Newbies

It doesn’t feel as if much positive has been happening in the call centre recently. The relationship between me and my manager appears to have deteriorated so much that I really don’t know if I’ll even be able to set foot in the call-centre again. I’ve not given up on call centres completely though. In fact I’ve got an interview at another call-centre coming up shortly. To be sure I would love to try something else, but it seems that at the moment so many people are chasing so few jobs – the last call centre job I applied for, at a voluntary organisations call-centre, had 180 applicants and I was told that whilst I was longlisted I did not make the final shortlist of 8 as though I had lots of call-centre experience I didn’t have experience specific to their operation which other applicants did. A lot of this competition was due to recent lay-offs in similar kinds of organisations and it left me wondering just how tough things are as I’m sure last time I was actively job seeking a relatively good, but unglamorous, call-centre job would attract 25-30 applications.

My call-centre has never bothered much with applications. Like everyone else I got the job through the friends and family system. No interview required. I was just handed a job based on the recommendation of a friend. It still works like that with top-up’s drafted in from agencies. We’ve just had a new crop of newbies who are I’m told mainly associates of my manager, in fact all the new staff taken on since her arrival have been connected to her in some way either friends, or former colleagues. Someone wondered just how she knew so many people who are out of work.

It’s always strange to see newbies arrive. They tend to come in batches; in threes, or fours. They are wearing their smartest clothes eager to make a good impression and shift around nervously as they wait to be told where to go and what to do. No one knows the rules yet, they do not know how far they can or can’t go so all are set to a generic best-behaviour setting. I wonder what they are thinking, what they make of this dull grey room with its incessantly ringing phones whether they’re freaked out by the strange juxtaposition of Marilyn and the Penguins, or if they’re just grateful to be here.

I’ve been told that one time this one newbie just got up announced he was taking a cigarette break and just kept on walking. I’d like to shake his hand.  Most people stick around until the pre-christmas cull. The cull itself always strikes me as an act of unspeakable cruelty. Come in and be worked to the bone taking crap helping us and our clients make a large profit over the Christmas rush- then two weeks before Christmas itself you’re let go; left to scrape through, probably at least until things open up again in the New Year, without so much as a Christmas card. Scrooge would no doubt approve of such callous actions.

The newbies come in all ages. There seems to be little to connect them, some 17 years old in their first real job and some who look as if they are within touching distance of retirement a lifetime of work behind them. These older ones interest me the most. Just what malady has led to them washing up here?  One of the latest batch especially stuck out. A wiry grey haired lady in a two-piece black business suit and administrators spectacles. I imagined that she had been a civil-servant who had volunteered to take redundancy and was serving time until her pension kicked in.

I remember my own time as a newbie. Each call would bring forth a panicky buzz. Handling customers and taking orders is a fairly generic skill, but systems are tricky to get used to as they all have idiosyncracies like don’t put the postcode in the postcode box or it will be deleted when you save the order- put it on the address instead there are so many rules to memorize and products to familiarise yourself with; what is the returns policy? How long is delivery? Can we waive P&P on this? But what if it’s exploded? I just need to ask a colleague……. it all leaves you sweating and hoping the customer doesn’t pick up on your lack of knowledge. If they do then they will apply the killer line, the line which is like a dagger to the heart of a customer service advisor……. the line which goes “can I speak to someone who does know?”

I managed to make it through my newbie period with the help of the people around me some of whom were just a few weeks ahead of me. It was no helpful utopia though; One colleague watched me struggle for the first two weeks ignoring my furtive cries for help then suddenly as if I passed some kind of test they suddenly changed and became the most helpful of all. I sort of understand their position now. There is this scene in the TV series Band of Brothers where the unit, 101 Airbourne, returning from fierce fighting in Normandy is joined on R’n’R by replacements. There is a confrontation between one of the veterans who takes exception at the unit citation on a replacements uniform; ‘but you weren’t there’ he screams.

I must confess that my curiosity towards the newbies is mixed with an iota of hostility. This is because of the threat newbies represent that their arrival en-masse will wipe our collective memory of the hardships, injustices, even triumphs we have experienced; The cut in hours, the months we endured of call after call after call, the people who have gone. When the newbies roll in all of it is erased like symbols etched in the sand at low tide.

Newbies also unsurprisingly tend to make some real howlers which we then have to untangle. On one of our clients a bouquet delivery company we have to type the message which goes on the greeting. Amongst any batch of newbies one will be invariably be terrible at this and leave a trail of spelling mistakes. I wonder why we still don’t seem to be screening them as it always happens, but one recent incident made me laugh. I had a lady call to complain an anniversary bouquet she ordered. She said she felt the person she spoke too wasn’t too sure of what they were doing and seemed to be having a hard time with spelling. The card intended for Vicky and Steve who were celebrating their 1st anniversary arrived with the greeting reading ‘Dear Ricky and Steve..!’

In other work places I’ve loved the arrival of newbies and the opportunity of new friendship, but there is something about the call-centre, some kind of undercurrent which focuses on the threats. I’ll probably never even talk to the newbies only getting to know them through traces of their work I come across on my systems, or the occasional comment from a customer.

Still hopefully I’ll be a newbie somewhere soon

Log-in

The vacant office cubicle opposite the canteen is becoming horribly familiar to me. I was called in again by my manager today.

“Do you know why I’ve asked you in here?” she asked me

I had no idea what trumped up charge it would be this time. Adrenaline charged through my body like a bull maurauding through a Pampalonian alleyway.

“You logged in at 9.36” she said.

My start time is 9.30. We are made to get in early to be ready to take calls at our start time. For all the systems we have to log into now this means 10 minutes at least, though you can cut the time down by logging into the most used clients systems first and putting the customer on hold if its for another client.. “sorry the systems down” covers up a whole host of sins.

Anyway this morning I know I hit my log-in button at 9.30 on the button. I was outraged. My manager said it was all down in black and white she had the print-outs to prove her point. I’d logged in at 9.36  there was no arguing.

“But I know I logged in at 9.30. The figures must be wrong” I protested

It all ended up in the HR managers office. The end result is that I’m going to have my log-ins observed on five occasions. If the system is at fault that’s the end of it, if the system is proved reliable then I’m on a disciplinary.

“but I logged in at 9.30”

What more can I say.

Bullying at work

Today, thankfully, I’m not in the call-centre. Recently it has become far more stressful than usual. I have come to the conclusion that my manager is actually bullying me. To say it seems bad, humiliating even. I wonder how could I allow this to happen to me?

Earlier this week I was dragged into an office for ‘a word”. When I stepped inside there was an array of printed sheets laid out on a desk. One was an email from a customer complaining that they felt I was ‘too laid back’ and had not been helpful, another was an enquiry form I had completed which was annotated with ‘operator seemed defensive’ and finally there was a list of my log in times with one marked out in garish pink highlighter.

I’m not claiming to be the best CSA in the world, or even the office for that matter, but I’m certainly not the worst. Unlike some of my other colleagues I rarely get into any confrontation with customers even the difficult ones.

Just to cast some light though the first issue concerned me not being able to provide the customer with an offer code for a web based promotion as it had not been made available to me. Apparently I had also failed to apologise for the problems they had encountered on the web site which I can’t comment on as I can’t remember at all though I’m sure I would have done all I could to help. The second issue concerned a customer who I’d noted on the same enquiry form was ‘agitated’ the reason being that there order was not on the system and someone the day before I spoke to them had apparently promised them a call-back that day. The customer became aggressive towards me and I simply told them that I was trying to help them. This led to them mentioning that I had been ‘defensive’ to the manager who at my request had called back.

Maybe some things could have been handled better I offered, but that’s part and parcel of the industry not every customer will be happy. My manager retorted that she felt every customer should feel I had done all I could for them. I suggested we listen to the calls and then discuss, but was told that no recordings of the calls existed… so my manager had decided I was at fault based purely upon the customers accounts. After the meeting I also recalled her dealing with a complaint about another member of staff, though she had been stood nearby for part of the call she had not heard the whole call and simply told the customer when they indicated they wished to make a complaint that she felt my colleague had handled the call appropriately. No further action was taken.

You may feel there is an element of me being defensive here, maybe so as no one likes criticism, but complaints are an occupational hazard in customer service and I’ve never been dragged into a room in all my years in the industry. Right now I feel that I just don’t have any support and am vulnerable to the next angry customer who by chance gets put through to me.

I just get the feeling that I am being singled for different treatment. Likewise with the log-on times. Many people, by their own admission, are not ready to take calls at their start time yet no-one else has been spoken to about this only me. The day after my talking to a colleague told me they had overslept, texted the manager on their personal number, was told ‘it’s ok” and then “fell back asleep”. They eventually came in half an hour late and were casually making their pre-log on cup of tea whilst telling me the story. Again no further action.

Maybe it’s just me