It's Nice to Be Appreciated

This week the multiple-national corporation I work for celebrated an "employee appreciation week". This involved gifts and food for days. 

Now, normally I am cynical about this sort of thing. My friend calls this kind of morale-boosting activity "fluff"; that glosses over actual work problems and distracts the masses. Classic Bread & Circuses, you might say. 

But honestly, this time I found myself just happy to be on the receiving end of some appreciation. A big lunch was catered, more than we all could possibly eat. We got corporate shirts (really nice ones too, not the usual flimsy tees). There were even cupcakes. And throughout the week, the message has been THANK-YOU. 

Thanks for all your hard work team, the company is saying. My department has been performing fairly badly lately, so it is a nice change from the usual YOU MUST DO BETTER which has been the theme song for the past few months. 

That said, if I eat any more cupcakes, I may explode. 

Do you get shown appreciation for the things you do? 

Don't Fob Me Off

In my job, I make a lot of phone calls. I don't think it's any secret what I do - I'm a collector. Essentially, I chase businesses for money all day.

Now I can understand why people don't want to talk to me - I'm asking them to pay their bills, gasp, how dare I? And if you're having trouble with cashflow at present I imagine the last person you want to talk to is your creditor.

But today I'm not talking about Bob from Bob's Services not being able to pay his bills. I'm talking about receptionists and office staff. I'm talking about the person whose job it is to answer the business phone, or the unfortunate staff member in the workshop or warehouse who picks it up when nobody else will.

I find that more and more, people are inclined to fob me off or be openly dismissive. I don't even think it's the fact that I'm calling about money - they're not even interested in who I am most of the time, let alone why I'm ringing. Nope, if they're not the right person to speak to, I get told:
- they're not here
- ring back later
- send them an email

I also don't care if that person isn't in the office today, or if they're sick, or on leave. The least you can do is offer me an alternative person or take a message. 

More than half the time I actually have to push to have them go to the trouble of writing down a message. (I don't want to send an email. Emails get buried and deleted. I want somebody to ring me back). And even worse, I can tell half the time they're not even bothering to write down my number. They respond too quickly and the tone tells me they don't care. I must leave about 40 messages a day and you know how many return calls I get? Probably 3-5. Woeful. 

And while I'm on a rant about business politeness and niceities, I am continually astounded by the amount of phones that are not answered in a way that identify the company. eg. "Welcome to XYZ, you're speaking with Gloria/Steve.". Nope. It's "Hello?". And then I have to enquire whether I've even called the right place. Basic stuff, but it really, really irks me.

I also believe that this is happening in my personal life. People just don't bother to get back to you, they don't identify themselves when ringing, emails are just templates. My husband had a very frustrating but hilarious argument with a telemarketer the other night who kept demanding "Who you?" with him replying "You first! You're calling me!"

I don't know what the problem is, or the solution. I just know that if I have a bad interaction with a company at work or in my personal life, I'm completely put off what they're selling. And I tell other people about it. 

Are you getting fobbed off left, right and centre? Does it give you the irrits like me?

Going Above and Beyond at the Office

This morning my other half had to be on the south side so he dropped me at work early on the way through the city. 

Rocking up an hour early for my shift, I felt virtuous as I strode through the door with some raisin toast clutched in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, ready to tackle some emails. 

Astonishingly most people were already there. I usually arrive at work 15mins early to log in and make a cuppa. Turns out my coworkers are putting in extra hours every single day - for no overtime pay. 

Now I have a strict policy when it comes to this sort of thing. That is, I just don't do it. No matter how far behind on my work I get, I resist the temptation to start coming in early or staying late. In my opinion, you've got to be in the higher pay grades than I currently am to have that expected of you. And that path, folks, is a slippery slope downwards to high blood pressure and stress leave. I've seen it and I don't like what it does to a person's work-life balance. 

Well, I just re-read this and don't I sound like a slacko? But you know what? If I was ten years younger and being paid a bit more maybe I would be doing ten hour days trying to get ahead. 

But I'm not, so I don't. I give 110% in the hours I'm there, I reckon that's enough. I value my down time so much more than helping my employer fill their corporate coffers with the last drops of blood they can squeeze from me, their little worker stone. So I guess if you want a super-keen, over-achieving busy bee that'll stay back at the office to get a little more work done, don't look at me. 

I'll be at home, eating chocolate and watching a cooking show.  And work will be the last thing on my mind. 

Do you put in extra hours? Is it worth it?

 

Does it really matter?

Asking the big philosophical questions here on the blog today. No, not really. But it is about perspective. 

My workplace has been very stressful lately. A combination of problems that haven't been fixed, short-staffing and general idiocy has resulted in a perfect storm of craziness. I have been hoping things would get better in the new year but they haven't. 

I work in accounts. Accounting, if you didn't know, has a monthly cycle. I am a collector. That means I make you pay your bills. (Yes, it's as fun as it sounds!)

Yesterday, being the 31st, was our last collection day. It had to count. I had to get as much moola in as possible. My life depended on it...

Except it didn't. Yes, my monthly bonus depended on it but not much else. My workmate, seeing me freaking out at a large debtor not paying at the last minute, asked me - "Does it really matter? I mean, really really?"

Our boss looked sharply at us but I still took a breath, thought about it and said "No."

My personal pride may take a beating. Our team results may not be as great as last month. But really, I won't lose my job. The world won't end. 

So, this weekend I am attempting to put my work into perspective. I'd love it to be a place where I am learning and being professionally fulfilled every day, but lets face it, sometimes it's not. It's a job, that I do to earn money, so I can have a nice life. 

It matters, but not as much as I tend to think it does sometimes. 

Do you care too much about work? How do you put it into perspective?

The pleasure of food

I never understood "foodies" and their boundless enthusiasm for food. Still don't. Sure, I enjoy food and I get as much pleasure out of eating peanut butter out of the jar as the next person. But I don't go into paroxyms of delight over fancy restaurants and their menus of food I've never heard of. I don't fangirl on chefs (except tv ones).

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But cooking... ah cooking is different. I didn't get some people's passion for cooking until I got older. The only subject I didn't do well in at high school was Home Economics. In fact, if my friend didn't save my meringue or jam every time I probably would have failed.

Fast forward to the last few years, to when I've become a homemaker. At first, cooking was a chore. Then it was occasionally diverting. Then I discovered tv cooks and actually got interested in recipes and cooking. I totally missed the beginning of the Jamie Oliver bandwagon (remember The Naked Chef? I was all PFFFT WHATEVS at the time) but now I'm firmly on it. Nigella is a bit of an idol. Hugh from River Cottage inspires me.

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This week, I've been having a shit time at work. Well, let's be honest, it's been a stressful month. Monday night I came home and made a Nigella recipe I've never done before (Pea and Pancetta from Nigellissima). Tuesday night I challenged myself to do a Jamie 15 Min Meal for the first time (Grilled Steak, ratatouille and saffron rice).

And heck if I didn't enjoy it. Get pleasure out of it. The creation of the food felt joyous. The eating part was good too. It was a great stress-buster.

Tonight was a bit of a fail because I came home and had a drink then didn't feel like cooking. But maybe two awesome meals is enough for this week.

Oh and I'm totally saving my pennies for Save with Jamie. Why? It combines two things I'm passionate about at the moment - frugality and lessening food waste! 

Do you love cooking? Baking? Why? Tell me I want to know.

Cheer up at the office

If you're like me and have a desk job, sometimes the Cubicle Life (not to be confused with Thug Lyfe) can make you feel like you're living in a Dilbert comic.

It can kind of grind you down, as anyone who has seen Office Space will agree. So here's my tips on making your day at the office more bearable.

- Make your desk nice. Studies show that adding personal items can make it a nicer environment to work in. Duh, right? I'm always suspicious of anyone who doesn't have personal items on their desk. Weirdos. I have sarcastic calenders, a photo of me and my husband, hand cream and a stress ball. Do you have a favourite colour? Decorate with that. It'll cheer you up more than a "Hang in there!" kitten poster.

 

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- Plants. If you're allowed, get one for your desk. They're great. I don't recommend fish though - they tend to die and give everyone a sad.

- Drink your favourite drinks. If you love coffee, take in your favourite brand. If you're a tea-drinker, brew your best leaves in a little teapot for one. Or if that's too odd (though I've seen people do this everywhere I've worked), buy beautiful boutique tea bags and drink a cup every day. I like to have mine in the morning, so I'm sipping it as I open my email. Makes the day more bearable.

- Take awesome food for lunch. Seriously, having yummy food to look forward to in the middle of the day can be a great way to boost your mood. Nothing kills my happy like realising it's 15mins until lunch, but then remembering I only have 2 minute noodles. If you can afford to buy lunch, perhaps restrict yourself to one great one per week. Go for a walk in your lunch break to find cool places to get food. This has the bonus of getting you out of the office. Which segways nicely to my next point...

- Get out of the office if you can. I fail at this one. But before I knew my workmates and gossiped my way through every break in the lunchroom, I used to go for walks around the city blocks near my office. Fresh air does the brain good, plus you get the blood pumping after hours of static sitting at your desk.

- Cool stationery is cool. Though perhaps this is just me. I am fussy about pens but there is so much cool papergoods out there just begging to be used. If you're like me and frequently splurge on KikkiK stuff that you never use, take it into the office! Everyone loves a pretty post-it. Yes even the grumpy old guy in accounts.

 

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So what do you do to cheer yourself up at work?

Winning

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I re-learned something about myself yesterday. It was something I hadn't thought about since university, because that's how long it has been since I actually got graded on something.

I LOVE ACHIEVING.  I especially love being a HIGH ACHIEVER. There. I said it.

In school, I always got great marks. I tried to play it down a lot because being smart wasn't (and possibly still isn't) cool. But I was always secretly happy about it. In uni, I got grumpy at the subjects where I couldn't pull good grades - and learnt that if I wasn't genuinely interested in something, I would ignore it in favour of absorbing more about my other subjects.

I have just been through my second month-end in accounts receivable and when the results came out, I had jumped from placing dead-last in my team to 2nd! Incredibly, I achieved a score of 92% - which is really very good considering nobody wants to pay their bills at the moment.

I won't bore you with the ins and outs of what I do all day at the office or what that figure represents, but suffice to say, that 92% made me smile all day long. I got congratulations from my collegues and even a back-pat from the big boss. Sickening, isn't it?

Today the brilliance of achievement has faded somewhat, and I'm reminding myself that nobody likes a boaster. But if I have learned one thing about my self-esteem in the past few years, it's that I need to let myself recognise that I am pretty great - and enjoy the moment when I do good/great/amazing things.

Have you achieved anything lately? What has made you feel brilliant?

How the day went

Get to work

Check email

Read entire Google Reader

Read the news

Read Demotivational Memebase

Check Etsy

Check email again

Surf some blogs looking for new interesting blogs

Read new blogs

Delete uninteresting blogs from reader

Make list of all the jobs and errands I need to do at home

Start next week’s meal plan and grocery list

Think about writing a blog

Google “bored at work”

Check out Lifehacker

Read twitter on phone

Check email again

Find new op shops to visit on the weekend

Check Gumtree for this weekend’s garage sales

Wonder again how to find out about deceased estate and collection house auctions

Think about Storage Wars and wish I could make money out of buying storage lockers

Worry about bills

Do some work

Take frequent bathroom breaks

Think about how to find time to do some exercise during winter when I get up and come home in the dark

Check Reader again for any new blogs

Discuss $70m lotto jackpot with co-workers

Contemplate buying a chocolate bar

Buy chocolate bar and eat it

Feel sick

Eventually I’ll go home

And in between, answer the phone and actually do some work. Let's just say - it was a very slow day.

How was your day?

Ranty McRanterson

A few days ago I threw down my headset and said aloud to my workmates that I have no idea why I work in customer service any more. Because people just GIVE ME THE SHITS.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, or whether I have just had too many years in this industry, but it seems to me that people are getting ruder. I feel like I’m a complete whinger every day when I say to my collegues how much I hate impoliteness. And I think I have blogged before about my incredulity at the way that business owners speak to other businesses. Not even a skerrick of professionalism sometimes. I’ve heard grown men resort to name-calling when they get upset about something.

Here’s how a typical phone conversation goes at my work these days. It should demonstrate why my “Urge to Kill” meter is constantly rising.

Me: Thank-you for calling X Company Accounts, you’re speaking w-

Them: Yeah you sent me an invoice.

Me: Ok do you have a query about it or are you wanting to p-

Them: Yeah you’ve charged me the wrong amount. I’m not paying this.

Me: May I have you account number pl-

Them: 123456789 (delivered at machine gun rapid pace) and I want this fixed now.

Me: Can you please repeat that numb-

Them: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 (delivered slowly, as if speaking to a child)

Me: Thank you, what I’m going to do is put you through to your account manag-

Them: Ok I’ll wait but it better not be long.

Me: (pause) The person you need to speak to is on the phone at the moment, would you like to hold for them or would you pref-

Them: Yes

Me: So would you like to hold for them or prefer a ret-

Them: Yes I will

Me: So which of those two options do you choose?

Them: What options?

Me: Hold OR a return call.

Them: Hold! Are you deaf?

Can you see how frustrating it is? I literally cannot finish a sentence. I’m CONSTANTLY interrupted and by people who NEVER introduce themselves. I get maybe one call a day where the person gets all three magical introduction points right – “Hello my name is X and I’m calling from Y about Z”.

So now when I’m interrupted on the phone I just keep talking. I finish the sentence I was saying, over the top of the customer if they are waffling on. Call me stubborn or bull-headed or just stupid, but I vainly hope this makes the person realize just how rude they are being.

The other work thing that irks me lately is the stupid names. As in, the stupid names people have and the dumb things they name their businesses. This morning I spoke to a lady named Petal. I made her spell it for me, just in case I was hearing incorrectly (whenever people do actually bother to introduce themselves it sounds like “Yeah this is Krihvoznmrew… “ because they MUMBLE). And I kind of wish I’d kept a list of all the idiotic businesses that we deal with, that have those silly spellings like Nootech or Hi-bryte. But those that amuse/annoy me most are the small concerns that mash the husband and wife’s names together. Like “Denchard Holdings” or “Chervid Racing”.

And some days getting information is like getting blood from a stone. I literally feel like I’m pulling teeth. Some people like to tell a story about all these amazing/strange/horrible things that have happened leading up to the phone call. And then they just trail off uncertainly, waiting for you to do something. I usually end up having to ask them directly exactly what the reason for their call is. And they seem surprised, like I should have known. This is the point where I usually mute the call and scream towards the ceiling  “I’M SORRY MY CRYSTAL BALL IS BROKEN TODAY!”

Ok. Rant over. I gotta get out of this place. If it’s the last thing I ever do.

Leaving on a jet plane

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This blog has been a little silent of late. The reason being is I haven’t felt the need to post anything. I usually do participate in a few link-ups on the weekend however I was visiting my parents the last few days and in between helping mum with her computer, a big family birthday party and generally lolling about I didn’t really think about blogging!

Today I’m going on a work trip. My company is sending me to Sydney for 2 days to complete a training course, along with a few other newbies. I’m flying out tonight and coming home Thursday. This means two nights and two days away, coming straight after 3 days away at the farm. I’ll be missing my darling a lot by the time I come back, I bet.

But at the same time I’m kind of excited. I love flying. I love that surge of speed when the engines spool up and engage, and the plane shoots forward on the runway. I sit there grinning, thinking about the unbelievable amount of air that is being forced through the jet engines and generating enough speed and lift to get the great hulking behemoth off the ground. I’m not so excited about landings, I must admit (I dislike the way the descent makes my stomach drop) but it’s worth it for that feeling you get on take-off.

The engineering of an aeroplane is a fascinating thing, should you be interested in the way things work like I am. Fortunately I am engaged to a guy that is an aircraft maintenence engineer, so he explains things to me. Did you know that a plane has about as much aerodynamic-ness as a brick? It's not the shape that makes it able to fly - it's the mysterious forces of physics.

I’m also kind of looking forward to the novelty of my first “business trip” and the all-expenses paid accommodation and food. We’re staying at an airport hotel, so won’t get to see anything of the city, but I don’t mind because I’ve seen most of Sydney multiple times!

Do you ever travel for work? Does it lose its novelty quickly?

Honey & Vinegar

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I have a favourite saying. It’s “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. I use it all the time at work, because the general public seems not to have heard of this tried and true maxim.

I include in the category of “vinegar”: shouting, whining, moaning, sob stories, crying of all kinds, threats, blustering, name-calling, swearing and blackmail.

Under “honey”, I include: manners, courtesy, asking politely, logic, compromise, common sense and calm rationality.

The first way will get you absolutely nowhere with any customer service person worth their salt and force them immediately into a position of hating you; thus decreasing dramatically your chances of getting any kind of satisfaction. The other will open doors, work miracles and probably result in a happy resolution.

Those people who use vinegar to try to get what they want are just bullies. But what most of them don’t realize is that I have the power in this conversation. Not you. Me.

Ultimately I can bend over backwards to help you, or make your interaction with our company a living hell. The true art lies in making you believe I’m doing the former whilst actually doing the other. A range of harmless punishments might include:

- putting you on hold
- making you recite all your personal details before even letting you even state the reason for your call
- listen to the epic story of your problem before advising it’s not my area, and transferring you to someone else to repeat it all again
- advising that I will have to get someone to call you back about that particular problem as it needs further investigation
- launching into highly technical explanations which you won’t understand

I can think of a lot more evil ones too, but I am not that mean. But if I stretch my imagination a bit, a really, really awful customer service person might:

- be assured that the problem will be fixed, but have nothing done
- leave a message, then not have it passed on
- accidentally have their email deleted
- accidentally have their fax lost

And then there’s the really scary thought – that this person, whom you have abused, screamed at, swore at, called names and generally treated like crap, has ALL your personal details. Vinegar people need to think about that. Note that I have never seen customer information misused, and would NEVER do such a thing myself, but I ALWAYS keep this in mind when dealing with companies. Because I know: I am their customer. They have the power.

Are you nice to people to get what you want? Or do you find being a vinegar person works better?

The Tyranny of Uniformity

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As some of my twitter followers know, my work recently introduced a uniform. Their rationale was that we were moving to the city (the office used to be located in the industrial area of the airport and the dress code was "business casual" at best) and it would look smarter next to the perfectly coiffed employees of other corporations and government agencies we would be sharing the building with. As if we couldn’t stand someone from another company to look at us in the elevator and think “God, why is she in civvies? Is that a pair of cargo pants she’s wearing?”

My entire school life, I wore a uniform. In primary school, I wore a blue smock. I can’t think of any other word to describe it, the style was interpreted in many ways by enterprising mothers who sewed them for their daughters (quite common in those days, and in a country town). The boys got to wear a blue button-up shirt with grey shorts. On Fridays, which was sports day, girls got to wear a red t-shirt and black netball skirt with black “runners” underneath. Runners were supposed to lend some kind of dignity to any accidental flashes of underwear, but looking back I fail to see how. Your normal undies used to poke out the sides of the runners anyway. Later, girls were allowed to wear black shorts, a trend I embraced as it was much easier to concentrate on high jump without worrying that the boys were looking at my runners.

In high school, we had a boxy grey blouse and maroon tie, teamed with a knee-length pleated grey skirt. For sports, we wore blue polo shirts with maroon skirts, shorts or trackpants. You can probably guess which the preferred garment was for teenagers – even in high summer, when it got to 40 degrees, you could still find smelly boys wearing trackpants. Parachute material was the most popular, if I recall correctly. Anyone wearing heavy pajama-type cotton trackies was ostracized. Kids can be so cruel, especially maroon parachute-panted ones.

Now, at my company, when a uniform was decreed necessary, a department committee was formed. Yes, organizing and deciding on uniforms necessitated a committee. Deliberations went on for weeks. Certain items (such as clothes made out of actual nice material) were unable to be ordered, due to budget constraints. The colours were chosen and everyone’s worries that we would end up looking like Ronald McDonald in our corporate logo shades were put to rest. The end result was an understated range of white button-up shirts, navy trousers and skirts and your choice of a navy vest or cardigan with logo embroidered on the left hand chest.

At first I was unconcerned. It would make dressing myself in the morning much easier, I told myself breezily. The fact that I hadn’t worn a uniform since high school and hated it then didn’t cross my mind. We were given the opportunity to try on a few samples and ordered sizes. The samples were horrid, but we consoled ourselves that perhaps it was because they were “similar” styles to what was ordered and not going to be at all like the final product. A few weeks ago, the uniforms finally arrived. They are horrid. The polyester in the pants and skirts are static-y. The pants themselves are just amazingly badly cut – I don’t think I’ve ever worn a worse style. Despite purporting to be a “relaxed fit” the waistband falls undernearth my bellybutton in the front and shows my asscrack at the back when I sit down, so they are really more like hipsters. The blouses gape at the front buttons on anyone remotely chesty. The wool cardigans and vests are the only saving grace – but god help me when it comes to summer and I can’t cover up my gapey buttons with the vest any more.

I’ve actually rebelled and stopped wearing the pants. I have two pairs of black pants and one new pair of navy ones that I have started wearing. Nobody has noticed. The uniform people actually came to our office to hear everyone’s complaints a week ago, but we have heard nothing from them since.

The other problem is that even though you can give people nice, neat, ironed ensembles, the reality is that when they put them on more than half look like a sack of shit tied in the middle. Whether it’s innate laziness which prevents the use of the iron, or the style simply doesn’t suit those with long/short legs/torsos, you just can’t make everyone look presentable in a uniform. Thus, glancing about the office today I realized that the idea of looking all neat, tidy and corporate seems to have failed in a colossal manner.

I hate this uniform. I wish they’d just given me the $200+ they’ve spent on allocating me four shirts, a skirt, pants and a vest and sent me out to buy something for myself. I hate that everyone on the train or who sees me walking to work knows what company I work for. Most of all, I hate not being able to choose my own outfit every morning. Who would have thought?

What’s the worst uniform you’ve ever been forced to wear?

100th post

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For my 100th post on this blog, I'm linking up with weheartlife's "What you love about" post.

I want to know three things you…
…love about yourself.…love about your life.…love about your job.

3 things I love about myself…
1. I’m smart. I love learning and was like a sponge in school. My mum considered putting me up a grade but decided to keep me in my current year so I would be the same age as my friends.
2. My hair. I curse it more frequently than anything else, but it’s so amazingly thick that a simple haircut is an adventure.
3. My boobs – another thing that I frequently curse however they are pretty amazing. My partner likes them a lot too ;)

3 things I love about my life…
1. I have the love of a good man. No idea how or why but he wants to marry me!
2. I have a lovely house that I bought with that same good man. I have so many plans for it in the future.
3. I live in the best city in the best country in the world. Brisbane has amazing weather and suits me down to the ground. And I truly believe that Australia is the greatest place to live, work and raise a family.

3 things I love about my job…
1. I get paid well for what I do, considering it’s mainly answering the phone and sorting paperwork.
2. I cop a minimal amount of abuse from customers compared to my last job. A LOT less. And here I’m allowed to terminate the call if I wish (YES!)
3. My boss is pretty laid back, a nice difference from previous bosses who have all either had a) an ulcer; b) high blood pressure or c) both.

What do you love about yourself, life and your job?

The working week

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I have been proud of myself lately for being more consistent with my blogging. The reason for more blog posts was that I had finally figured out a way to make use of work time when I have nothing to do more productive. As there is really no real work reporting or filing or graph-creating I can do (my normal fall-back when work is quiet) I have decided to use it for personal productivity. Thus, I have been drafting blog posts in between calls and taking payments, and also using the time to actually read some blogs as well.

I don’t feel guilty about this because, well, there is not much else that I could be doing, and in essence I would be sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs. However, my scheme was thrown into disarray this week due to the introduction of a trainee. Fortunately I’ve been able to share the training with my colleague, so the burden has been lighter, but as always for the first few days I have found it exhausting.

What is it about imparting knowledge that is so much more tiring than just talking? No wonder teachers are worn out all the time. I’ve trained a lot of people in my time in corporations, and although I enjoyed it at first (it appealed to my ego to be the “expert” in the room) I’m now totally over it.

This lassie made it a little easier this time by being bright, nice and experienced in accounts. All that was left to us to do was explain our company’s unique systems and “the way we do things here”. All in all it’s not been a total nightmare; however it has left me little time to write a blog. Really looking forward to the weekend, and doing something other than work!

How’s your week been?

Hi ho, hi ho

When you start to tally up pros and cons in your head, it’s a pretty good indicator something is rotten in the State of Denmark. I’ve been mentally making lists in my head all week, in those boring moments between calls. And there have been a lot of those lately.

I’m talking about my “new” job. I’ve been here four months now and I’m pretty much over things. I find my daily role repetitive and boring, and I know this because I spend all my spare moments when I should be processing emails, surfing.

Today I had a Eureka moment – I’m not solving problems. I’m just a processor, a gateway. I put faxes into trays, forward emails to the right people and switch calls to different departments. There’s no challenge here, now that I’ve learnt all there is to know about the role. For sure, there’s a lot more to learn about the industry, but I have no scope for it where I am now. I have been wanting to speak with my team leader about this but have had no monthly review or one-on-one for over 2 months.

So here’s my list of positives and negatives, in the interest of trying to sort out this issue in my head.

Pros

- Pays more than Telstra. A lot more.

- A lot less stress. I still get yelled at by customers occasionally, but nowhere near as much and I have better authority to deal with it (ie. Actually allowed to terminate a call if the language is abusive).

- Pleasant staff, laidback manager

- Probably going to have enough leave accumulated for what I need for my wedding next year

Cons

- 1hr commute each way to the city

- workmate in same role, who I work very closely with, is incompetent, lackadaisical, disorganized and faintly annoying. Also has a tendency to make things up when speaking with customers. Her habit of using the word “wavier” instead of “waive” is driving me up the grammatical wall.

- Completely lack of ability of middle management to find their collective bums with directions and a torch. I guess this is typical of any corporation though. But seriously couldn’t organize a chook raffle in an RSL.

- Little to no Health & Safety accountability. This seems silly, but it worries me. They do no workstation ergonomic checks (leaving them open to legal action from employees with RSI, bad backs etc. caused by excessive keying/poor ergonomic setup of their desks). I have no idea who the fire wardens are, and since we moved to our new building, no one has conducted any sort of evacuation briefing. I know where the fire exit is as I can see it from my desk, but have no idea where our assembly point is. There’s not even a HS&E board anywhere that I could find out this information.

- Aforementioned boredom. There is a reason that I am reading blogger, my personal email and news sites all day, and its because my work is not engaging me. This is a problem because a bored worker is not a productive one, and it makes me feel guilty.

- Their processes are archaic and paper-heavy. There’s a lot of talk about green incentives around here but I don’t see it. I’ve never seen an office use so much paper. I’ve asked, but they are not willing to do any revision of existing processes that would involve electronic document storage.

- I was assured that there would be plenty of scope to move roles once I was employed here, but so far nothing has been offered to me. I will be bringing this up with my manager when we have that elusive one-on-one review.

Put out on paper like this, the cons seem like small things to put up with for a better paypacket. But I also want to put my personal happiness first. I think I’m in a bind about this because we are doing things a bit tough financially lately, and don’t want to leave a good-paying job to satisfy my selfish need to feel good about helping people and be more intellectually stimulated.

So what are the alternatives?

1. Ask my manager if I can move into a more complex role – there are some in the Centre, don’t know if I’d enjoy doing them though.

2. Look for other work – same or better pay, closer to home

3. Stick it out here until the wedding, then look around for something new

I'm going to have to think on it some more. Until then, how may I direct your call?

*images mine

The Customer Is King

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I love giving good customer service. I enjoy helping people and also solving complex problems for them. Most of my professional life has been spent in call centres, and a good proportion of that in roles where I did individual customer management on a case-by-case basis. I developed relationships with my customers, as often I would be dealing with them for stretches of weeks or months at a time. Everyone I worked with had a customer service-driven work ethic, and thrived on getting good feedback and compliments. My last position at a very large telecommunications company was as part of a team of results-driven high achievers, and it was very competitive in that respect.

So when I changed jobs and moved to a finance department, I was in for a rude surprise. I went from being in a place where the Customer Is Always Right and compromises can always be reached; to a team where frankly, they all HATE customers. And they’re not backwards in coming forwards when expressing their opinions. I was extremely shocked to hear some of them refer to their customers as “idiots” or complain about their complaints. I’m not sure if it’s a company culture thing, or something unique to accounts, but I’m used to it now. I just try to give the best customer service I can anyway.

How do you feel about good or bad customer service? Do you speak up if you are on the receiving end of either? A compliment can go a long way towards brightening someone’s day, and for some, there are even job rewards. Likewise, a complaint about bad service can help the next person in line behind you – sometimes it’s just about coaching a person to do better. I get really riled up about rude service I receive in person or on the phone – probably because I always go out of my way to be helpful and I don’t like it when a customer service person isn’t. I sometimes have to remind myself that it’s a human on the other end of my barrage of words and try to keep any critique constructive and not personal.

The best service of my life I ever received was in a little bar in Bangkok. The worst was over the phone from Elgas. Both these incidents stick in my memory due to the attitude of the person serving me.

Where have you gotten the best or worst customer service?

The Big Move

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My work recently moved to new digs. This was a big upheaval for the company, as they had been based near the airport for about a million years. For me though, it was a blessed relief.

Whilst my co-workers were whinging about having to use public transport (some for the first time in their working lives) to get to the new city office, I was thanking the gods that I never have to drive through rush hour traffic to get to my office again. Also, our old office was daggy, let’s face it. The place was falling apart at the seams. When I first got there, to my eyes it looked like a health and safety incident just waiting to happen.

The building was old, and had been used as passenger terminal way back when. The carpet had lumps in it, the roof had holes. The air con was always too hot or absolutely arctic. The pin boards had posters about 10 years old and the fire warden list had people on it that hadn’t worked there forever. Overall, it was pretty dingy, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of dust that got kicked up when we started packing up to move.

So this week we made the move to the Big City. We now have a refitted highrise office, with nice new everything and even better, it’s just a hop, skip and a jump from the trains and buses. But there are still a few things bugging me about our new office. I know, I know, I’m hard to please. But I’m worried – the ladies loo is very far from my desk. How much productivity time will I lose making the trek several times a day? And we’re not allowed bins at our desk. Where am I going to put my dirty tissues? Am I expected to get up and walk to the big general waste bin in the corner every time I blow my nose?

But to focus on the big positive: I get to read again. A blissful 45mins on the train means I can read, something I couldn’t do with my car commute. Hello, books. I missed you.

Car vs Train

With my new job came a new mode of transport: the car. Ever since I had moved to Brisbane 5 years ago, I had always taken the train to work. This new job was not in the city, so now I drive.

The costs are about the same in terms of weekly train tickets versus petrol. But the stress? Oh so very different. I must confess: I do not like driving to and from work. Here's why.

Traffic.

I have a manual car. Before taking this job, I rarely drove it in traffic. Now, every single afternoon (and sometimes the mornings too) are a jam. It's a pain in the rear. I'm longing for the days of yore, when the only thing I had to worry about was not having to sit next to a smelly person in those tiny seats on the train.

But soon, my new work is relocating back to the city! Hurray! I get to train it again. And read. I miss reading a book most of all, I think. No reading when you're driving. Not recommended.

Worky worky

I haven't blogged in a while, I know. A few reasons, the main one being that I have started a new job and I don't sit in front of the computer in the evenings any more.

I'm on a 9-5 roster (or the "Dolly Parton" shift as I like to call it) and my new commute sees me battle afternoon rush hour traffic to get home. So by the time I get there, cook dinner then collapse on the couch I don't feel much like blogging!

My new job is... well, it just IS. I don't love it, I don't hate it. I definately can see myself getting very bored with it very quickly. However it's ok at the moment as I'm learning lots of new things about a whole new industry.

And the best part is... it's not Telstra! Yes, now that I have left that company I am no longer wary of naming it on the internet. I am really, really happy to be out of Telstra and telecommunications altogether.

I've gone from working for one of the nation's largest employers to one of the biggest global brands - not sure how many employees my new company has but it has offices in 200+ countries (I got that from the website! hee). And as a bonus, I get to look at planes all day out the office window. It really was a highlight for me this morning to come into work and see four planes parked outside the building (there is usually only one) and have one of them be a 747. Those things are huge, and the nose of it was practically touching my office window. That was great.

Recruitment and Ridiculousness

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I had a job interview today. Not sure what to call it as it was my 2nd with the actual company, but the 4th in total that I have done for the position.

Towards the end of my interview this afternoon, I got talking to my prospective boss about the rigours of the recruitment process, as he was curious about current trends in the corporate world. I told him quite honestly that the process that I had been through with their company had been pleasant, easy and amazingly stress-free. Yes, I had been nervous but I had not experienced the sheer battering that a poor applicant can suffer during some job hunt adventures.

This position has so far involved a phone interview with the recruiter (more like a nice chat with a mate, she was so lovely), a coffee date with same to discuss the role, a casual interview with two team managers at the company and lastly an even more casual chat with the big boss and the same two managers. Compared to some interviews I had been to, it has been a pleasure.

There was the time that I applied for a "complex" role in my current employer's technical division. I didn't have any experience but I knew the systems, and hoped they would teach me the rest. I got a phone interview then was asked to go into the offices of the recruiter for some testing.

Well.

After a problem-solving test, a maths test, an lateral-thinking exam and a psychological test I thought perhaps I was nearing the end at the end of a long afternoon shut in a room with 10 other prospects. But no. Next was a 30min paper in which I was asked to design and schedule a project, something I had never done before. I gave it a shot, but wasn't asked back for the next round, surprise surprise!

Another time I went to the office of a recruiter for a "group interview". Sitting in a room with about 15 others, we were told that over 500 people had applied for the 10 roles available, and we were the last in a long line of groups to undergo their "first round". We did the same sorts of tests that I by then had come to expect - maths, problem-solving, psych... but this place had two bonus rounds. One was being asked to stand up in front of everyone and talk about yourself for about 5 mins. Intimidating, but luckily do-able for me. The second was a group problem-solving activity. We got a scenario then were asked to discuss and present the best solution as a group after 30mins. While we did this, three people stood around us with clipboards taking notes. How the hell do you know how to act in that situation? Take charge and boss the others? Wait your turn then present your logical arguments? Critique others' opinions then point out why yours are better? The only thing I knew wouldn't fly was to sit back and say nothing, so I contributed to the conversation as best I could. Didn't get a callback for that one either.

But my most hated form of interview is the one that contains those awful Business Scenario questions. I'm sure they have a more correct name but that's what I call them. If you've done a corporate interview in the last few years you'll know which ones I mean. The ones that go "tell me about a time that an irate customer came to you with a problem, and what steps you took to resolve it". Or "tell me about a time when you showed initiative by putting forward a new idea that was then implemented into the business". My mind always goes blank at these. I think of brilliant answers later, of course.

So now I wait to hear back about this job. They said they will be deciding within the next day, so fingers crossed until then.