This. I was phone support for dial-up internet for the transition - when I started, we just did our best and frequently worked with customers at their level. I enjoyed that, the customers did too. I got promoted easily.
By the time our jobs were getting shipped overseas and we were all getting fired, they replaced that with a ‘knowledge tree’ everyone was supposed to follow regardless of our personal experience in order to make sure all customers got the exact same experience. Softened the blow. I never went back to tech support as a job.
(This was like twenty years ago. I imagine it’s only gotten more stifling since then.)
This. I was phone support for dial-up internet for the transition - when I started, we just did our best and frequently worked with customers at their level. I enjoyed that, the customers did too. I got promoted easily.
By the time our jobs were getting shipped overseas and we were all getting fired, they replaced that with a ‘knowledge tree’ everyone was supposed to follow regardless of our personal experience in order to make sure all customers got the exact same experience. Softened the blow. I never went back to tech support as a job.
(This was like twenty years ago. I imagine it’s only gotten more stifling since then.)