I have worked for the Health Region for ~10 years and am constantly going out of my way to help people and then being told how useless the system is (with blame directed at me) or being questioned as to why i am trying to NOT help the very person i am helping. Often being loudly/aggressively YELLED at or berated. And often times having the same cycle happen a dozen or more time in a shift, intersperesed with crazy psycho (literally) calls.
People seem to think that:
1) Doctors are/should be at their beck and call, have no families or time of their own yet are totally a 'free' service?
2) That no ones privacy matters (except their own!).
3) That their health problems are all life treatening (unless it is someone else, in which case those persons problems are 'typical' and their problems take precedence)
4) That despite answering machines and 'call pilots' being used in virtually every other industry on earth, and likely even the patients own business/employer, THEY are not required to leave a message or navigate a menu and deserve special treatment/an exemption.
So i hold their hand all the way through the process, often working through my breaks or past my shift time (with no chance of a raise or something for doing good work because my wages are locked into a pay scale), and they turn around and blame me for their problems.
Of course i know that the pressure of their medical problems are likely a huge cause, but everyone has problems (including me) and since you asked about people being ungreatful....
Claeren.