Check out the selected posts on the right hand of the screen. I added five new selected posts from the archives.
Thanks,
-Anonymous Cog
A couple of days ago my supervisor was extra nice to me. I mean went out of his way to be nice to me and gave me a small gift! It was kind of weird. But except for a couple of times, he has always treated me fairly well.
He's not the perfect boss, and he isn't as nice to everybody as he is to me. But I don't argue with him, and show up on time and do what I am told. I also don't hold him personally responsible for how crappy this place is, I realize a lot of it is beyond his control.
There are times he yells, and makes it not a comfortable place to work, but he is obeying his supervisors and the corporate people. I suspect that at heart, he's a sort of a slacker like the rest of us. He just wants to put in his time and go home like everyone else.
Every business goes through cycles where they have increased activity. Mine is no different. The way they had dealt with this in the last couple of years was to hire temporary employees and liquidate* them as call volume went down. They kept some of us full time employees to train the newbies and keep the place going when the volume was low.
Well, the thing is, our call center provides slightly technical financial assistance. Therefore, you can't just throw anybody in the mix, they have to either have experience in our field or go through training.
The perfect idea is to keep some trainees "in the pipeline" at all times, because not all of them make it through training or end up being good enough to stay on.
Well, it appears management let the well run dry and we are running low on people. That combined with the regular issues of sickness and vacations have really taken a toll. I looked up one day in the middle of the shift and there was only a third of the people that we normally have. Hold times were getting long, and people were getting nasty.
This used to really worry me, but now, its not such a big deal. You just do the best you can. But there is a lady I work with that just can't deal with people holding.
She starts to type loud, and starts yelling "Why cant we get more people in here?" and on from there. She will even stay over if it is the end of her shift and people are holding. I used to do that, but it doesn't pay. Sure you get overtime, but you end up getting involved in more and more problem calls and never leave.
There will always be calls, and people will always be holding. That is the responsibility of management, not me. When the clock hits my time, and I am not on a call, and have finished my work, I punch that time clock and beat feet. This is not just because I don't care anymore, I still do to some extent. But I also notice that even the supervisors, and senior people don't stay around either. There could be calls holding more than 5 mins and they leave. Its just understood by everyone, and never discussed.
I think the reason for this is because of the low morale. We are not a team, we are more like prisoners. There is no moving up, no raises, no praise and no criticism. All that remains is a paycheck, and the hope of enjoying our time away from this place, and the dread of returning.
*I hate this phrase "Liquidate people"....
Check out another wage slave in call center hell:
NicoleWorld
Sounds like she might have better benefits and a better wage package than where I am. Any openings for a ruggedly handsome, incredibly intelligent, yet self-efacing and humble anonymous cog over there?
Part II
In Part II, we examined the different core beliefs that makes it possible for people to commit evil actions and hurt other people. In this part we will discuss how evil flourishes and examine what is necessary to overcome it.
When we speak of evil, that isn't just murder and mayhem, it could be a corporation treating its workers unfairly, or a manager who abuses his employees, and on and on.
The one thing that evil needs to continue to exist is darkness. I'm sure you have heard this quote from the bible:
"This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." -John 3:19-21(NIV)
Evil exists and flourishes in the dark. Darkness is representative of not only ignorance of truth and reality, but also that lack of light that makes all things vague and unrecognizable. In this kind of darkness evil can define itself as good and no one is able to argue against it without the clarity that light brings.
When governments and corporations make decisions that affect people's lives in a negative way, they do so basing their decisions on their own versions of truth.
Evil decisions are not made by seeking out how they will truly affect people, instead they are determined by truth on an excel spreadsheet, a profit and loss statement and the counsel of those that have everything to lose by giving a bad report.
Such versions of truth never show hopelessness, or time lost to the family to take a second job, or having to live on Ramen Noodles and Macaroni and Cheese. Darkness becomes light and "hard management decisions" are celebrated by the board with bonuses, vacations, and new cars for the insightful manager, while people beneath them suffer without increases that even keep up with inflation.
What will overcome this is Light. Light is representative of truth, insight, and seeing things clearly as they really are and not trusting in shadows who claim to be truth.
Continued in Part IV
Check out an excellent post on the subject of homelessness and enabling over at The Homeless Guy. I had always wondered exactly how to help the homeless, and he explains it very well.
-Anonymous Cog
In part I we looked at how to define evil actions, and why corporations are unable to define evil the same way we do because of how they see the workers "beneath" them.
There are several kinds of evil in the world. There is the out-front-totally-whacked-psychotic-evil, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, you know the guys who come to mind. Then we see the more common everyday evil in such things as simple as bullying in the school yard, to abuse and discrimination in the corporate office and factory.
Its certainly tempting to rate certain types of evil as being worse than another according to the number of people affected and the severity of the effects of the particular evil. But all evil is the same in that there are several distinct core beliefs that make it possible to exist in the hearts of men. Here are what I consider to be at least part of those distinct beliefs:
1.One person or group is superior to another person or group.
2.The inferior people or group are not just inferior, they are sub-human, not deserving of respect or humane treatment.
3.Because they are sub-human, they do not feel, think, or need the same things as other humans.
You have heard these ideas in political rhetoric in the struggles between Hitler and the Jews, The European and the Africans, the Catholic and the Protestants, Clergy and the Laity, Management and Labor, on and on as long as the world turns.
How have people conquered these beliefs that cause evil and how can we change them now?
Visit Tate, a self-confessed drama queen at her blog:
Drama and Dreams
She's got some good posts-especially the one about the spider in her bible.
-Anonymous Cog
Check out this blog-another anonymous wage slave like yours truly:
Things to do at work when you are dead
What is evil behavior and what is just "hard management decisions"? How do we know the difference between decisions that need to be made to continue the existence of a business, and those decisions that put profit above humane treatment of employees?
We can't call everything done by management evil. So what is evil, what makes an act evil?
The answer is straight-forward: Evil actions cause needless pain and sacrifice to others when they are not necessary for your survival.
But like any straight-forward answer, there will always be a lawyer-like addendum and redefinition of survival. They will say that corporations need certain amounts of profits and capital in order to survive and continue to compete. It's true enough, but the scale always slides to their favor. What do CEO's need to live on?
But the question of what makes people able to commit evil actions has more to do with how they see the people "beneath" them than what they see as right and wrong.
I wonder what kind of superhero I could be. My favorite superhero movie is Mystery Men. I'm sure AnonymousMan or Cogboy would not be great names for a superhero. I dont even know what kind of powers I would have.
Wait, Ok, Here are the powers I would like to have:
1. To be able to control the speed of time; be able to stop it completely, or make it go backward or forward at any speed I wanted.
2. To be able to control gravity. This would mean I could fly, or crush or move anything-you could kick Superman's butt all over town.
3. To have infinite money. I could pull any kind of cash, jewels or gold out of any pocket, backpack, or briefcase in my possesion at any time. Of course I would need a team of Super Hero Accountants and Lawyers to clean up the mess when the IRS came to audit me...
Here's a link to an organization in the UK called Bully Online
They have a special section just for people that work in the Call Center Industry:
Call Centre Related Bullying
If anyone knows of a resource like this for the US or our compadres in India and other areas-please comment below.
Check out Anonyblog!
Your own chance to rant and rave to the blogosphere and not be known.
-Anonymous Cog
In some ways it's comforting to come to the realization that the reason I dont do well at this job is because its not the work that I am suited for or destined for.
Yeah, I'm sad that I've went off course and am on the back side of 30. But I am making positive steps towards my dream I cant tell you about without being too specific. Even if I never figure everything out, I have found ways to volunteer to use my gifts. I used to think that if you did not do everything that God meant for you to do, you would be a lost soul wandering through the desert of your life never doing anything right. I'm starting to believe that God's plans are a lot more flexible than we give him credit for and we should not worry so much.
He's not up in heaven going, "Oh great, he took that call center job, now I'll never be able to get any use out of him, man what a bozo. Just forget, I'll find someone else to work through!"
People are not a perfect conduit for God's plan's and purposes, but in the end he uses us as little or as much as we allow him.
Thanks for reading,
AC
Click here to read Part I
One thing about this place that has always amazed me is that everyone is unified in their hatred of it. It is the only thing that brings us any real unity of thought.
In all the time I have worked here, I have never worked with anyone who said, "Damn, I love this job! I was born for this, this is my freakin' destiny! I am going to be the Mack Daddy of the call center and I am going to live for customer satisfaction! Ring phone! Ring Damn you! I need to be of service to somebody!"
No, this person has never shown up-if he did he would be on the fast track to management. You know, like the guys in fast food restaurants that become little Hitlers when they get promoted to "Crew Chief". The closest to this was a guy who said "I've worked in worse places." . That is the best I have ever heard.
The stress affects each person differently. Some people smoke, some drink a lot of coffee, one of the guys here gets a rash, one the women starts typing really loud and talking about walking out, and of course, most people cuss. It is a veritable buffet of stress symptoms and coping skills, or not coping skills. Take your pick.
In my younger years I took a test that told me I was best suited to be either a social worker, counselor, or minister. I took different classes in college to try to explore those ideas.
I remember when I graduated from college that one of my friends from Vietnam named Kim told me "You will be great teacher-don't take other job." I have taught in Sunday School and other areas, spoken in church and youth groups, and it always goes well. People have told me that they learned a lot from me.
I guess the reason that never became my job is that I was never able to move it from volunteer to full time job.
Thanks for reading,
AC
Continued in part III
Click here to read Part I
As all seriously addicted bloggers do, I keep an eye on my sitemeter to see who's visiting, and what search words bring them to my humble little outpost of sarcasm,truth and shameless self-justification.
Well, when you submit your weblog to google, the bots eventually start reading and categorizing everyone of your entries by the words in your posts. I think this may be accelarated if you republish your entire blog and ping other sites like Technorati or ping Blogrolling often. If nothing else, using these sites makes you more visible-and more accessible to surfers who may adopt you as a regular read.
Anyway...I've never had a lot of content about sex, or body parts, not like my brave compadre over at nutrogroist(not for the squeamish-but a good funny read nonetheless). But one of my previous posts "A Mind Forever Wandering" contained the terms "Sex", "Breast" and "Big Butts" as well as various lyrics from Barry Manilow's timeless hit "Copa Cabana"*.
So when I pop open my site meter today it shows that I had a hit from google with these two terms Copa Cabana Sex.
What sort of traffic is this going to bring me? Does this mean horny Barry Manilow fans that work in call centers will be flocking to my weblog now? What have I done!?!?
*I'll admit it, it's my favorite Manilow song, and I want to conga when I hear it, but the medication seems to be keeping this desire in check for the time being.....
One of my friends at work and I were talking about different jobs that we have had. He commented that he has never had a job where he did not experience stress, where he did not hate it, and where he liked the job.
I have been thinking about that for some time, is there no such thing as a job that you love? There has to be, I have known people who love their jobs. There are craftsmen and salesmen and social workers, even truck drivers that love their job.
But it got me wondering, what is the job that I am meant for, and why haven't I found it yet?
Thanks for reading,
AC
Part II
Part III
Been reading Morgan's blog entitled Blog-on-and-on-Anon and wanted to tell you why I am so obsessed with blogging.
I've been blogging since February and found that it quickly became a real obsession. Nothing new for me, I have a real obsessive personality, and rarely seem to be able to obsess about good things. But blogging is a different type of obsession.
It's not like video games, where you can finish, or you get an adrenaline rush. Nor is it like trying to find some killer app or new toy, it has more to do with one's identity.
Everyone wants to be distinctive in some way. They want to be known for something besides the boring things in their life. Even if they do a boring job, they will go on and on how they do it better than other people(deja vu..). Or they will have pursuits outside of work like sports or art that allow them distinction.
I remember reading an essay by Berger about art that stated that portraits in the past were "meant to show people in their established social roles, but had nothing to do with the lonely modern desire to be known for what we really are."(forgive me if I misquoted-that was from memory).
Blogs are a vehicle where we can express who we really are fully without the baggage of our established social roles. We can finally be known for who we really are. We can express the anger, angst, agony and adulation that goes on between our ears while the rest of the world only notices our haircuts.
Thats whats so captivating about blogs. For once in my life people don't see my dippy hair, or less than perfect body, they see into my soul and can see whats real. Nothing gets in the way, not social status, not money, not even educational background. As long as you have relavant content to share, you can be known as you believe yourself to be outside of the roles that society has placed you in.
Here's an interesting blog entry about what "Americanized Call Centers" are doing to the culture identity of India.
Call Center Services India Archive-5/02/04
"Orthodoxy means not thinking -- not needing to think." -George Orwell 1984
I keep coming back again and again to the character Winston in Orwell's 1984. I know that Orwell meant the book to be a warning about totalitarian regimes, and as a way to combat Soviet style communism, but the book speaks on many more levels than that about more basic themes. This book has themes like intellectual freedom, human dignity, affection, and even more.
Winston's phrase written in his diary,
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows. "(Orwell 1984)is totally opposed to the philosophy of the party, explained by his intimate friend, and ultimate torturer, O'Brien.
O'Brien's response is essentially that the party determines what is truth, and if the party says 2+2=5, it is, and has always been 5. That speaks volumes to the idea that human thoughts and reasonings can exist outside of the dominant thought of society, but also that there will always be those in society that want to change how people think.
We all spend so much time trying to fit into society's norms and morays without even thinking whether they are right or wrong. Even in religion, it's amazing how much of American religion is not Christian or Catholic, but is particularly culturally based with a quickly constructed shell of scriptures that appear to support it.
While I am in solidarity with my Catholic brothers, and believed that they are just as saved as I am, I believe that Martin Luther caused great changes for the world both religiously and intellectually. Luther is like Winston in his refusal to accept the liturgy of the church as truth when it did not agree with scriptures. He thought for himself, he interpreted the bible for himself and determined what was true and what was not for himself. He refused to let someone else do his thinking for him.
I know that is a simple truth, but this simple truth has caused so many changes in the world. How many times do we see the same problems that Luther encountered come back upon the world time and time again? From The Inquisition, to the French and American Revolution, through so many other world wars, and such movements as Political Correctness, McCarthyism, up to problems with censorship after 9/11, it seems that the strong in power are always trying to squash free thought. They will always follow O'Brien's lead in thinking that: You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable.(Orwell 1984)
But even more than just governments and religions, the fight for free thought is everywhere. Media companies are deciding what they will broadcast, what news stories, and what books will be published. They are in the business to make money, but how are they changing what people think is true?
In school, and business, and all other arenas. It's not enough to those in power that we submit to their rules and regulations. No, they want us to believe these rules and regulations and not give them a second thought. It's not enough to do what you are told, you have to think the same way, and if they detect anything less than orthodoxy you will be punished.
I don't know how to respond in order to be like Winston or Luther, or Gandhi, I could list on and on. To be able to stand up even though I know I am heading for certain death and doom is quite a task. But it's my ideal, and my goal to live like him and those others like him. That ideal to be attained is that my thoughts are my own, that my ideas are my own and that mindless orthodoxy is avoided at all costs.
More Orwell Posts:
George Orwell 1984
Big Brother Is Watching You
As soon as I brag how call volume is up, I have a day like today. Very little calls came my way, and no trouble or problems are sticking to me, I'm like teflon. What's funny is that people all around me were getting calls and my phone just isn't ringing. Then when it does ring, I'm not getting any hard calls, just questions about the market, or how our system works, or requests for information. I had some calls that I thought would be trouble, but either nothing materialized, or they called back and somebody else handled it. It sure is a change from the shit-magnet I tend to be the rest of the week. For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it means bad customers, stupid problems and generally hot-brown-poopy-calls are drawn to you like flys to the aforementioned substance.
The only thing constant is that nothing is constant....
If you haven't noticed, I have kind of a writer's block going on right now, or nothing interesting has happened.....
The last week call volume has picked up, and so have my numbers. Not as good as the old guys, but certainly better than usual. Things are still incredibly boring. It seems like time starts slowing down the minute I punch the card.
But as time warps go, this is maddening. Never slow enough I can eat my lunch without being interrupted, or complete an conversation with a coworker without being interrupted, it's like time has been slowed down just enough to make me generally pissy.
But then, I think we can agree I am a bit of a pessimistic malcontent. Oh well...
Most call centers have an IT person or multiple IT staff. From computer, networks, phones and phone monitoring systems, call centers are a technology based industry.
We have an IT person at my call center, she is a woman of indeterminate age, 40 to 55, from somewhere in the northern midwest. I am not sure if she is professionally trained or not. I suspect she may be a hacker that got lucky because someone thought she knew what she was talking about. She used to work on the floor, and was management at one time.
She has become one of my least favorite people in the center. When you have a problem, or need something fixed, you dread talking to her. Either she explains in a condescending, annoyed tone that you either have no need to be able to do something like use corporate email to send a customer a report the asked for, or she almost cries because she is so incredibly stressed out.
The few times she has come on the floor and helped out it has been a fiasco. She will take a bunch of calls and then get too stressed to handle the job of actually arranging what the customer asked for, and then the rest of us will have to clean it up.
When she complains to all of us how stressed out she is and acts like she is going to cry, I really would like to say, "Are you crying? Are you crying? There is no crying in Call Centers!".
Look, it's not because she is a woman that bothers me. I work with some strong, intelligent women who do a better job than men do. It's that she can treat us lower than dirt when we ask her to do her job, but when she's having a tough time she gets to have a nervous breakdown and we are all supposed to be sympathetic. If I could get a hold of her resume I would send it to Radio Shack, she may have what it takes to sell 9 volt batteries, but it might be a stretch.
Blank...my mind is totally blank. I look at the screen and can think of nothing other than coffee, breakfast, more sleep, little Debbie swiss rolls, spongebob and sex(simple man, simple pleasures). Alas, I guess there will be no self-proclaimed meaningful call center insights today. I hope my lack of posting today doesn't affect the children in a detrimental way. Because it's all about the children, they are the future, and that scares me.
Hold on, here it comes.....
wait for it...wait for it...
Working in a Call Center really sucks....
ok, that's all I've got today...whew...I'm spent!
Still waiting to give away a Gmail invitation to whoever sends me good story about working in a call center.
1. Your story may be featured in the blog.
2. It's my contest, I decide who wins.
3. The story needs to be "adjusted" in order to remove
any details that will identify specific people-names, etc.
4. Stories may be edited before featured in this blog for space
and content.
Send your stories to anonymous.cog at gmail.com
Thanks,
AnonymousCog
When it gets close to quitting time, we all start trying to look busy, but try not to take any new calls. Some people do reviews of previous calls, and call customers to ask about the satisfaction with service provided. Anything you can do to draw out the time.
Because if you stay available to receive calls up to quitting time, you will inevitably get smacked with a problem call that will make you stay over longer. I remember my boss writing up an employee who refused to take a new call 5 minutes before quitting time. We all do it, she was just brazen enough to actually say it.
During the day he will scream and yell that people are letting calls hold too long, and we need to all work together to get the calls knocked out. He has asked me and other people to stay over when calls are still backed up.
A couple of days ago we had five calls holding and were behind on other things, but when his quitting time came he hit the road without a word.
It doesnt surprise me, it just confirms what I have believed all along-he doesnt care either-just plays the game like the rest of us until quitting time hits. The other "senior" employees are the same way, they hit the bricks when the time clock hits their time, but the new employees stay and try to do everything perfect.
Caring does not pay around here....
Part II
When the fog from everyday life clears, and I remember that I am not just an assembly-line telecommunications worker, but in reality am a justified child of God who has already gained the most important thing of all in life, justification and acceptance from God, then I have a new problem.
How do I help others escape the fog? How do I live a life that makes others free? More than that, how do I keep from falling into the fog myself again? Is there a job where I don't feel alienated and make the world a better place?
These are more thorny questions. The answers to these question may be what enables my escape from call center purgatory....
In a fog Part I
Its kind of funny how and when the fog lifts in my life. It happens at the oddest times.
Several days ago I was driving down a road with alot of tall green trees and smelling green cut grass and listening to a new Annie Lennox CD and the fog cleared. Immediately, like a switch had been turned on, I was in touch with eternity.
What does that mean, nothing flakey, it means this: I realized that I am not just a call center employee, but I exist as a person in eternity. There is a part of me that will always exist outside of this banane existence I find myself at present.
But even more than that, God loves me forever also. No matter what my call volume, or call accuracy, or overall production, no matter if I struggle with cussing and other vices, he will always love and accept me.
"By one sacrifice you have been made perfect forever as you are being made holy"-Hebrews 10:14 (New International Version)
Continued in Part III
How many people live their lives in a fog everyday? You know what I mean. They do the things that make the money to pay the bills so they can enjoy what little leisure time they get. Then when they get the leisure time they are so worn out they have no mental energy for anything else other than mindless entertainment and comfort food("Spongebob and swissrolls good!"*).
But this works on a spiritual basis too. Sociologists theorize that religion was not developed until it society developed to the point that there was leisure time available to think and create. Whether this is true explicitly I am not sure, but I am certain that being busy and stressed leaves you very little time to think of eternal things, or for that matter anything outside of your own head.
I never meant for work to overtake my life like this. It seems like my life has become a fog of telephones, voices in my headset I will never meet, and data entry. But the fog continues to clear now and then and I will see what's really important in life.
Continued in part 2
*I am not dissing Sponge Bob or Swiss Rolls-I have a videotape full of Sponge Bob, and can eat a whole box of swissrolls if you put them in front of me-I am just saying that there is more to life than this.
OK, check it out. I have one more G-mail invitation open. Whoever sends me a good story about working in a call center can have it. I will leave the invitation up for a while. Here are the rules:
1. Your story may be featured in the blog.
2. It's my contest, I decide who wins.
3. The story needs to be "adjusted" in order to remove
any details that will identify specific people-names, etc.
4. Stories may be edited before featured in this blog for space
and content.
Send your stories to anonymous.cog at gmail.com
Thanks,
AnonymousCog
