Lately Jenn and I have been really busy with work. We have been working at a call center for Sprint for many months now (me since August, Jenn since October) during which time it has gone from 'fun' to 'ok' to 'bad' to 'worse.' Basically what we do is we take calls from dealers and retail agents calling in from stores (Best Buy, Radio Shack, Sprint Stores, etc.) who are having problems placing orders for cell phones and service and we solve these problems.
It all began with several weeks of training. This basically consisted of:
- Playing games
- Coloring with markers
- Learning about fun games you can play with markers
- Getting free cell phone and service
As I sat pondering the situation I couldn't help but think that the answers to this dealer's questions couldn't be found at the bottom of a box of Crayola, and I told him so. Through some coaching I soon learned this was not an acceptable response and thus began the descent from 'good' to 'bad' to 'worse.' As it stands now, the only coloring I see is on the conformance report I receive from my supervisor indicating in bright pink ink that I may have used the bathroom too many times for a Wednesday and I may need to rethink the efficiency at which my body digests liquid.
Though not all was bad in the land of Sprint. After months of me declining the offer and showing no interest, my supervisor was finally able to convince me to join our floor support staff. By signing me up when I was not paying attention she was able to bypass my reluctance. Floor support is basically a group of people from the department that know their way around the systems well and walk around with walkie talkies and answer people's questions around the call center. Most of the supervisors did not come from our department originally and are unable to assist with a lot of issues, so we are really the last line of help.
I decided that going from telling our sales agents, "there's nothing we can do for you" to telling my friends and co-workers, "there's nothing we can do for you" might be a good change of pace so I decided to play along. The week leading up to my fist shift on floor support was filled with excitement and anticipation. However, as the day grew nearer it occurred to me that I had no idea how to do it really and as it turned out, my supervisor was on vacation for 2 weeks. Fortunately, one of the women on my team is on floor support and she took me under her wing.
She put in a schedule request to take me off the phones for a bit so I could shadow someone on floor support and get the hang of it. This was denied. No matter, I thought, surely someone else can help. Unfortunately, neighboring supervisors had no idea either.
Finally the big day arrived. Luckily it turned out that Jenn's supervisor, Jenn, knew what she was doing and was able to assist me in getting started. Fortunately, it was a slow day and everything went smoothly. However, 45 minutes later I soon learned that through some error all of the codes we had in the system for the price plans we offer had somehow got deleted or changed, causing mass panic. Mistaking the walkie talkie in my hand for a never-ending supply of knowledge, I was called upon again and again for solutions... which I gave in spades. Only time will tell whether or not they were of use.
As it stands now, we are on week 3 of 7 weeks of mandatory overtime (8 hours per week minimum). Things are going well, considering, and we have a paid 2 week vacation coming up in May. That's it for today.
p.s. I have decided to feed Youtube videos at the bottom of my blog based on my word of the day. Today's word is KITTENS. Please enjoy responsibly.
1 comment:
I glad that even though your job isn't going so great that you have found loads of humor in it. Humor is probably the best thing in the world, after love of course. It is nice to read some of your whit, something that I have been missing of late.
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