I did tech support for a real estate board when I was in University, helping ungrateful realtors figure out the online BBS style system that was used to let them know when new houses came on the market, allow them to do property searches for their clients, do comparative market analysis (CMA), and so on. I was hired originally to help the realtors get accustomed to the new system, learn its ins and outs, and after the 4 month work experience semester was up, leave and go back to school.
That 4 months lasted 4 years.
I went back to school, but I ended up continuing to work for another term at the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board (FVREB), then working part time while in school, and over the summer, for a grand total of almost 4 years. Thankfully I escaped and got my current job. They say that average time to burnout for tech support workers is 18 months. I'm surprised I'm not mad right now. I dealt with shit and heard things that no one should ever have to hear.
One day I was wandering down the hall from my office after a particularly horrific call, cold, black cup of coffee in hand, and I found myself muttering. The phrase would became my mantra, my motivation, my reason to live from day to day and dragging my sorry ass from my warm bed first thing in the morning (especially after a long night of studying.
"It's all right to be filled with hate, people are stupid."