We were supposed to land at 2:00 PM on Sunday. We got in at 4:00 PM on Monday.

No one needs to hear about people’s travel nightmares. They’re as boring as hearing women sitting around talking about their weight. There are MUCH better things to be talking about.

I’ll spare you the deets, because I care. Just imagine two people sitting in an airport for 10 hours with monitors that weren’t updated, a non-functioning app, a gate agent pissy because people kept asking questions because, you know, lack of updates. Me calling American repeatedly to be hit with their automated system, which kept directing me to the pet policy. FYI we were not traveling with pets. Me screaming REPRESENTATIVE constantly, scaring the crap out of small children at the extremely small airport. Getting on the plane, getting off the plane. Being told “rebook through the app or call” because both of those systems worked so well. Leaving the airport to go to a hotel, to check into the hotel and then return to the airport because even though you specifically asked if you needed to talk to a gate agent and the answer was no, the next phone call the answer was yes, you do need to talk to a gate agent. Ubering back to the airport. At 11 PM. Then back to a sleepless night at hotel because snoring husband. To return the next morning. Wait 45 minutes for someone to get to the desk. To be told, “Only one of you has a seat.”

I mean, that was me sparing you details. I failed. But really, that was only half of them. THIS IS THE PERFECT BALLOON FILLING SCENARIO. I was bursting.

So when I MILDLY raised my voice, after following all of the instructions from all of the American Airlines REPRESENTATIVEs I spoke to who FYI all had a different answer and then being told we’d have a seat and then don’t have a seat yes, I might have said in a slightly exasperated tone, “How are you going to get us back to Florida, TODAY?” and I then heard, “I know you’re not going to yell at me right now,” by the gate agent…well…my ballon almost exploded.

I walked away because I was shaking and exhausted and I was about to respond, “YOU THINK THAT’S YELLING?!?!!?!?” But I decided to check myself. Because I don’t want to be an asshole. And “it’s not her fault.”

But that’s the thing. It wasn’t specifically HER fault, but it was all of the faults and the broken apps, the lack of updates, the different answers and stupid policies. Was she responsible for the flight delay? No. But she was the front face of the company that caused my husband and I both to miss work and have a completely stressful 36 hours.

So, when I high-level it to you about what a nightmare the past 36 hours have been, guess what you can do? You can acknowledge. Feel before fix. Relate JUST A LITTLE bit to me.

“Man, what a long day you’ve had…it sounds rough.”

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“OMG, what a nightmare, you must be exhausted.”

“Sounds like a calamity of errors, and you’re on the wrong end of it…I’m sorry.”

One small bit of acknowledgement that things were a mess was all I needed.

As a general rule, I don’t yell at people because I get it. Honey attracts more than blah blah blah. Correct. I’ll own I should keep my temper in check.

While I stung you with the details of our nightmare, this is what everyone is dealing with right now. Tech that is great until it isn’t. Two-factor-authenticating our lives away. Automated everything with irrelevant options. Cancelled this. Annoying that. Lots of stuff out of our control. Lots of infuriating shit. No way to talk to a human.

So guess what? You’re going to be dealing with a lot of people with full balloons.

Guess what YOU can own? Empathy. Acknowledgment. Validating the frustration.

All the tech in the world is not going to help your dealing-with-humans problem. Ironically, the frustration of tech is essentially a human helium tank.

When we DO get to talk to a human? That human best know how to relate.

People shouldn’t yell. And people are tense.

“Man, that sucks” out loud (or a classier version) is what your people need to know how to say, how to relate, and how to acknowledge.

I guarantee that if that gate agent had led with that, as tired, crusty, smelly, and over it I was, I would have kept my tone in check.

I wouldn’t have gotten so cranky. She wouldn’t have gotten so annoyed. All around better for both of us.

And I would have had more energy to deal with my dead battery, which was waiting for me in the JAX parking garage.