What happened at work today?

[Hollylane]

A space for work place humor, venting about the management/co-workers/work policies, giving yourself a pat on the back for a job well done, and things overheard on the job...Etc...

_IwzZYRejZQ

[Hollylane]

Today, I heard a co-worker, Matt, struggling to control a call, with a customer who had apparently dove down not one, but twenty rabbit holes of unnecessary explanations about transferring his service. Matt finally placed the customer on hold with an exasperated look, and then I heard him say under his breath...

"Okay, penalty hold for you sir, for calling to transfer your service while apparently smoking crack!"

[The JD]

Today I found out I get to leave work an hour early. Unfortunately, there were only 20 minutes left of my workday when I found out. :blink:

[Hollylane]

A few days ago, one of our supervisors decided that for all of our hard work and dedication, they would give us a food reward (common practice in call centers), and sent out an exuberant message about the bagels that they had placed at both ends of the call center for us. Anyone who approached the tables found, uncut bagels with zero toppings available, and returned to their desks shaking their heads...This annoyed me enough to run to the grocery store on my 20 minute break, and buy cream cheese. Once this arrived, and my co-worker, Matt, had sent out an additional email letting people know it was there, and thanking me, the bagels were quickly demolished. Okay, I admit it, I was ungrateful, and I showed this by whispering to Matt: "Even prisoners are served water with their moldy bread crusts.."

Today was the last day of work, for a pretty young lady, who has worked for the company exactly 2 months (6 weeks of those 2 months were in training), as a temporary part-time employee. She is going on to a bright career of being a softball bat tester (apparently, her first job was with our company, because she has been touring the world playing softball since graduation, last year) for a local manufacturer. The same supervisor who supplied our last "treat", decided to provide a treat to send her off. Her going away was celebrated with dozens of fancy donuts (no grocery store donuts for her), gallons of Starbucks coffee, bagels and cream cheese. She was also allotted time during our team meeting today, for her going away speech.

Yesterday, an excellent employee, who has been with the company for 10 years, left for an amazing new job. No one (other than those that were close with her) knew about it, until we read these words in our interoffice info line newsletter:

"Janice Wilson (not her real name) is no longer employed with _ _ _, we wish her well."

I only have one primitive response to all of this...and it is a gigantic WTF????

[RNguy]

:)

I dont know but ill find out when i go into work in 2 hrs.
Im sure it will be a day of running codes and stroke alerts and drunk traumas that wrecked on the atv or mva, lots of crap cleaning and med giving.

[Gemme]

Yesterday, I got to be the good guy hero type person.

AND

I left 15 minutes early.

That doesn't happen often, so I'm relishing it.

[firegal]

5 am and the city is FINALLY quiet.

3 day weekend and folklife festival here in seattle......the peeps were busy.....very busy!

Glad I get to go home in 2 1/2 hours......but who,s counting? :fastdraq:

[Cid]

I was telling a guy at work that I need a new roof on my house and don't know how the hell I'm going to pay for it. He told me about a program that the government is doing where people who have lower income can apply for assistance in repairs to their home. I went on the site to apply for help and it said they are no longer taking applications.

Just my luck :worried:

[Andrea]

On Tuesday and Wednesday there was no access to the computer drives so there was nothing to print. Thursday the drives worked but printing didn't.

Access to computer drives AND the printer were working for the main part of Friday. I worked as fast as I could for the few hours I had available. Then the computer started freezing up and I suspect there may have been more issues after I left for the day.

Let's not even talk about all the work that disappeared from the computer during this fiasco. No, IT doesn't think they can get it back.

WTHeck?? Don't we do back ups?

I was very happy to be leaving for a three day weekend.

[Mopsie]

I am a mental health case manager for an intensive community treatment team.

The case managers all rotate being on call... last night was my Friday to be on call.

I did not get one single call. :cheesy:

What a great way to start the holiday weekend!

[Hollylane]

This past week, I overheard a supervisor's comment as she left the call center manager's office...

"We're definitely going to have to set up the positivity note board when we train them on this new call requirement..."

Oh yes, lovely times ahead, but as they constantly tell us, a call center environment is constantly changing, and call center employees must be very flexible...:eyeroll:

[Hollylane]

Today, my co-workers and I were tortured by one cranky customer. He called back multiple times, and was explosively verbally abusive when asked to verify his information.

He was calling from a computer based phone with a bad connection, and when I got him, about half way through his transfer of service, I could hear him, but he couldn't hear me anymore.

That's when I heard him say:

"Why won't you answer me??? What are you doing, painting your nails???"

My co-workers were pretty riled up about his behavior, but I helped a few of them to process his behavior with empathetic thoughts. I just think that anyone who is that cranky and mean, must be feeling pretty miserable about something.

[Hollylane]

I convinced 23 people today to set up 100% clean energy...That bonus at the end of the year keeps getting bigger and bigger, and even more importantly, each of those customers is making a difference in the air we all share in the Portland area! YAY ME!!

Yesterday, my call center manager said:

"Hollylane, I've been listening to you talk to our customers all day today (my cubicle is next to her office), and you just sound so happy to talk to every single person, and your voice is just lovely!"

Today, my old supervisor said:

"Hollylane, you must be feeling pretty good lately, I can hear the smile in your voice every time I walk by your desk, and hear you talking with a customer."

:) :) :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Job Satisfaction Call

Generally, I zoom through my calls, doing my best to expediently handle every customer, while making sure to answer all of their questions, and get that super quick, first call resolution, while trying to make my customer feel like they received great customer service. I take pride in the service I provide to my customers, and the volume of calls that I handle for our team, and our company.

Sometimes, there are those days, when every call is like trudging through mud, and it seems like every customer that is having a bad day, called specifically to attempt to take it out on the person answering the phone. On those days, I admit I am not perfect, and I do a lot of muttering with the mute button on.

But...

Approximately once a month, I encounter one of my special customers, usually an elderly person, who really only called to chat. I don't rush them, I chat with them for probably 20 - 40 minutes, and enjoy every moment with them. Because my stats are good, management never antagonizes me about these calls, even if they occur during the busiest part of the day/week/month.

Today was one of those lucky days. I spoke to Mrs.Anderson (an 86 year old great grandmother of 5) for 45 minutes, and took pleasure in every second of it. We talked at great length about a wide range of topics, which even included our shared interests in animals and upcyling/repurposing. At the end of the call she said,

"You know Hollylane, I think that you're the kind of person that I could be great friends with. I really wish I could just have you over for a nice long visit once a week, but I know you'd get into trouble with your boss over that. So, all I can do is pray that I get to talk to you again some time. I really enjoyed talking with you, and I only wish I'd met you at the market instead. You really made my day!"

It is the people like Mrs.Anderson, that make all the memories of the hard calls I've taken during the month fade away for awhile. It is people like her, that give me the most job satisfaction, and simply warm my sometimes calloused heart.

:) :) :)

[RNguy]

This has been a fabulous uneventful night for me and the trauma ward and I love it ... Rare night indeed for us

[girl_dee]

crazy chaos from 7:30 till noon

lunch from noon to 1

crazy chaos from 1 till 5:30

then a mini hurricane whipped through and the power went out

Fun day

[PearlsNLace]

Only 2 patients where nasty today. And I got to go home 2 hours early. That never happens. Yay. It felt like almost a day off it was such a difference. Nice.

[RNguy]

Only 2 patients where nasty today. And I got to go home 2 hours early. That never happens. Yay. It felt like almost a day off it was such a difference. Nice.


I'm happy Youre an RN now :)

[RNguy]

Well tonight I'm the charge RN guy on the trauma ward
Apparently everyone is drinking at home bc we havent got a single trauma thus far :)
Its a great night here , someone has the cdiff though bc they are shittin through the moon and it smells like cdiff :) same pt has pseudomonas bc it smells like that too :)
You know you're a good nurse when you can smell what bug the pt has

[Gemme]

Yesterday was interesting.

A vendor was waiting for me half an hour before the store opened, it was crazy busy (luckily there were two of us working), I got to be a meanie poo poo head to the customers (legally it's part of the contract they signed...but in their eyes, that's what I am), another vendor that we've been waiting months for them to come finally came, the city turned off the water due to work on a leak up the road and one of our mechanical rooms flooded because the change in pressure made the backflow pipe dump. Luckily only stuff belonging to the store was affected but it was close. Like, an inch and a half away from me having to contact a customer and do a report and tedious paperwork kind of close. Still, I'm having to wait and see if I have to damage out any of my inventory. Cardboard doesn't work well with water.

:blink:

[femm_cb]

One of my staff gave me their notice on Wednesday evening. Their last day is TODAY. Whatever happen to giving your employer two weeks notice instead of two days?

Now I have to scramble to find her replacement. Which is hard because she was in the middle of a few projects.

Now a good way to start my weekend :seeingstars:

[Hollylane]

During our team meeting today, the team building game was America's Top Model, which consisted of three teams, each team had a model, 1 person dressed the model, and the team came up with 1 person's narration while the dressed model walked the call center. I dressed my model up in toilet paper as the Statue of Liberty, who then "traveled" from the west coast to New York, stopping in several states along the way (example: over top of her tiara, she had a cowboy hat, that she tossed off for Arizona, to represent Tucson's La Fiesta de los Vaqueros). Our team won, and over all, it was a lot of laughs.

But for me, it is difficult to get involved in these games. Some people truly enjoy them, but it is really not my bag, and generally sends me into a negative space, because I don't like to be forced into things that I don't enjoy, or wouldn't normally volunteer for. I'd rather be a spectator. So, I stayed out of the photos by jumping in to volunteer to be both the photographer and the videographer, quickly decided who would be the model, to avoid the "cat-walk", and chose to be the "dresser" to avoid being the commentator. It worked out okay, but I was relieved when it was over, and the people who are extroverts were done being the center of attention.

One of our co-workers retired today, after 25 years with the company. Because we all know how much Sue loves everything Christmas, our co-worker, Carol, read The Night Before Christmas at the end of the team meeting. She frequently reads children's books to us at meetings, whenever she can find a reason to. I know I sound like the Queen of Grumpyland, but frankly it annoys me, because she reads to us like we are a group of preschool children. So, I did my best to look like I was listening in the corner, but was actually reading a book on my Kindle.

I'm glad the day/week is over. Today was just a bit too much for me.

[FemmeItalian]

Annoying....

A couple employees (I have them in lead positions) upset about some decisions I've had to make and having a bit of attitude.

So....next week, I need to deal with them......oh joy.


I keep this quote by Colin Powell on the wall next to my phone......


"Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off."

Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable if you're honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity: You'll avoid the tough decisions, you'll avoid confronting the people who need to be confronted, and you'll avoid offering differential rewards based on differential performance because some people might get upset. Ironically, by procrastinating on the difficult choices, by trying not to get anyone mad, and by treating everyone equally "nicely" regardless of their contributions, you'll simply ensure that the only people you'll wind up angering are the most creative and productive people in the organization.


GOOD

Last week ended pretty rough...and carried over to the start of this week.
The flip side is that I was able to get my mind wrapped around a few other things.

Information from my team was needed in very short order. I gathered a few individuals Wed. morning... and they put all the information together. I presented it both Wednesday and Thursday. The program managers liked the format and the level of detail provided. So much, that they decided this morning they want more items added to the list and have it presented to the Product Line VP and his deputy Monday morning at 9...so we are working tomorrow morning to put this together and wrap a pretty bow around it. Before I leave work tomorrow, I will submit these guys for a cash award.

And for me.....Guess I'll need to buy a new suit to wear on Monday.....everything does have a silver lining :-)

[Gemme]

I have no clue....I'm not there.

bwahahahahahahaha

:blink:

[puddin']

a resident tellin' me: "you are a most amazing american-kiwi and all around lovely person!"

(gawd, i adore me job!)

[tonaderspeisung]

today i stopped at an elder care apartment building
my destination was on the 4th floor and i rode up in the elevator with a wisp of a woman

if i sneezed i'm sure i would have blown her over

the doors closed and she looked me up and down and then said
"my my look at you all grown up and sooooooooooo handsome"
then she reached over and adjusted my uniform jacket like i was a small child

she beamed a smile up at me and i admit i was a tad suspicious so i tapped my pocket to make sure she wasn't a crafty pickpocket - she wasn't

the doors opened on the 3rd floor and she said "i'm sooooooo proud of you" gave me a big hug and departed the elevator

i made my stop on the 4th floor and headed back out - the radio behind the reception counter was playing

this song
pMD40O3BGU8

a tad surreal - i hope i made someone's day a little brighter
even though i thought she was a crafty pickpocket

[Hollylane]

Me: "Can I give you your account number so that you can use the automated payment system?"

Customer: "I can't find a pen, I guess my eyeliner will have to do."

Me: "I'll enter it for you, and then transfer you after I enter it, I would hate if I had to ruin a good eyeliner pencil, I could never make you do that!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Customer: "So, I'm not in danger of having my lights turned off, until after the 23rd?"

Me: "Yes, that is true"

Customer: "What's true, is that the way these Oklahoma winds touch my body, is exploding everything around me, have you read your bible today? Because, if my power gets turned off, you're going to wish you'd taken that more seriously!" *CLICK*


:|:|:|

[Hollylane]

OMD. What didn't happen at work today?? Here's a little snippet of my day...

5000+ people without power for 2 hours. 4999 of them thought the world was going to end if they didn't have a shower this morning. Approximately 3172 of them do not know how to open their garage doors without the clicky thing. 3 felt sorry for the squirrel that was the cause of the outage (I was one of them). 3323 of them assumed that they had been cut out for lack of payment.

One of my most special customers of the day, had a one part name (like Cher, or Prince), and though he was the one with the name of a fantasy creature, I was the one with smoke curling from my nostrils and claws bared after I got off the phone with that stellar piece of steaming excrement. All I could say after the call was "I have never!!!!! 20+ years in customer service, and I have never!!!!". I had to take an impromptu 10 minute break in the gym after that, and work off a little frustration.

What a world, what world.......I am truly appreciating the fact that I have Wednesdays off. I am spent, just spent.

I talked to 132 customers today. A new record. Whoop-de-doo! No.

[Smiling]

lol, well Lord Xenu has commanded me to research a lot of very boring legal stuff so naturally that is my very top priority these days....

Plus, while I was taking a break tonight, this little guy (not really so little, though!) jumped on my back and sat beside me for a few minutes. He hung out while I tried not to move until I figured out what had landed on me. I thought it was a mouse or a bat at first!

http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/s577/Bree524/57bb0f5c-1a07-4e02-9f2c-9116a1088c7a_zps86baa188.jpg

Now, apparently the frog has some good symbology associated with it; I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a new job, lol.

Excerpted from some random website, lol:

Summary of Symbolic Meaning of the Frog

Luck
Purity
Rebirth
Renewal
Fertility
Healing
Transitions
Dreaming
Opportunity
Intermediary
Metamorphosis

I'll let you all know how that works out, lol.

[Gemme]

I had a visitor yesterday and actually got some manual labor done. More of that to follow today.

[Hollylane]

Today, my lead, Chase, complimented me on my attitude about work, and asked if I would sit with a new hire for two hours tomorrow, to help her find ways to process her calls in a more timely manner. He said that I had the market cornered on interrupting a customer politely, when they dive down the rabbit hole of explanations or personal stories.

This made me :)

[Boots13]

We had a scheduled motorcycle rodeo but the rain flooded the lot so we postponed it. Good thing, it was a crazy morning...

Violent crimes, angry people
So many accidents that I lost count
angry angry angry people ... angry. Did I mention they were angry?
Bank Robberies
and
oh, angry people.

It was supposed to be a Mercury in Retrograde thingy today
but I think it was just another shitful day full of,
you guessed it , impatient, frustrated, angry people :(

[Hollylane]

The first truly hot day in the Portland metro area, included a plethora of calls from sweaty Oregonians, when a tree took a power line down. Needless to say, they were not happy, and they were not nice. At all. We closed at 7pm, I took my last call at 7:45. Good times.

[Gemme]

Yesterday it was busy up until the last hour, so I was able to change into my gym clothes before sliding out the door.

It's the small things...

[Gemme]

It was sooo cool!

I got to be part of a semi-complicated scheme to surprise my customer's wife.

With her brand new car! Convertible, even!

It was purdy too, even though Miatas are accordions when they get hit.

I better get a new car on MY 65th birthday, dammit.

:readfineprint:

[Hollylane]

Another 130 calls kind of day...My eyeballs are tired...Time to start winding down my wired/tired brain....

[laruss]

I line in a 100+ year old neighbourhood in our city, this is not a big deal in the States, but here in Canada it is, and our city is famous for tearing down anything with history. Anyway, I live in this amazing neighbourhood with tons of history and people move here and never leave, some have lived here their whole lives, many have grandparents who built their homes. It is that kind of neighbourhood.

I work in a little boutique that sells antiques and home decor and an exclusive paint line called Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, it is amazing and we paint antiques and other furniture and also help others to do so.

We get a lot of neighbourhood people in wanting to make their family heirlooms their own, modernize a bit. I get to help people do that, I love it. It is a very creative and fun job. I talk about paint and decorating all day long.

Today a woman, who has been in every day this week, came in to ask questions. A 100+ questions, at the end of the day she brought me a picture of her piece and she is in love. She went on an on about the help we gave and how we convinced her she could do it and she could. Now she wants to get others onto it and do more herself. That is why I love my job, this kind of thing happens every day.

[Kätzchen]

I wasn't officially working today, but I worked rather feverishly on my work search project. The downside to my day was fielding a flurry of phone calls and texts from my mother and daughter, while filling out applications in a timed procedure. It wasn't pretty and it made me feel sad. But then, things got better today and a former employer called me and extended another work opportunity. Then my day slid down the slippery slope again with my mother and just in the nick of time, my son came out into the kitchen and bless his heart, truly, he said to me:
"Mom, don't let it worry you or make you sad. Things will be okay."
Just hearing him say that to me helped me so much.

[Hollylane]

I took customer calls until 12pm, and then our team left to participate in our team day. It started with lunch at a fancy pants Chinese restaurant, where I had shrimp and scallops in a light and buttery wine sauce, and then it was on to our executive offices downtown, where I learned a few cool things about our company, and a few not so cool things about our company. Then we signed t-shirts for each other while we spent more time getting to know one another with team building games.

After we ended the team day, myself, two co-workers, one of the co-worker's spouse, our supervisor, and our lead had a few cocktails at a local brewery and shot some pool. The gloves came off before the first beer/cocktail was finished, and we all relaxed and had a good time giving each other a hard time. I won two games of pool, and I actually had a great time (I had serious doubts that this would be fun for me)...

[ForeverBlue]

I have no idea, I was off :-)

[Hollylane]

Twice, in the last few weeks, I have had this conversation, while taking a new application for service...

Hollylane: Who is your current employer?
New Customer: What does that mean?
Hollylane: Are you currently employed?
New Customer: What are you asking me?
Hollylane: Do you have a job?
New Customer: OHhhhhh! No. I'm a full time college student.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is anyone else alarmed that high school graduates, who are full time college students, are clueless when I use the words employer/employment?

I am terrified.

[ruffryder]

found out our Peabody Orlando will be selling and rebranding/renaming to Hyatt. not sure what will happen with the ducks!!! but I'm excited to see what holds for the future.

[easygoingfemme]

I had my last session with a client who drives me nuts. Very wealthy and privileged, and always complaining. Very glad to say good-bye to her!

Set up a teleclass on detoxing that I am excited to teach, but nervous about the technology. I taught a teleclass before but I was working with another practitioner who handled the techy stuff. This time it will be just me. So I am proud of myself for taking the plunge, and nervous to make it all work right and record and stuff!

I wrote the bulk of the content that I need for a monthly project and will be done ahead of deadline for that.

Whew!

[*Anya*]

More training on tracking employee productivity!

This isn't a bean counting company, it is a healthcare company ffs!

I guess I am not an administrator-type.

(w)

Yes, I do know without income a company can't survive but honestly, are there no limits with a for-profit company?

Rhetorical question...

[RockOn]

It wasn't so much what happened at work but more about what happened during my morning break at work. I took 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes, made a quick run to the bank. Filled out a loan app for 10k (no collateral) and the lady called, said it was approved shortly after I returned to work. Rolling some funds around, paying a few bills off very quickly ... Posturing for a move between 6 months and a year. Not sure where or how far but really have a need for something different. I am excited just thinking about possibilities.

[Gemme]

Let there be light!!!!

And the angels sang....

[Happyfemme]

Yesterday was a lot of meetings
Today was paperwork and assessments
Tomorrow will be working with the children