile and a thank you. It also ended with a reminder from my helper on the other end of the line that he was there to make my life more easy. I had to smile at that statement as I need to remember that yes there is always assistance available to make my life easier, I just need to remember to put a call in to the “help line”.

Ingrid Nazar ~ Lovin Livin Team Player.