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Rambling...about work
Well, 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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Sorry to hear work was a rude awakening after the spirit of the holidays. *hugs*