In the meantime, some of the associates became so frustrated with the system they began cursing at it while waiting for the customer to come on the line. But since you never knew exactly when the connection would be completed, it was only a matter of time until the inevitable happened and a customer coming out of "hold" would get an earful. No doubt some of those unfortunate customers hung up and went to the competition. But apparently, halfway through the second week, at least three of them called the head office to complain.

Suddenly the connection delay became my No. 1 priority. Fortunately, the problem turned out to be fairly easy to resolve, and soon I had the system connecting callers in less than a second.

Mark Twain was right: Under certain trying circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.