Hexedesk
Wed, 2005-04-20 00:58
#1
Hexedesk
There is this desk at work, now I sat in it yesterday, and had a really minging evening. Most of the customers who came through my callmaster, where argumentative, stroppy, angry, blagging, nasty, abusive people. There was a team leader on duty at the time, and she wasn't very nice either. She called me over to her desk. "Why are you in aux training?" She asked.
"Oh... am I supposed to be in training just now?" I said confused.
She gave me this look that would shrivel a gorse bush. "No," (her eyes telepathically calling me a complete moron.) "I am asking you, why you are in training."
"I didn't realize I was." I say nonchalantly.
She jabs at the screen accusingly. There is my name, and next to it it says :
'Aux 7 Client Training'
"So why are you in the training aux?" She says, not a speck of compassion in her young face.
"Cause I thought Aux 7 was the one you used to go for a loo break." I say, feeling like little boy lost being told off by a headmistress.
"No. You should be in Aux 6."
"I wasn't aware the aux's had changed?" I say confused.
"Didn't you get the email?"
"No, we had email taken off us months ago, cause someone abused the email system."
She glares at me, then flicks a card off her desk like a little knife and hands it to me. Then spins round on her chair so her back is to me. I feel like telling her to F*** off. But I don't I go sheepishly back to my desk and look at the card and see the different aux's and muttering: 'miserable bitch' whilst I'm doing it, I put myself into aux 6 and go and take the longest loo break I can, just to p**s big brother off, or big sister rather.
Anyway I had a kack night last night. And so today, I went and sat at a different desk, and all the calls that came through, were nice friendly people, and it was a pleasure to go to work today, no problems with any of the team managers; just a nice mellow evening at work. However the person who was sat in the desk I had been sitting in last night, was getting really stressed. She kept putting customers on hold and muttering curses under her breath. Hitting the mute button, so she could say f*** off without the customer hearing her. And kept having to put her hand up to get a team manager to take the call. And I noticed the team manager also got stressed out sitting there. The poor woman by the end of the night looked as if she was about to commit suicide. And I wondered why do all the shitty calls seem to come through to that callmaster? That desk even? I'm beginning to think it might be cursed or something.
Well that ends my long tale. Was wondering if anyone else had any experiences with things that seem to be jinxed, and they purposely avoid certain seats, places, parking spots, whatever, because of it.
funky
I'd probably get fired for that AG
funky
I know what your trying to say radiodenver. The only thing is, you can't help someone who just wants to complain. For instance tonight, I was called an arsehole, called an idiot, told to hurry up I haven't got all day, told I'm a useless fuckwit. I don't get paid enough to take that sort of abuse, and the attitude of some people is, that I get paid to take abuse, which isn't true. It doesn't matter how nice you are to these people, they still talk to you like dirt. However I can't hang up on those calls. Because then I would have to attend a disciplinary hearing etc etc. I have supervisors, monitering my calls, and telling me what my stats are, told I'm supposed to spend so many minutes taking a call, can only put customers on hold for so long. I spend the shift checking the clock, trying to do things as quickly as possible to keep big brother happy. However it is near impossible to do this, when a customer won't get off the phone, and wants to complain about every single thing under the sun. Some want to play mind games. You try to be reasonable with some these people and they have no courtesy, you can spend over ten minutes on a call, when you're only allowed to spend a maximum of four minutes, because a customer wants the impossible and won't get off the phone until he gets it. Sometimes the only way to survive is to hang up on these people. But it always gets back to you; and I have to bullshit and say there was a fault with the line. But you can only do that so much. It's not an easy job, but it's the only job I can do here; for I live in a place of low unemployment. However it is worth it, because where I do live is beautiful and cut off from the mainland.
It isn't as easy as people seem to think working in a call centre. And if anyone thinks it's easy, they should go and get a job as a customer care advisor for the mobile phone company of their choice; and see how they feel about it after a week.
archergirl
funky, why don't you go be a pole dancer instead? You get nice big tips slipped inside your g-string. By nice old pervs.
And those of you who don't believe that places have energy or contain energy...well...
a pox upon thee!
*waves hands in mysterious patterns above head*
;-~
funky
no way I'm gonna be a pole dancer man... I got some respect for myself.
mississippi
I'm not defending the abuse you get, Ritchie, BUT for many callers, and I've been one sometimes, it's just as stressful having to listen to 6 options, then another 4, and maybe 3 others only to get put on hold, and then cut off after 10 mins of trying to get someone to talk to you. I hate call centres SOOOO much. I think they should be burned to the ground. The ones I hate the most are those in India. Not BECAUSE they're in India per se, but because the line is always bad, and the Indian on the other end has such a strong accent I can't understand them, but mostly because companies export jobs there to save money and make bigger profits. What people want is to be able to phone a company and have someone that actually works there answer in English they can understand, and be able speak to someone with the information they require. I understand that if that was the case that you would either have to re-locate to somewhere that had businesses, or become a crofter, but you have to understand the stress caused by call centres on people who want a quick answer. I don't want to be passed around like a parcel at a party, and the more it happens the more likely I am to lose the plot with whoever is on the other end of the line.
archergirl
You could wear a mask and a long, blonde wig.
I wouldn't want to be a pole dancer if only because I'd have to demand that the pole be disinfected before I danced on it. You never know who or what has been rubbing up against it during the song prior to yours, OR what kind of cooties they might have...
Radiodenver
Good luck Funky. Life's too short to take shit. I would strongly suggest finding another vocation.
funky
George - yeah man I can see your point of view. The thing is we people who take the calls are just human beings trying to do our job. A lot of the time people forget that and it's hard to help someone when they're like that. It isn't our fault the system is designed the way it is - however we want to help if we can, and will do our best - but it's hard when you don't get any thanks and people come on line abusing you before you've even said anything to them.
And A.G. I already have long blonde hair, so no need for the wig - but there's absolutely no way, I would rub my dangly bits on a pole in front of spectators or on my tod - just not my thang. Disenfectant or no disenfectant, however if I was a fireman, I guess I would have to do that sort of thing regularly.
archergirl
I wouldn't want you to be a pole-dancer, either. Surely there must be _something_ else less dehumanising you could do?
I try to be as nice as possible to call centre people, even the ones in India (who, I'm sure, get paid a LOT less than you, funky!). I realise what a shitty job it can be and it's really not their fault that callers get passed around to five different departments or have to hold for 10 minutes, listening to tinny Mozart.
mississippi
Sadly Ritchie, by the time you get the call the caller has already been stressed out by the previous bits. I feel sad that people get treated like that but the system is driven by greed and the serfs don't matter.
It must be a shit job and I'm glad I don't need it.
funky
hey is cool A.G I knew you weren't having a go, I was just trying to be humurous, in response to your post, however I am about as funny as a clothes peg. In India BTW the kind of abuse they have to put up with on the phones is really shocking. Man I feel so sorry for them. They get called horrible racist names and belittled, if I think I've got it bad, it's nothing compared to the abuse those folk who take calls in India get.
yeah George you're right dude. It's a shite job, but it could be a lot worse. And at the end of the day it is just a job; and got to get the pennies in somehow.
peace and serotonin
funky
fergal
May I say that with all the patience in the world - and anyone who has read my posts at least knows where on the political spectrum I sit - that my car insurance with Norwich Union has call centres in India. I try very hard to be calm and patient and kind, but it took my 25 calls over 6 months to arrange a simple standing order from a different account, and I was charged for it and blah blah blah, and every time I phoned up and spoke to someone called 'James' he said he understood and that he would sort it, but he didn't know what I was talking about.
I tried very hard, and didn't complain for ages *exactly* because I am sick of the racist comments about call centres in India.
But when I and my partner started getting charged extra for not paying our installments, I have to say that I felt terribly desperate... it gave us bad credit and there was nobody to talk to who understood what I was saying. I kept ringing and having the same conversation - sometimes for over an hour at a time. I admit I have a bit of a yokel accent, and that is where the system falls down. A lot of the blokes in India I spoke to spoke lovely English, but didn't understand my English.
I don't blame them. I blame the skinflint British companies who are always cutting corners. They put their Indian employees at great risk of fury, and it's not fair or right.
Radiodenver
J-lo, you're you own biggest problem here, you've pissed on anybody that had an opinion you didn't like...I'll bet Funky doesn't smear shit on everything and everyone he comes in contact with when he goes to work.
Is anybody in danger of being injured Funky?...It's a call center right, so it's not life death is it? try this. When you work someplace, think of it as "they pay you do do things". Every day is unique. Today "these are the things I'm doing."
Every call, every potential stress is just a thing you have to do. If you allow the stress of others to change your focus when they freak out, you're going to get stressed. Alternatly, if you keep your cool, others will pick up on it and they too will begiin cooling off. Working with serious stress is tough, but you can learn to turn it off. Focus on solving the problem, not on the fact that there's a problem. You are in control of you.
ely whitley
see above
ely whitley
"are you in always, ever so short"
WTF does that mean?
Archergirl
Although I do think that there are energy boxes or spaces or something that seem to carry more negativity than others, like a residue. You could say that Abu Ghraib prison was like this: it was a bad space where terrible things happened under Hussein, and then it was emptied. The US/UK soliders went in to ostensibly contain potential trouble, and wham! they begin to do the exact same things that happened there before, more or less. Spaces hold energy. The only way to erase the 'memory' of whatever has gone on there before would be to destroy the place in question and have some kind of energetic cleansing.
So, for your desk....
anyone gotta match?
funky
Jasper - you talk a lot of shit.
ely whitley
yeah but if you only read the first few words before glazing over and scrolling then it becomes less painfull, it's a kind of naturally evolved version of that software everyone's raving about that ignores certain posters.
My eyes just mist up after a very few words, I call it conjasperitis.
WD40
funky it's the maggie thatcher legacy. Every since she came to power people changed from being nice and civil to being on edge and under pressure. everywhere I see people stressed out trying to make up those extra seconds, and earn those extrapounds and getting frustrated cos they can't. we've beome like rats in a rat run. under maggie we lost our humanity and became bean counters.sadly this has continued ever since. i wish i knew what the answer was but i don't...
ely whitley
...and that, your honour, is the case for the defence
*salutes and marches back to seat in the hope that his "kill the ragheads" tattoo won't be easily seen by the court martial trial through his skinhead*
fergal
'But then as you've already discovered fear is my alien,'
I have to have a character say this sometime.
mississippi
The roo rider just refuses to acept that his presence here is as welcome as a red back under the toilet seat.
He never did tell us what he got locked up for, did he? I heard it was something to do with assaulting women, but that may be wrong. I'll have to get my pal in the Melbourne police to do a little investigating for me.
Radiodenver
Spoken like a true misfit.
ely whitley
"But then I may be lying, so don't take my word for anything...*WINK*!"
no shit sherlock!