Fightin' the Oldies..... In one of my previous posts I told you about how hard times had come to the call center, the temps had been fired. Well, it has continued, hours have been cut, and people are kind of scared.

One of our corporate customers has asked that we change the way we provide service, and do things differently. Upper management has asked that we provide more customer service and really take care of the customers that we have, especially in light of the hard times and labor cuts.

We've got several groups of people here, the ones that have been here since the place started, and the ones that came onboard during the last five years, and then the newbies. The newbies are doing what they are told, they follow the customer instructions to the letter. The ancient elders refuse to. They have done things this way for more than 10 years and they refuse to change. One of the newbies turned over a problem to one of the "elders" and they refused to follow the customers instructions or wishes.

But what's really crazy is that management can ask these senior employees to do things differently, but is not able to "make" them do anything. These guys have proprietary technical knowledge that cant be replaced easily. So they know that they have management "by the short hairs". It's sort of a passive-agressive showdown. I don't think this stalemate will end, until the wage freeze comes to an end and some money is given to people.

I do all I can to lay low and not be a target, and just take care of every customer I come in contact the best I know how. I keep away from any of the sales or transactions of the senior employees-they have the clout to do whatever they want-I don't...
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