Rambling...about work
Jan. 3rd, 2007 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rayvyn2kWell, the holidays are behind us for another year and the reality of work slapped me right across the mush this week.
First week on the phone (three hours per day) at my own desk without the comfort of the classroom and the knowledge of someone who can answer a question if you raise your hand.
And when I say slapped, I mean bludgeoned.
See, all of the training we've had for the last year has supposedly led up to this. Unfortunately, the training has and has not (in so many important ways) prepared us for answering calls.
It is so hard to explain because this job is not like any phone job I've ever had in the past. We really haven't had any real practice in taking the types of calls we are getting. The powers that be claim there is no way to train for these types of calls except by just getting on the phone and doing it.
I call bullshit.
There are all kinds of ways to train for these types of calls. There are all different kinds of software out there which can be personalized for the company which can give you a grasp of what is expected. There are several "typical" calls that come in and it is TOTALLY possible to create an environment where these can be practiced. But, "this is the way everyone else was taught" is the mantra which is repeated by anyone you question...including my own husband. Just because that is the way it has always been done, doesn't make it RIGHT.
Yesterday I had several difficult calls in a row. The agent's staff members on the other end of the phone had an adgenda...ask a seemingly "easy" question, then once they get the answer they KNOW is coming...jump all over it with the REAL issue in a haughty, sarcastic way which causes a new person to faulter...then, sensing weakness, they go for the jugular. Even when I asked for help from the more experienced people around me, the issues were not something which could be handled in a few minutes and required more in-depth research. These calls left me literally shaking with rage and humiliation--and in tears of frustration.
It is the whole, sharks in the water who smell a drop of blood aspect of the calls which undid me. That and my own tendency to feel humiliated and angry if I am cornered in that way. I hate not knowing the answer to things, and being thrown to the wolves and told "this is how you'll learn" just ratchets up my stress to impossible levels. Not to mention that the last part of our training was basically rushed because of lots of things that happened to our class and the company during the last year which delayed some things.
So, in spite of the promises we got months ago that "there would be time added on for the time which was lost"--it just didn't happen. The company needed the bodies on the phones and by God, those bodies were going to be plugged in --- ready or not.
Yesterday, after work, Hubby and I walked out together and I basically melted down in the parking lot. I told him (with more tears, and in much more detail) that I didn't know if I could continue to work in a place that give lip service to "caring about it's employees" and then just throws them into the lion's cage.
And the lions are hungry.
So, I told him--and reminded myself--that this company (in spite of what the management preaches) is just like every other corporation I've ever worked for. They are looking at their own bottom line first. Whether it's their shareholders or their desire to reduce the volume of phone calls because of complaints by the agents. The company is going to look out for itself FIRST, and to hell with the well-being of their employees. I ranted at him in the parking lot for 45 minutes...then we got take out food and I spent the rest of the night playing a video game.
I hate working.
I wish I could find something to do to bring in money that didn't require me to sit in an office day after day and feeling my spirit being crushed bit by bit.
The problem is...I just don't know what my perfect job would be.
Wait, yes I do.
I thought I had it at my last job. Working every day online--answering inquiries from customers by email...showing them how to work the website, or just answering a question. In that job, before it went south, I sent between 75-100 emails per day.
It was bliss.
If I have to work for someone else, I wish I could find a job like that again.
But my real wish is to come into enough money somehow (the lottery? finding a rare printing of the Declaration of Independence on the back of an old crappy painting? Anything?) so that I would never have to go to a job outside my home ever again.
I hate my life sometimes.
First week on the phone (three hours per day) at my own desk without the comfort of the classroom and the knowledge of someone who can answer a question if you raise your hand.
And when I say slapped, I mean bludgeoned.
See, all of the training we've had for the last year has supposedly led up to this. Unfortunately, the training has and has not (in so many important ways) prepared us for answering calls.
It is so hard to explain because this job is not like any phone job I've ever had in the past. We really haven't had any real practice in taking the types of calls we are getting. The powers that be claim there is no way to train for these types of calls except by just getting on the phone and doing it.
I call bullshit.
There are all kinds of ways to train for these types of calls. There are all different kinds of software out there which can be personalized for the company which can give you a grasp of what is expected. There are several "typical" calls that come in and it is TOTALLY possible to create an environment where these can be practiced. But, "this is the way everyone else was taught" is the mantra which is repeated by anyone you question...including my own husband. Just because that is the way it has always been done, doesn't make it RIGHT.
Yesterday I had several difficult calls in a row. The agent's staff members on the other end of the phone had an adgenda...ask a seemingly "easy" question, then once they get the answer they KNOW is coming...jump all over it with the REAL issue in a haughty, sarcastic way which causes a new person to faulter...then, sensing weakness, they go for the jugular. Even when I asked for help from the more experienced people around me, the issues were not something which could be handled in a few minutes and required more in-depth research. These calls left me literally shaking with rage and humiliation--and in tears of frustration.
It is the whole, sharks in the water who smell a drop of blood aspect of the calls which undid me. That and my own tendency to feel humiliated and angry if I am cornered in that way. I hate not knowing the answer to things, and being thrown to the wolves and told "this is how you'll learn" just ratchets up my stress to impossible levels. Not to mention that the last part of our training was basically rushed because of lots of things that happened to our class and the company during the last year which delayed some things.
So, in spite of the promises we got months ago that "there would be time added on for the time which was lost"--it just didn't happen. The company needed the bodies on the phones and by God, those bodies were going to be plugged in --- ready or not.
Yesterday, after work, Hubby and I walked out together and I basically melted down in the parking lot. I told him (with more tears, and in much more detail) that I didn't know if I could continue to work in a place that give lip service to "caring about it's employees" and then just throws them into the lion's cage.
And the lions are hungry.
So, I told him--and reminded myself--that this company (in spite of what the management preaches) is just like every other corporation I've ever worked for. They are looking at their own bottom line first. Whether it's their shareholders or their desire to reduce the volume of phone calls because of complaints by the agents. The company is going to look out for itself FIRST, and to hell with the well-being of their employees. I ranted at him in the parking lot for 45 minutes...then we got take out food and I spent the rest of the night playing a video game.
I hate working.
I wish I could find something to do to bring in money that didn't require me to sit in an office day after day and feeling my spirit being crushed bit by bit.
The problem is...I just don't know what my perfect job would be.
Wait, yes I do.
I thought I had it at my last job. Working every day online--answering inquiries from customers by email...showing them how to work the website, or just answering a question. In that job, before it went south, I sent between 75-100 emails per day.
It was bliss.
If I have to work for someone else, I wish I could find a job like that again.
But my real wish is to come into enough money somehow (the lottery? finding a rare printing of the Declaration of Independence on the back of an old crappy painting? Anything?) so that I would never have to go to a job outside my home ever again.
I hate my life sometimes.
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(no subject)
Date: 1/4/07 06:37 am (UTC)I did that working for a satellite company once. They can never prepare you for frustrated people complaining and demanding while you have no clue how to fix things. I'm sorry your first day was so sucky. The way I got through it was by just leaving it all at the building before I left. Customers would sometimes say, "but you don't care because you can go home at the end of the day and forget all about this, while I am stuck in it." I finally had to take their advice. If you don't know what to do on the call, act like you do until you see a super and just remember, it will be over in a few minutes. Don't let it get to you so badly that it causes you to tear up. I had to learn the hard way by just taking calls and feeling unprepared, but you will get it sooner than it seems. Don't let them get to you; there is always another call that may be easier or more pleasant. Hope it gets better for you soon.
(no subject)
Date: 1/4/07 09:08 am (UTC)Sorry to hear work was a rude awakening after the spirit of the holidays. *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 1/4/07 02:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 1/4/07 08:22 pm (UTC)I can so feel for you. All I can say is, it will get better. Promise.
(no subject)
Date: 1/5/07 11:34 pm (UTC)Also, they're upset that we're not getting enough work done, but when the fuck do we have the time to complete it?
My sup. told me that if we needed to do a break down or some hard core research that it was okay to go into ACW to do it, even if it takes an hour or too. I call bullshit on that, as I got in trouble for doing so today.
You're working your bills and payments, but not fast enough. Then you do a bunch of other shit, all the while receiving emails from people about the calls you had yesterday, but couldn't do the work on it.
And, people are mean. That doesn't bother me as much as being spread entirely way too thin, but they are mean. You can spit it out to them in plain english a kindergartener would understand and they still tell you they don't understand and they keep asking what the charges and credits are for. I don't know much other than rates have been changed and some mumbo jumbo that I don't understand because I do billing not underwriting/claims/etc. AND they know what is going on- THEY are the ones who made these changes.
Don't feel like you're alone. I spent a good while crying in the parking lot today.
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/07 04:10 am (UTC)I was thinking about this again this morning on my way in...I cried again before I left the house (combination of oncoming cold and just plain stress) and in the car it came to me what is so different about our phone initiation.
When the other waves were tossed on the phone, there were not so many offices being serviced out of the center as there are now. So the call volume was lighter. WAY lighter. So there was more time to be able to actually learn something. Unlike now, where there's barely time to breathe.
I left early today, so I didn't know you had such a hard time. I really thought you were handling it so much better than me. You me and Salena need to go get some Mexican food soon, I think. ((HUGS))
(no subject)
Date: 1/6/07 06:22 pm (UTC)Mexican food sounds amazing.