What would you do to make being put on hold with the government or business a better experience?

I think that if you are on hold with the federal government, or to a government office, you should be hearing speeches made by the President to put you in the psychological state of dealing with the government.

In other words, you will get yourself into a mad frenzy and lash out and the bureaucrat.

Put your phone on speaker and use the time to clean up your kitchen while you’re waiting.
or:
Sort through your mail.
Clean the fish bowl.
Pay a couple of bills.
Inventory your freezer.
Polish your shoes.

Do short tasks you know you should do but always put off until later.

I sketch,read or go for a tour of a museum.

I agree that you want to be in the right mood to deal with corporate or government machine bureaucracy. To hone a fighting attitude, tackle tasks of equal delight in your home—change the litter box, clean the toilets, etc while you reflect on just which end of the phone line suffers & benefits from the “efficiencies” of robotic decision trees.

I like the fun facts. Kind of like, Evel Knieval was born in Montana. Push 1 to hear more. I’m into random facts and trivia, as many people are.

The call screeners drive me nuts. Also I hate music and ads while I’m holding. I prefer a quick beep every minute or so while I’m on hold. I’m pissed off by the time a rep answers the call.

Sometimes I decide to give up. Rather than hanging up, making it seem like my fault, i leave the phone off the hook and walk away. That way I tie up their line and increase their average wait time numbers. You know some “efficiency expert” is tracking them.

Accept it. The hold feature allows businesses and whoever else the capacity to deal with callers in a logical, efficient manner.

Getting a call back is a good option.