My last call of the evening yesterday was the perfect opportunity to use the complete thought record. My first one.
Negative thought: I can't do math!
Situation: Customer challenging me on our calculations for the 1 cent of HST (a Canadian form of sales tax). Canadian government has decided that only a small portion of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) that merchants have to pay on credit card transactions by customers at their business. The card brand fee of 0.125% against the total MDR which in her case was 1.7% on a credit card sale of $79.00
Thoughts: O My God! We are talking about how the decimal point is rounded up.
Specific Thought to challenge: I am stupid because I can not win the math war.
Consequences/Feelings: 80% deflated, inadequate
Distortions: (I am not good at choosing from the selection.) So I picked Should Statements
Evidence the thought is true: I can not talk this caller round to seeing the calculations as I do. Which comes to 1.2 cents. Moneris has charged her .2 cents less than the actual tax.
Evidence the thought is not true: I am not stupid because not everyone is a math genius, which is likely needed to show this merchant how we calculate the HST.
While I was writing this all down on paper a few minutes after merchant was gone, I began to think this event was funny.
Alternative Thoughts: At least I did not hang up on her. I tried to explain the best I could, as I am not an accountant. I did not get rude with the merchant.
Feelings: 50%
By the time I had the though recorded completed, I began to see the funny side of this unusual event. Shared the thought record with 2 co-workers, one of whom is having anxiety issues as well. (Not uncommon where I work.) Hearty laughter was had at the merchant's expense and to my relief to get past how stressed I had felt.
Yep, long story. It does me good to get it out there. Might not do much good for those that were determined enough to read this far.