CW: Brief discussion of sexual harassment of support staff, and of discriminatory layoffs.
Ash's previous boss, Morgan Reed, wrote in with a question, and we did what we always do, which is answer MAAAAAYBE half of it and then wander off somewhere else entirely.
The topic was difficult customers and difficult bosses. Sarah has fired exactly two B2B customers and explains the only argument that has ever worked, which involves a spreadsheet and basically not a single mention of anyone's suffering. We get into grey rocking, the point where customers stop getting second chances, and that stomach-churning, horrifying moment when you go digging and discover that the customer really was right the whole time (we really are the baddies)
Then bosses . . . How working with them involves figuring out what keeps them up at night, which report they open first, and what metrics prick their ears up. Sarah explained the gorilla experiment, and Ash admitted that he has some trust issues, even with good bosses following far too many experiences with REALLY bad ones.
We also got into why you should never be the only person at your company who knows you exist or what you do, and what really happens to people who burn the place down on the way out. Nobody warns you about the private Slack groups that exist across industries, but they're terrifying.
Feels Herders is Ash Rhodes and Sarah Betts talking about support, leadership, and feelings. Tangents are the brand. The ENTIRE brand.
