The Angry Haitian picked us up at the lot again. This time, he parked the van way on the other side so everyone had to walk across to get in.

Everyone seemed pretty irritated, but I think they were all too scared to say anything after hearing him yell into the phone yesterday. He was listening to this Carribean radio station and had the volume turned up really loud on the ride in.

Paige walked in first thing and told us they needed our help on the phones this morning. She said account holders would be receiving their statements over the next couple of days and a lot would be calling in with questions, so we had to help handle the volume.

All we had to do was tell the caller our systems were updating, take down some information (name, SSN, phone number, etc), and tell them someone would call them back later on.

The first caller I took got mad when I told him this and said all he wanted was his balance. Then he asked what we were updating.

I told him we were uploading vast amounts of market data to the server, and he seemed a little less irritated after that.

I had no idea what I was talking about.

At one point I looked over at Gerald. He was dealing with someone really irate. He kept saying, "I know sir, but I can't help you. Our systems are updating."

When the guy was giving him his phone number, Gerald gave me a look and started moving his hand like he was writing the number down in the air. Later on I heard him giving someone else an imaginary account balance.

I don't think I saw him write one thing down the whole time.

After about an hour and a half, Sue came and collected the message forms from us. I saw them piled up in a recycling bin not too long after.

When we got back the the classroom, Angela seemed kind of upset. Her eyes were red and puffy as if she'd been crying.

I guess a caller had said some real nasty stuff to her.

Paige said people will do that now and then, and one of the toughest parts of this job is not letting it get to you. There's a lot of not letting things get to you at this job.

We spent the rest of the day learning the computer system we'd be using. Reynaldo ended up performing an actual trade during one of the exercises, and Paige had to call the trading desk and get them to cancel it before it was executed. Then he clicked some button that jammed up a printer on the third floor with a 40 page spreadsheet.

I kind of wish Reynaldo's cube was closer to mine. This guy is going to be a disaster.