People Can Be Sooooo Mean

I did my quick morning glance at Matt Drudge's web site (www.drudgereport.com) and clicked on a link mentioning a lawsuit filed against Walgreens. I was HORRIFIED at the comments made in the article. The comments are as mean as anything kids would do in middle school.

From the article:

"Typed in a field reserved for patient information and dated March 17, 2005, was "CrAzY!!" In another field, dated Sept. 30, 2004, it read: "She's really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when ... " The information continued onto another page but was not attached."

I know that in my lifetime, I have used private note fields to put comments that I wish I had never typed. None of them were in the category of what the Walgreens employees did, but I still feel bad nonetheless. Usually the comments were just warnings to other CSR's who may have to deal with the person.

Almost every company I have worked for had some sort of ticketing system that allows for free form comments. Most of the time this is used in a positive, professional manner. However, sometimes someone fails to use good judgment and types in something completely out of line. One case I can remember rather well was back when I was a help desk manager. I had brought on several temps to assist us at a time when we were overwhelmed with phone calls. One young man, who I did not interview, typed in the comment "Customer is a real hard a$$" in field that got e-mailed to the customer when the ticket was submitted. The customer called me and gave me an earful and rightfully so. The CSR was my responsibility. I told her I would have the CSR contact her immediately and I would sit in if she wanted me to. Long story short, the CSR was let go a few weeks later, with this incident being the straw that broke the camels back.

Poor judgment is a fact of life. I feel sorry (deeply sorry) for the woman who was wronged by this incident. At the very least the offending employee should be fired. The statements made in the computer system than be read by thousands of employees are damaging to this young woman in her current conditioned, medicated or not.