When I was tasked for training rookies in call centers before they were put to the floor, the program I was in actually had intelligent supervisors. The last week of training was "call training" where we would call from a script. However, being as I'd been in call centers for a long time, they told me "Please be a bad customer" and nothing more.

In less than two minutes I had the guy at the other end nearly in tears. So I hung up my phone in the office, went to the training office and sat with him, offered him tissues, and apologized. I, then, talked to him about how I was just mimicking a customer I'd gotten just the week prior, without the profanity and rather crass insults she use. Once he calmed down, I gave him a 15 minute break and a coupon for the soda machine so he could get a free soda and calm his nerves.

Then I had him sit and listen to the recording of the call I had to deal with. Needless to say, he was shocked at her profanity, her insults, and her, well, bovine manure. Once you learn to weather those calls, call center work, while fast paced, isn't all that bad, even if you're the call-in complaint department. He was still there two years later when I quit.

I didn't quit due to the callers, however. I quit due to the behavior of my very... unpleasant supervisor. She's replaced my old supervisor six months prior, and was so bad, that even I'd had enough and left.