brozinski ([info]brozinski) wrote,
@ 2008-04-16 09:50:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Current mood: nervous

I wonder how I'm going to do this
I really do. I wonder if I'm just a whiny wuss or some such. I spent years on Paxil and it's assorted cousins for a panic disorder. Bad problems with them but at the time I thought that it was certainly better than the alternative. 2 or 3 years ago I found that the alternative had to be better than being on the pills so I went off them. Cold turkey. Something I wouldn't wish on my casual enemies. Worst enemies maybe, but my casual ones I like too much. Everything went fine. I'm doing things now that I never thought I would; singing in a professional opera, making money playing the piano, things like that. I've got more friends then ever before and I'm happy.

So why can't I make phone calls? Just can't. As my friend Jason will attest, I don't (read can't) make phone calls. I hardly call my own family because it is so hard for me to pick up the damn phone.

I come back to work after my operation and boss lady says that she can keep up on the daily balancing (which she can't, she takes the money home with her and does the balancing at night) and so what if I take over the school accounts.

Now the school accounts. They're kind of a special deal. We split our profit margin with schools that order their music from us. If we get 50% from our publishers, the schools get a 25% discount on there music, publishers give us 30% and schools get 15%. It's wonderful right? Anyway that we can help get more music in schools.

So I make a database of all the schools in the state, and some of the surrounding ones, and I mail out letters and I take orders and then I learn, which I really should have guessed except that we have someone else who takes care of accounts, that I will have to call all the schools with delinquent accounts. Boing! Heart in my throat. Oh, and by the way, would you call all the schools that you sent letters to. Boing! Oh, and will you call the publishers and make the orders and take care of return authorizations (story about that which makes me want to choke) and all that jazz. Boing!

How do it do it? I've been dragging my feet on a couple of other projects just so I won't have to do this? I know the worst that will happen. The schools will say no, the publishers will laugh at me after they hang up the phone, and neither of those things will affect me. What's the worst that could happen if I don't do this is losing my job, but it is so hard to make phone calls.




(4 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]haikujaguar
2008-04-16 04:28 pm UTC (link)
If it helps, I too thought I had an issue with anxiety, but it was actually an issue with the phones. Twenty years ago, you could hear someone whisper over a phone line... the quality was really really good. Now you're lucky if you can tell who's on the other line, because cellphone connections are so bad and the quality's degraded so much.

You're musically inclined... I bet you're responding a lot to how poor the audio quality has become in phone connections. Maybe that's more it. :)

(Reply to this) (Thread)


[info]brozinski
2008-04-16 05:24 pm UTC (link)
I hope that's it. If I can't, I mean how sad is it to have an accompanist who won't call you back. That could be a real handicap.

(Reply to this) (Parent)


[info]puffbird
2008-04-16 04:47 pm UTC (link)
*hugs*

As you know, I have had problems with this, too, and I still do. I had to figure out point blank how to cope when I first started working for the arts council, though... the first project they put me on was calling Really Rich and Very Busy People to schedule interviews for a feasibility study. I? Was Not Happy. But I had to do it.

Having to do something that you have a lot of trouble doing is very hard. :( I hope you can figure it out.

(Reply to this)


(Anonymous)
2008-04-16 06:11 pm UTC (link)
Hey, buddy - for what it's worth, cold calls are difficult for everyone except a sociopathic minority (we call them "salespeople"). I hate doing it myself. I know it's especially hard for you, but you'll find a way...

Jason

(Reply to this)


(4 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…