Tales from a Team Lead

The post below was drafted last night. But can anyone guess where I wrote this?
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Yeah, I think you guessed it right! Where am I? I'm at work! Geesh! On a Saturday night!

I previously planned to finally start packing my luggage for my trip but no, it's not possible anymore. Well, not today that is. I have one more weekend to go and Sunday night is still unsure too!

I informed the agents that we might come in on Sunday too. But if I won't get a call or text message from my boss then we won't report for work! That's it. 12 days straight of work, plus the overtime of TWO HOURS A DAY is just too absurd!

Overtime pay you say? I asked the agents and its a unanimous decision that we would rather skip one OT pay for a chance to rest!

We are not robots. We have a LIFE you know!

NOPE. Contrary to popular belief, July 26, 2009 was not a holiday. It was never meant to be a doubly paid day, it was never even intended to be 30% pay. It was just named a "special holiday" for the intention of "commemorating" historical events. The Iglesia Ni Cristo founding and SONA. So if you came to work that day, just like us, it was treated as another ordinary Monday.

And what a Manic Monday it was indeed.

Pay slips and the couple-of-hours-delayed salaries came in today. And to our surprise, (nope, we were not surprised about getting our pay past 7:00pm, but it was not a reason to be happy either) July 26 has no additional pay!

Despite paying the cab driver extra just to try and get you to work on time that day, despite everyone at home staying at home all day and be noisy, preventing you to have a decent sleep, because they do not have school nor work, us CC folks put up with everything else for an Ordinary Day.

Yes, a few emails were passed around and forwarded regarding this matter but the research efforts were discarded. Hours have gone wasted just because of this debate. And energies were worn down until break time.

What's the moral of the story then? The HRD should better inform people whether an announced Holiday on the News would be double, 30%, half, or whatever... on or before the day itself, (or at least be professional enough to make an announcement before the payday) so that hard working people will not expect, and clueless people will not act dumb.

I simply can't believe it! Our new healthcard ID's just came in with the handbooks and list of accredited hospitals. But to my surprise, my hospital is not in the list!!!

WHAT?? And we are not talking about just a regular hospital, but one of the top ones in the country too!! Geesh! What kinda card is this??

All my doctors are from this certain hospital and all my relatives go here too, as this is the only one we trust and feel comfy with. I basically won't get lost there and I know the major clinics too! Our old card is affiliated there, and that is the hospital I was rushed to, when I had an accident. We were doing fine with the old card, my brother's office even have the same provider.

Waah! And I have an appointment with my dentist next month! Now since the hospital is not accredited, I doubt if any doctor from there would be.

So a colleague asked me what's all the fuss, I can just reimburse what I paid. Yeah Right! And as if that won't take weeks if not months(!) to get!

Oh well, nothing else to do but sign it, accept it, and just move on with my life, hoping that I won't need to go to a hospital for a year (or at least when they change providers).

Catchy title huh? Unfortunately, the new health card that my office switched to recently did not help.

My colleague who was brought to the ER yesterday was not properly examined because the hospital "cannot contact our health card provider". (I shall not mention the name of the company nor the hospital, to avoid being promoted in search engines - and this blog getting hits from them too) Turns out, that they are not open 24 hours and the contact numbers were all just RNA's (CC term for phone's just ringing, with no answer).

Soon as they were there, the ER staff had to check the provider first, validate the identity, before even giving the patient a space to rest on. Then soon after the hospital staff realized that it's not possible, they just gave him some meds and asked for a urine sample (that the patient needs to pay first before doing so). Then despite vomiting blood, the patient was released. Just like that!

Strange! And I am simply appalled by this!

The patient then had no choice but to just go home with the doctor's prescription even if he is still not feeling well and totally clueless of what just happened.

....WTF!

But hopefully on Saturday, they will go to another hospital (and a better one at that) and get the proper treatment that he deserves!

I recommended the hospital that I went to when I had my accident.

First day back at work. And boy am I in for a surprise or what?!

When I sat down my desk, my chair was awkwardly high, papers on my desk were disarranged and posts on my cork board were misaligned. Some of my colored pens were missing as well as my masking tape! Hmm, maybe they will surface later, I thought.

Soon as I tried to log-in on my PC, my password was not being accepted. After several attempts, typing it slow or double clicking the Caps Lock and Num Lock were useless. So I called for assistance, and I learned that they reset my PC to the default password. Oh well. I'm still all smiles.

But then, when I tried to open my email, my password was not being accepted again. And after another call for assistance, they do not know what caused this and they can't access my email too. So they resorted to reset my password to the default key once more.

But boy, that didn't stop there.

So I was able to log-in on my PC, read my mails, sent some replies, deleted the useless "reply to all" mails from people who I do not know why they need to CC their replies to me and all the other spam crap...

I thought the first phase of my day was over, but no. When my boss asked me to call a customer with a long list of complaints, I need to request him to email us the list of his complaints so it will be dealt with "quickly".

But when I went to my desk and checked my Bookmarks Menu to log-in the CS email, all my bookmarks were gone! Now, since I haven't opened the CS email for weeks I tried to remember what's the link to the domain. And of course, I just need to go back a few months on my work inbox to see the client's email. He gave me the url and the password to use before.

*Drumroll*

Tantadadaan!

Oh wow! My inbox ONLY contains mails from April 2009 onwards!

My boss does not know the password! Apparently, he does not have a copy of that email too.

The client is not answering her phone!

Then suddenly, somebody was caught sleeping!

It's my job to catch these people but since I was so busy with the email thingy, I was not able to switch on my eyes at the back of my head! Then the boss called on me and the other team lead (who was on break during the time the agent was asleep).

To make the long story short, the email is not the priority. The agents are. So, I dropped the case and didn't call the customer and just sat next to the agents and listened to their calls.

End of shift. I went home. Checked and sent personal mails, and my honey replied to me saying:

Please dont get too stressed or too angry ok you cant make up in
one day when you where not there for two weeks and nobody can't expect that too. So just try to be calm.

Okay... *sigh* I would do that now. On to Adgitize! LOL

It's always good to have someone to breathe in with the things that frustrate you...

While everyone in the States are having a "blast", away from work, out for the weekend with the family or having BBQ's and watching fireworks with some friends, some people are stuck at work and are obliged to work.

I just learned from one of my colleagues that they were required to work over the weekend and continue calling. We don't normally work on a weekend and usually, during the 4th of July, we do not either. But strangely, this year, we do. Maybe this is the "storm" that I mentioned on my other post. And I feel a bit guilty that I am not there to support them. Well, we don't really celebrate America's Independence here in the Philippines and to work on a weekend is ok. But I can now just imagine the irate people who receives their calls on a holiday such as these! Well I can't say that the bosses do not know that, they are living there!

What would hurt me though is that, after my substitute sends out his reports to them, he gets an automatic response from the client saying "Thank you for the email but I am away for the weekend... blah blah". Ouch! And just a reminder, that last Philippine Independence Day, we also have to work!

So here I am waiting for an sms from my local boss if he would require me or even ask me if I can report for work on Sunday night. But lol who am I kidding? He did not even ask me how I am doing and what happened to me. Duh.

Should I text them and volunteer? Well if I do they might accuse me of just being there coz its an overtime pay and not a change of work schedule. And where am I the whole week?

Oh well... as the running gag with my brother and I goes... when he asks "Who cares?" I always reply: "The care bears!"

So for those who required people to come to work while they sit on their houses eating BBQ and watching fireworks, I wish them:



Something to ponder upon:
“Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.” - Kahlil Gibran

I woke up earlier than usual today. I checked my phone and there were no messages. So it seems that despite the rain, our management meeting will push through. So I got up and prepared.

On my way to the restaurant, the big boss sent me a text message, asking if we still want to push through. WHAT??!! After a few seconds he sent another message and said that the meeting is canceled because of the rain. We will talk about the re-sched on a meeting tonight at work.

Two Points:

(1) We can have a meeting at work all along. Why the trouble in a restaurant? What's so confidential about it? Or is it one of those "bonding" things he wants to have amongst us?

(2) Since when does rain affect meetings? It's not like there is a storm or flood. It's just an ordinary rain, and let me remind you that we are in a tropical country!

Update: We just received our payslips today.

Thanks to google.com.ph for placing this beautiful tribute! And just for today, a special one day signature was affixed to all my reports:

Happy Independence Day!

Yes, even to our international bosses. You got it! While everyone else is having a holiday, watching fireworks, (or concerts in several places) BBQ, spending quality time with their families, here we are at work. Calling... and being called. So what if its double pay?

Yeah, independence alright. Brr...

Not that I am complaining too much. I am just complaining "a little". LOL

But its really a buzz here in almost every corner of each room. People are discreetly talking about it and nobody admits out in the open.

Last payday, we were delayed by a bank holiday and on the opening of classes, some agents with children do not have money at hand and over the weekend. Today, I was surprised by the news that we already have pay!

Everyone was expecting to receive their salaries on Monday since it is the 15th of the month, but just 2 days after the cut off, the money is already in. Strange. So, they can finish it in 2 days all along.

But there is a catch. We do no have the payslips yet.

*Apologies for the blasphemous photo above. If anyone is offended, please go over and visit the FSM aka Flying Spaghetti Monster.