My team at work found out Friday morning we were off today (Monday - MLK Day) unless we had overtime lined up. "I thought you knew that," said our team boss.
No, we thought it was the more major holidays.
So I applied for overtime, as the phones are open 24/7/52. But it was too late to get a slot.
Candi, of course, was beside herself with the idea of me having a day off when she has to work. Her solution was for me to drive her downtown and then hang around on the chance we could have lunch. And maybe she can get the afternoon off, but not likely. Leaving me to hover all day, I guess.
I went along because it would let me hang out in a coffeehouse with free wifi, one of my favorite ways to either work or kill time.
And it lets me do an entry or two here.
I've done a couple of entries in recent weeks here but didn't copy them to my traditional hangout OpenDiary. That was because I can get into PB at work through the wifi but OD seems to be blocked, or else it was down. I do it through my iPhone rather than use the work computer. I am at least a little bit educable.
Anyway, so much for the preface.
Work has been pretty good, though they're stressing the fucked-up metrics more and hinting I won't make it into the permanent-employee class unless I get my time way down.
Getting my time way down will involve playing the customer service rep evil tricks that get people off the phone quickly without necessarily resolving their issues. At least it involves triaging calls so I give short shrift to customers who are less likely to reach any solution relatively briefly.
Example: 80+ client can't get logged onto website and early efforts indicate the client either has an old computer or browser that don't work so well with our new website or just isn't capable of understanding what I'm trying to guide him through. Or I just don't have the technical know-how to quickly figure out the problem and give a quick solution. I need to avoid transfer to the tech line, because transfer rates are supposed to be under 25 percent.
So the incentive is to find some way to cut the call short without solving the problem. I tend to stick with the call and give all effort before giving up, leading to very long calls. And high average handle times.
Another example: The client's login solution includes a possibly quick sequence of steps by the client after I reset some shit, but many (including the octa- or nonagenarians) dawdle significantly in picking new security questions or password or whatever and they ask me to stick on the line to make sure they get in okay.
My experience has been that in some number of cases my reset isn't going to turn out to be the solution after all, and there is something else going on we won't know about until we try that. So my tendency is to stick with the call until I know they're in. The prescribed procedure is to cheerfully say, "Well, that should do it for you. We're always here if you need anything else." And get the hell off the phone.
Again, my instincts to do the best I can for the client conflict with my personal interest in massaging my metrics.
I used that term, "massage my metrics," in a team "huddle" a week or so ago. There was a bit of a ripple in the team at my suicidal audacity.
The context was questioning the set-in-stone formula for keeping the client on the line while I do the keyboard work to carry out what I've identified as the solution. Often this is necessary, at least on the surface, because I'm supposed to get a final approval on what I do, like put together a check request. But many times I'm just putting into action what we've agreed upon, and the customers want to get on with their lives, often including making trades and generating commissions for us.
We're supposed to eliminate wrap time and put the wrap inside the talk time, is how it works out in terms of the metrics model. I can't see how this gets me to the next call any quicker than letting the first one go and doing the wrap work at the end rather than try to keep them on while I do the work. But it seems the entire call-center culture is founded on this idea.
What else?
The Dour Twen is still unemployed. He made some minimal effort to sign up for unemployment insurance (several months after qualifying for benefits despite quitting the last job), but then abandoned it after he found out he would need to call in every week. He may be actually applying for jobs that don't fit his narrow range of acceptability.
We got short sleep over the weekend. Saturday night was a karaoke-bar birthday party for a friend turning 65. We got a couple of other friends to come and had a good time. I was just off a cold, but was in good voice.
I even got a couple of compliments on my singing. Of course, they had been drinking for hours by the time they said that.
Friday night we got a text from Candi's sister that sis's son (14) was at the emergency room for psych evaluation after doing a major freak out. His stepdad took him and we met them there.
The trigger issue had been the mom saying the boy's 7-year-old sister could sleep upstairs in the boy's room, as she has with his consent once a week since Xmas break. He has decided this doesn't work, because she takes over the room and runs the TV when he's trying to sleep, etc. Mom insisted and he through a screaming fit that included threatened violence against his sister, both adults, and himself.
At the hospital I stepped out with the stepdad to get some coffee and we talked about what was happening. He played an iPhone recording he made of part of the tirade. "You're going to get yours, bitch," he told his stepdad when they were in the car and the kid calmed down from trying to kick his way out the door. "You don't even know what's coming."
The kid has previously told him, as well as the previous boyfriend, that he's going to tell Child Protective Services he's being sexually abused by the BF/stepdad, adding he's done that before. A possible reference to having testified against his biodad in a trial that put biodad away for several years for raping him when he was 2 through about 4. No one doubts this happened, but the way he made the threat was disturbing.
This is getting to be way too long. I might write more later.
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