It's cold and silent at the call floor now. All that I hear are cars vrooming outside, on the busy highway. Once in a while I hear beeping jeepneys and an ambulance passing by. Only the hiss of my computer keeps me company.
My fingertips are starting to feel numb and rubbing my hands before placing in between my knees do not help. How could I ever forget my jacket?! Tssk!
Two hours from now about 5 agents will join me in this freezer room. But after a few minutes they will transfer to the Conference room because they have a training.
No calls yet. Nobody yet. And its the weekend. The schedule just came in and they need me tomorrow as well. So I go straight for 2 weeks! But that's not all. The bad news is (or should I say worse?), the schedule for next weekend is not definite.
Wow! What a way to start a campaign. I can just imagine the agents who will be assigned in doing this. I just hope they choose people who would not waste their time sleeping while waiting for calls to come in.
Well let's see... the client did not choose me to handle this if they didn't trust me. And besides, once I'm done training the new agents, the campaign will be given to another Manager. Then I'm back to my old sked.
I ask myself "Why am I not chained to my desk?" The clock is ticking and we haven't met the quota with Project A yet and Project B's numbers aren't pretty as well.
The problem is, I need to constantly man the floor and walk around to catch agents who are slacking off, agents who cannot control their droopy eyes and do not pursue their calls.
Most of them feel the pressure, but I must admit, not everyone has the same level of dedication. Motivation is one factor but it is not the Only key.
I also need to give them the leads they need, and the ones that came from the client has to be cleaned thoroughly.
The overtime last weekend made me realize that when the client gives me a set of leads, it needs to be COUNTIF'ed with the leads given by my boss or else, there would be a major dupe dilemma! And who would want to call people who were already somebody else's SALE?! Never assume that the bosses check everything with the client, even if that is their job!
I was asked by a colleague, How do I "keep my composure and smile despite of all the stress?"
By being positive!
Honestly, I like this kinda pressure. Especially if tons of excel sheets are spread in front of me. It livens me up and the rush is just great! I know it sounds weird but I would rather have this than to have nothing else to do. This is beneficial to the brain too! LMAO!
And the best part is, once the outcome makes the client and bosses happy, there's a great sense of accomplishment and thrill that envelopes your being. Sometimes though, even if there were no compliments, just the thought and feeling of doing something nobody else can, or attempted, or did without whining, is simply satisfying!
The post below was drafted last night. But can anyone guess where I wrote this?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.
Our schedule was moved to an hour late, and I was not thrilled with it. The client is still here in the country. I was handling 2 groups of agents. Two campaigns. I have to prepare for a training for tomorrow and I have to generate leads. Plus add the tons of reports and people not answering my mails. And today was even worse... We had to stay 2 hours more after shift to add numbers on the board! Waah! I really can't wait to get into that plane and have my long awaited vacation!
...you need to suggest an aptitude test. And the result will determine if a training or crash course is needed to avoid the same scenario to happen again. Or at least, save other people from embarrassing themselves. Especially if he is your immediate superior.
But in cases that such an exam is impossible to organize, due to your superiors refusal to accept advices from their agents, another suggestion is... to just backup your files before sending it to the person who messed up your former files.And don't forget to give a bottle of Gerber while he works on it. The 100% real Gerber fruit puree made with whole grains, helps support brain & eye development. LOL
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).
Yes, the Big Boss from the other side of the world have come to pay us a visit. No, it was not a surprise, but a short notice indeed. Well, nothing to hide on my part. But boy do I know people who have trembling knees! I heard that she will be constantly monitoring the new campaign.
I am confident with the agents assigned there of course, I had my share of suggestions too, but with the system error they are getting... Tsk Tsk!
I just hope they won't assign my cube again to be "borrowed" during her stay. Let's see in the coming days...
friends, healthcard, rants, work
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.
One of my colleges was brought to the hospital just now because he vomited blood. His wife was excused and given permission to go with him. They are both my friends and I pray that he will be okay. I hope that it's nothing serious. Please pause for a few seconds to pray for him too....
This week, I lack sleep. And I was looking forward to this weekend to catch up with the hours that my body needed to rejuvenate. Unfortunately, that is not possible.
Yesterday, after our 2-hour overtime, I just got home to take a quick shower and went straight to meet my sister. We met near her work and ate lunch in a Japanese resto. I was not in the mood for raw fish (was I ever though?) so I just went for a tempura and asparagus wrapped in bacon. It was a fine lunch that ended up with a blizzard ice cream from DQ. Then we went to met her doctor.
It was a nice day with my sis, but my left arm is still heavy from the vaccine yesterday afternoon. My sister's doctor is offering a discount on the HPV (Cervical Cancer). So we got our shots and the next will be a month from now then the last one will be on January of next year.
Last night my team had to work but I was required to come in today with them. Good thing coz I don't wanna work while my arm is aching. But when I got home the night passed by so quickly that the sleep I had felt it was not enough. We woke up early to help out with my brother's party.
Today was a busy day and I wanted to skip the party and sleep, but my family requested me to help out. I had no choice but to go. And I was only able to sleep at 5:00 to 7:30pm.
Wow, 2 and a half hours and I do not feel sleepy at all! I really wonder how I survived this for the past 4 years and if I can still in the coming years.
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.
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
Sometimes it's not just ego that keeps people from asking questions to things they don't know. It's also their determination to solve it or find the answers by themselves.
But when one already consumes too much time in trying to resolve something and still nothing works, it's time to swallow that ego. And if one is really determined to resolve that issue, there's nothing wrong in asking others.
Just like today, while I'm busy in my bay checking on the agents, the Sup from the other campaign approached me. He appeared to be confused and frustrated with an excel file sent to him. He asked me how come the columns in A to F were not showing and only G and the rest appears. I told him to "unhide" it and he claimed he tried it several times and it still did not work. He wants me to go to his desk and check it out.
But to avoid leaving my team under no supervision, (not that they can't work without one, but its just too simple for me to go over at the other end of the room to show some hidden columns) I went to my desk to show him the "trick".
I opened a sample excel file from my pc and showed him how to "unhide" the columns. He then repeated that that is what he did but it did not work. So I told him that if it's not hidden, the columns are just on freeze. I showed how to unfreeze by clicking alt+w+f. I know for a fact that shortcuts confuse him so I did that on purpose. lol But as he was not leaving my side, I got the hint that he was not able to follow. What the heck, so I just clicked "windows" + "Unfreeze". Then! That's the time he said "ahhh! I know now! Thanks! It took me an hour to figure it out!"
Uhm. You figured it out? O...kaaaay.
So I just said "Yeah, nice huh" and stapled my mouth shut and excused myself before I laugh out loud.
"an idle mind is the devil's playground" ~ American proverb.
In searching, I found out that this quote doesn't really have a particular source except that its a disambiguation of the line "Idle hands are the devil's tools". It means that Idleness is the root of mischief. This maxim has been traced back to Geoffrey Chaucer's "Tale of Melibee" (14th century).
Well, I hope there are no demons here at work, lol.
I am not used to no pressure and slow pace at work. I feel like it's like a storm. You are in the middle of the eye and it's all silent. But once the storm moves on, the strong winds, rain and flying debris come rushing in falling all abruptly on you.
We currently have no "big project" at the moment and I am just handling only a fourth of who I used to handle. People got promoted and moved to help me out. Now I am not used to not cramming, staying overtime (with no pay) to encode, fix files and send out reports.
I guess after some time anyone would get so used to what he is doing that even with closed eyes, the job will be done flawlessly. But lo! Over-confidence may also lead to disaster. It's good to be keen, particular to small details and as my boss used to say (I do not hear this from him anymore lately), "We need to be OC sometimes".
OC or obsessive compulsive, in reality, is a medical condition. This is an anxiety disorder based on the dread that something bad will happen. The sufferer feels compelled to voluntarily perform irrational, time-consuming behaviors to diminish the anxiety. But at my work, it's the same except for the word "irrational".
Sure, we have to be extra careful even if it takes us hours and hours to figure out what's wrong or find other possible solutions. I guess I am trained this way and I see right away a small flaw, a detail, that is often not seen by first glance by others. The tendency for this attitude is positive, as people (even Sups or your own boss too!) approaches you to ask your advice or look at their work.
Now going back to the "storm"... Let's see in the coming days if we get busy or not. Maybe my boss is just not divulging any information at the moment but I sense it. For now, I am prepared and will keep my poise. Although at the moment, let me sit back, enjoy the dull moment and breathe...
And so the payslips came in yesterday. Complaints from the Sup in another campaign and his agents were spreading. Apparently, they were not paid on a weekend that they came in. And the Sup announced a 2k deduction. So... he was being paid 2k per day then. And his Team Lead confirmed that he was also deducted 1.4k. All these were announced on their bay. But of course, I heard it way back here in mine. 
Another rant aside, yes, I am being paid less and almost half lower than the other Team Lead. And I was promoted a year before he was. I guess seniority doesn't count. Unfortunately, Hard Work and Skills do not count either. And what does then?
And speaking of seniority, our dear boss is not around too. The canceled Management dinner was never discussed in any meeting yesterday. Oh well.
Strangely, I'm thinking of pizza pasta and pesto. I wonder why. seven, make that two minutes to go before break time. Good. I'm starving...
