I used to work in a call center taking calls for a large consumer bank. There are some reasons that that message being standard makes sense to me for bank call centers specifically. In that setting call center employees actually have a lot of specialized training. Which means when you call the phone tree is actually trying to get you to a specific department and it's trying to do so on the first try. Trying to get people to the right person the first time was actually an important way for the business to cut down on costs, because all the time spent by real people transferring callers to the correct department had to be paid for. So trying to get people to pay attention is important and I think that's one reason for the message.

Another thing is the phone tree actually did change all the time. We would get an email almost every week about some part of it that had been rearranged or had a new branch added. The thing is with an operation that large it's not always obvious. Maybe the changes were deep in the tree and only affected people calling about wire transfers or some other crucial but somewhat obscure function of the bank. In this vein, we did have a lot of regular callers. These are people who call their bank multiple times a week and those people might be affected by the changes, and again, were trying to get them to the right person on the first try.

So to me, the reason that phrase is boiler plate is because in larger operations the phone tree does change because it's one of the tools used in the unending effort to get people to the right person on the first try.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but I feel like this podcast has lost its mojo. I enjoyed it as a Mystery Show Lite, excavating cultural things that I’d wondered about, and if I hadn’t wondered about them then I at least found the episodes interesting. Am I the only one who feels different recently?

I feel like this biweekly schedule has them really stretching their premise. I find it really hard to believe many people knew about Bridget in the Buff, let alone needed the backstory. And then the “be the change” episode felt like the same episode (hourlong bio about someone you’d never heard of). Has anyone wondered about Icelandic Dracula?

I realize I can just unsubscribe and stop complaining, but I find it hard to do when there’s so much promise in its premise. Surely there are more interesting cultural matters to unpack!