Allelu...what ?

Current Mood : Curiously relaxed
Current Music : the sweet sound of pneumatic tires on metal tracks.
Forgot my MP3 player at my girlfriend's house today. A sign of things to
come.

Well !
Rejoice boys and girls ! Watch the angels descend in a heavenly chorus !
Let the holy light shine upon thee filthy mind ! Clap your hands, raise
them high and chant " oh bless you Lord ! "

Thou humble servants time hast cometh !
As of January 4th, I am officially unemployed ! I have been released
from this wretched smoldering pit of psychological magma !

Well, it's not so dramatic, mind you but yeah my ass has been officially
retired from my former employement ( at a 4-letter canadian cellular
provider starting with F and ends with O ).

Furious ? Nope. Angry ? A bit I guess. Dazed ? That, yeah. Confused ?
Hell yeah.

How this gruesome tale came to be ? Having possibly directed several
trusted individual towards this site for an explanation of my rushed
farewells a few days ago, I shall explain in the form of a very
intuitive FidoZone FAQ style. Bear in mind that the opinions expressed
here are solely mine, not my former employer, supervisor, manager or
anybody else there. So if anybody from there comes reading here
uninvited and start crying, bitching and moaning, take your bib and
pacifier and shove it. I've had more than enough of immature
kindergarden whining :

Q : what happened ?
A : just read the whole thing, damn it.

Q : ok then the reason why they " let you go " ?
A : undisciplinary conduct

Q : didn't you get a written warning prior ?
A : yes. A 3 day and a 5 day suspension too. In a 2 year span for stuff
not necessarily related.

Q : why didn't you stop ?
A : why don't we ask the other 15 other CSRs I know who do what I did on
a daily basis ? I did stop aside from one crucial time. Read on.

Q : what happened for the other ones ?
A : well the written warning I don't recall ( prrobably didn't follow
procedure like mention the goddam referral on every call or something ).
The 3-day suspension was for transferring a client back in the RAC cue
and the 5-day one was for writing an e-mail while the client was on
hold.

Q : why did you do that ?
A : well, you may have heard about this wonderful thing called
depression. It makes you do things you wouldn't normally do. Like
considering murdering clients on any given day. Or leaving bitchy
demeaning clients on hold. Some days were worse than others. Try and
guess which ones...

Q : did you do that to good clients too ?
A : you make it sound like I took a habit out of doing that. Yes a few.
But hey, try doing 3 straight years of customer service with a smile on
your face everyday on for size and make me feel bad about what I did.
I'm not glad I did it but after such a long time of enduring incessant
bitching and whining and complaining - not mentioning dealing with some
horrendously unsounded corporate decisions - you start to get a bit
unsensitive and generally pissed off.

Q : erm ok. How did you get...erm...fired though ?
A : well, let me recall a few events before I start with that. Remember,
those are my impressions and perceptions according to how I lived
through this ordeal :

• My former coach Martin got transfered to WTS so the entire team
got split up and me and a few others got drafted in M---o's team (
withheld for obvious reasons. ) Right off the bat, no welcoming reunion,
no personal meeting, nothing. I thought it was odd but thought nothing
of it.

• A month later, december 2nd, I get called to his desk for
écoutes. Got most calls right aside from one which didn't " follow
procedure ". Involves changing an address in V21 instead of ZoneClient.
As to why I should add an extra step with ZoneClient when the client
requested the change of addy to be immediate, he just stared blankly,
probably thought I was defiant and simply replied " it's the procedure.
Just do it, ok ? ". My educated interpretation of this was " I have no
clue myself but stop breaking my balls, alright ? "

• this meeting concluded with him saying " you ok ? You don't sound
so hot ? ". Told him how bad I felt, angry, tired, uninterested and felt
like crap. He basically said something like " oh well. If there's
anything wrong, come see or another coach. " Pointing me in the right
direction, Warren-Shepell to this affect, would've been the LEAST he
could've done. But no. Let this be a warning to others in his team :
this guy is ill equipped to deal with anyone who's depressed. If you
are, make sure to spell it out for him clearly and ASK HIM where you
should go for that, don't wait for him to make a move.

• December 5, 3 days later, I get called to his desk again. We
review a call and I'm caught working on a graphic for my Help page while
a client's on hold. I'm served a 5-day suspension. Not one chance
allowed. Not one " you're new in my team, we haven't even spoken about
what I want as a coach because, well, we didn't have a meeting aside
from 3 days ago so look, I won't report this one 'cause I wanna win your
trust but please don't do this again " chance. Oh no. No no. And that
not even a WEEK after *almost* telling him I was about to jump off a
bridge and cried at his desk, for Christ's sake. Such sensitivity. Let
that be lesson to you : your trivial personal life has no meaning
whatsoever for this guy and must not interfere with your professional
life. Ever. You have to deal with it like the man you are. Even if
you're a woman, is that understood ? The last thing he wants in his team
is someone dragging behind.

• I spent the following weeks freaking out about rent, bills and
expenses ( note : had the week suspension and an already scheduled week
of vacation. )

• January 3. Happy New Year, sucker : 15 minutes before my shift, I
get called to his desk again, after a month of virtually not seeing his
face to learn of a newly recorded call where I'm seen writing just about
the only e-mail I sent since my suspension, being the adorably paranoid
freak that I am. I remember that call. Call it force of habit for having
done it for 3 years with no mention of wrongdoing and having it brought
to my attention only recently, I started writing an e-mail, stopped,
thought " oh no, f**king shit, what am I doing ? No no no no no... " and
switch back to the account cursing internally for having had a momentary
relapse. Oddly enough, THAT one call gets recorded by Monitoring and
flagged. I don't know about you but I find this very very...what's the
term...convenient ? I get asked to pack my things, go home and await
further news as H.R. and my manager will get contacted to discuss a
proper course of action.

• January 4, 4pm. I go to what I would call work for the last time
and sit in the Alfredo room ( meeting rooms named after pasta sauces ?
What the hell were they smoking ??? ) as I get " thanked " for my
services. I could almost see the corners of my (ex)coach's mouth curl
upwards. I get the corporate spiel and the meeting concludes. From that
point on, my coach follows me around like he's the President's bodyguard
or something. I log off the computer, am prompted to give back the
headset to which I proceed to extract from my pigeonnier, give it to
him, am shown the door, elevator, glass turnstile, outside in the lobby.
Give my access card, am presented a hand and " I don't know if you wanna
shake my hand or not but here... " and I shake, like the sport I am. I
exit the building, freak out and call my girlfriend.

Q : wow. You did screw up though, you can't blame everything on your
coach.
A : oh I know. 3 years there turned my brain to mush but I haven't
sunken that low. Indeed I am to blame. What I despise is the lack of
employee outreach and the dehumanisation of conduct my coach exhibited.
I found the lack of genuine care appalling. I was treated like " problem
employee number 2 " regardless of my psychological condition. Had these
situations been treated appropriately, I would still be working there.

Q : couldn't you mention something to your manager or something ?
A : if there's one thing I learned working there is that complaining
gets you nowhere. People there aren't too keen on changing things, for
better or for worse. If a problem arises, everyone will ( or be forced
to ) find a way around it instead of trying to solve it. You can't
possibly convince me you haven't noticed this before : contingency
plans, quick fixes, bent procedures, 3 newsbriefs saying to do it this
way, than not, than back again. And even if I avoided all this, they
would've pinned my ass on something else, trust me.

Q : so what now ?
A : the temptation of getting a job at Atelka, laying back and " having
fun " screwing things up is incredibly tempting but 1. the salary just
isn't there and 2. I'd be dumping this on CSRs whom are the last
individuals I want to make life miserable for. Otherwise, I'll be
looking for another job in a company that will hopefully be smart enough
to take advantage of my computer skills this time.

Q : I guess you'll be trying to convince people to avoid the company
now, right ?
A : I'm not 15 years old, I'm able to recognize a good product when I
see one. I have a Hiptop and am happy about the service in general. I
will most certainly NOT recommend anyone to go work there though.

Q : will you keep in touch ?
A : I'll try to as much as I possibly can considering I didn't get to
properly say goodbye. I'm always reachable at psonyk@gmail.com though so
don't hesitate to write me for anything. I will try and rally most of
you for a proper goodbye party somewhere when I get enough money to get
plastered. LOL.

Well there you have it, folks. Again, if you find the contents of this
blog to be offensive, unjustified or just plain evil, shove off. There's
plenty of other stuff to read online. Put your headset on, log into your
Aspect, press Outside Line 1 and call somebody who cares. Just make sure
to make it quick and don't use too much Wrap-up afterwards.

This blog allows for comments by the way, don't hesitate. Know that all
negative comments will be laughed at. You have been warned.

Hope your enjoyed my story and remember that psonyk.blogspot.com is
opened 24h a day. ;-)

Take care kids. You'll get more news soon and for those who don't,
e-mail me, ok ?

Good luck with the continuing customer service onslaught. I salute you
heroes. Xoxxoxo

posted by Your humble servant @ 5:27 PM 1 comments