What’s my employers’ duty of care? Should I expect more?

[Sillyquestion123]

I work in a client facing role and yesterday one of clients verbally abused me. He even used swear words and it’s all recorded. I’m still shaken by the ordeal.

My manager reassured me it was not my fault, and she’d listen to the recording , but that was about it.

Im still in charge of that account until I hear otherwise.

ive never been in this situation before so I really know if should be expecting more or not.

It’s terrible but it’s also pretty common in customer facing roles, what else are you expecting the employer to do? Guessing you are new to the job?

No I’m not new to the job. I generally deal with Directors/C-suite type of people.

Ive been doing this for 7 years and it has never happened to me before.

Did you post about this yesterday?

No, wasn’t me!

To be honest it really depends on what kind of role you have. In my role, unfortunately that would be relatively common due to the nature of my work. If a client has a particular vendetta against an individual, we would reallocate the work but if it's a one off, we generally wouldn't. We might have a chat with our colleagues if we need to debrief after a difficult call. If our manager was concerned, they'd check in with us but not much else they can do.
What you can expect from the employer would also depend on your company and its processes. Have your colleagues experienced similar? What support did they receive?

C-suite?

id say you’ve sadly got lucky. Having previously worked in roles where the office was threatened with guns and we were sworn at on a daily basis by those we were there to work with/for I’d say if this is the first time in 7 years you’re doing g well.

not justifying the behaviour mind. Just that it’s far too common.

What is it that you want from your employer? They have told you it wasn't your fault and have said they will listen to the recording. What outcome do you want from those actions? When you say verbally abused what do you mean? What was said by client, was it personal or was it directed at frustrations with the service or something else?

Just what it is working with the general public. You've got of lightly if this is your first experience of it

So what exactly did you tell your manager ? If you are shaken and traumatised then you probably need to emphasise the impact this has had and ask for some interim arrangement if you dont want the client to speak to you again.
If you want more support eg some kind of time off or something else then I suggest you tell her what you need rather than expecting her to guess.

Yes they have a duty of care but some people may be less bothered by this than others. You need to ensure they understand the impact on you personally

You’ve don’t really well until now then. Maybe ask your employer if they can enroll you on any e learning courses for dealing with these sort of customers.

Well I mean he used the “c word”, fuck, shit and berated me and told me I was beyond useless.

Do you have a line manager that you can discuss it with or at least explain why you've found it hard to deal with .

Maybe you could request some coaching on 'dealing with difficult clients' so that you can develop strategies for if something similar happens again.

Unfortunately many of us have become immune to being sworn at, shouted at and insulted because it's such a regular occurrence. It's not a good thing and there is no reason why you should expect it.

is there a policy for deal g with abusive clients, terminating the call or asking that they be removed from premises, banned if appropriate. It could even potentially be reported to police. I’m not sure what you expect your manager to do in the short term p, other than assess the call and ask if you are ok.

We’re business consultants for all terms and purposes. We deal with clients who are directors/VPs/CEOs so it’s really unheard for someone in that level to just randomly starting verbally abusing someone. My colleagues have never experienced anything like it.

We get this a lot. You’ll be surprised how crazy some people are, when they can hide behind a phone.

Well it was not a phone it was a zoom call!

It really isn’t unheard of at all, for someone at “that level” to talk like that or frankly, behave like a total dick. In fact, I’d say it’s more common than not.
Tell your manager you will no longer handle that account.

Why didn’t you end the call?

I actually don’t know, I just went into auto-pilot to try to save the account. It really didn’t sink in he was being aggressive (and verbally abusive) until I talked to a work friend.

What do you want your employer to do? Hand the client over to someone else, get rid of the client or just have a word with them?

A zoom call isn't really any different to a phone call. Many roles involve dealing with that kind of behaviour face to face and can leave people fearful of being physically attacked, which isn't okay, but they still don't get much more than a listening ear usually.
What do you want from your employer? You will need to figure that out before raising any complaint about duty of care.

If the account wasn’t worth north of £100k I would fire the client, but I understand that’s not a good business decision.

if I were them, I’d ask to get a different point of contact on the client side.

Yep raise this with your employers. Tell them you refuse to work with that person again - put in someone else or an intermediary. Ask informally first. If no joy then a grievance. Perhaps tell your line manager it’s better for the account if that person deal with someone who can deal with thick people who don’t know how to get their point across in a professional way.

He used the word cunt - called you a cunt? - shit, fuck, called you useless and you're "shaken by the ordeal" but didn't realise it was aggressive until a colleague said so?

What do you want to happen? Have a think about what you'd find acceptable then arrange to speak to your manager about it.

As a side-note... what a wanky term c-suite is.

No not really. I was in tears and completely shaken when I talked it through with my colleague and then it finally all clicked.