Boss pulled me aside and said people are complaining about me.. but he will not tell me who?

I work in a job with significant contact with people all over the organization. I make a good effort to be pleasant and polite with everyone. But I can not please everyone because I am forced to make tough decisions.

A few times a year I am pulled aside by my boss and told that he is getting people coming by his office who say I am not being polite with them and provide poor customer service.

I ask who these people are so I can meet with them and help solve any interpersonal or customer service issues we might have. The boss will not give me their names or details of the interaction because they came to him in confidence.

I leave the office in frustration and later get angry when the bad interactions get in my performance appraisal.

Any advice, other than the easy way out and quiting?

Quit pushing him to tell you "who".

Ask him WHAT they're saying, and then ask him what, specifically, he would like you to do to improve. Then try to do just that.

Anonymity is important because they're afraid of retaliation. They're legally entitled to privacy.

I've been on both ends of this kind of thing; the best thing is just to bite the bullet and try to improve things. We ALL have things we can improve on. Please trust my experience!!

He cant tell you who spoke due the fact that it would interfere with your relationship with the employee and may cause a hostile work enviroment.

Due this,treat every person as some one who may go behind your back and cry. Be polite to everyone.its hard but its better than being told you're not liked

best thing to do is to distance yourself a little from everyone your work will still get done and you'll see the results you might even have a clue as to who's talk in smack.good luck

That's a tough one, next time he pulls you aside tell him that you need to know who was complaining so you can tell your side of what happened.
I had the same thing happen to me, my boss kept telling me that I was being complained about but would not say who.
I told her that if you want me to fix this I have to know who so that I can deal with it in the right way. She finally told me and the three of us had a talk about it and it turned out it was just a mis-understanding.
This is one of my pet peeves, people don't have the guts and maturity to come to you personally but they go to your boss.

It's very rare that a supervisor will give specific names of complaints, but you should ask for specific examples of what it is you did that wasn't right so that you can correct your actions. If you're getting that heated about it, maybe anger management would be a good solution, or ask about taking a customer service course. These are usually offered at community colleges as certificate courses, and may be covered through your company's tuition reimbursement plan. Taking the course will show your boss that you're serious about correcting the problem, and may make him more understanding if it comes up again.

This is complete BS.....I had this happen to me.
Tell your boss that going back to the Constitution and even way back to the Magna Carta there are the concepts of
Due Process *and* that if you are being accused of anything that you have the right to know specifically what you are being accused of *and* specifically WHO is making the accusation. This is a guarantee in our Constitution!
Complete BS...... absolutely complete BS, and threaten to go over your boss' head to get your Constitutionally guaranteed rights of incrimination, and then follow through on your threat.
You are being punished, and you are being presumed to be guilty without even having the chance of proving your innocence. BS. If you're accused, you should be considered innocent until proved guilty by a known accuser.
I worked in an environment like this, and ended up quitting because it was just so much work dealing with this stuff constantly from the women in my department. But they're in the wrong and if you want to fight it then by all means do so.