A coworker works in the customer support branch of the company, she’s doing a good job and I think she’s great.

At the same time she’s not happy about her job. This shows up clearly in the way she interacts. Not because she’s rude with anyone, but at some level the people outside know this.

So I thought: What if I showed her what could be being in a branch like this in a more structured company? A company that takes the customer support part at heart?

I read the Basecamp levels of seniority in the customer support part, and I asked her to rate her job, based on these levels so that she could have an idea of her level and see what could become of her job.

She did it, and at the end I asked: Does that progression seems like something you’d like to do?
At which she replied “No”.

I totally get that. Being in the customer support requires a lot of gut, a lot of savoir fare, a lot of stress management. People do shout, people can be evil.
At the same time I realized that, for me, customer support is fantastic. Something I’d love to do more often.
Each job can be great or bad, wonderful or dreadful. 

It’s up to us and to our character to have it that way.