another one come and gone… December 27, 2009

I don’t put up Christmas decorations anymore. I hate dragging them all out for just a couple of weeks and it makes me feel like my house is messier than it already is.  Plus keeping the kitten out of everything just sounds like a huge chore.

I shopped right up until the 23rd and didn’t feel “ready” even when I was ready.  Every year I say I’m gonna shop in the summer, wrap everything by Labor Day and then every year I’m still scrambling 2 days before Christmas.  This year was especially hard because I’m trying not to drive too much (eye patch) and trying to find things in the store while holding one eye closed is impossible.  Big thanks to my sister who carted me all over town to finish up my shopping.

This year was also especially lean money-wise and that’s no fun at all.

The actual celebration was a total whoop dee do fun time tho, as it always is at Amanda’s.  Even if we have to sit in a certain place

…….

.

…….and eat unintentionally flat things..

We get to go over to my dad and stepmoms tomorrow and do it all over again.  Whee!

December 21, 2009

I have to work on Christmas Day.  I’ve never had to work on Christmas Day in my entire life.

We do our Christmas with the family on Christmas Eve and Christ mas with my dad and stepmom a couple days after Christmas, so I am very glad I have those days off but still.

Work has been good lately.  All my stats are good which makes my boss very happy.  We are always worried about our stats and the first thing we do when we get there every day is look at the previous days numbers.  How many calls we took, call handle time, hold time, break adherence, after call work, production minutes, it all matters.  I have the best handle time on my team, probably because I hate to talk on the phone anyway so I wrap it up quickly.  We are allowed something like 6 min 45 sec for a call, and 11 min 15 sec for a tech call.  My handle time average for all calls is about 5 min.  Get in and get out.

I’m scared of the Polish people tho.  We have polish programming and a lot of polish customers.  You don’t really know how many polish customers until the polish programming goes down.  When you pick up the call they insist you speak polish.

“Thank  you for calling Fred’s Satellite Company”
“SPEAk POLISH!”
“I’m very sorry, I don’t speak Polish.  I can have someone call you back in Polish in 48 hours”
“NOO!!  SPEAK POLISH NOW!”
“Ma’am, I cannot speak polish, I’m sorry”
“telewizja nie pracuje i potrzebuję mae gorący pies!  You speak Polish NOW!”

Eventually they hang up, but daaamn.  I guess they think if they yell loud enough I will suddenly acquiesce and speak polish.  I wish I could.  My ears hurt after those calls.

Thank you for calling tech support… December 16, 2009

So, I do tech support.  And the one thing I can say about the general public is..

Y’all are dumb.

No, that’s not quite true.  Some of you are dumb.  And some of you are really dumb.

“Thank you for calling tech support”
“My tv is not working”

First off this is the most unhelpful description of a problem, ever.

“Ok, what’s happening?”
“It’s just not working”
“What’s on the screen right now?”
“I don’t know, I’m in the car but it wasn’t working this morning.”

Uhh.

I like doing tech support, I really do.  Only part of the call center is tech trained, so while I am also well trained in billing, programming, and general customer service, at least half the calls I get are technical support.  I thought I would hate it at first and was scared of going through the tech training because I, like the rest of you are dumb.  I give up almost instantly when I myself have a tech problem, and instead will just leave something not working till Mark is home.  To be honest, during tech training I really didn’t get it and found myself tuning out most of the time.

Then I got back out onto the floor and started taking tech calls and holy coax, batman..I had to fix everything you guys break.  Wiring, resets, authorization, signal strength and orbital slots.  Remotes, receivers and tvs (oh my!).  Tech calls can take up to an hour.  A billing call is maybe 4 minutes.  Don’t forget I hate talking on the phone.

But tech support is really fun.  What makes it fun is that I Fix Shit.  And then people think you are a genius.  People are so grateful and excited when you get their tv working.  I’m actually really good at it and customers love me.

But unless your tv is in the car, call me when you get home.

Wow, it’s dark in here… December 15, 2009

I couldn’t even remember how to get in here.

First I couldn’t remember what host my blog was even on.  Then I couldn’t remember my sign in and password.  When I was living a life of nanny-leisure I was on the computer all the time and had the same password for everything.  Now at work I have a totally different password and I use it about 20 times a day.  Finally, I signed in but it said “You don’t have any blogs”.

Do too.

I was at typepad.  This blog isn’t at typepad. haha so silly.

I didn’t read the post before this so I have no idea what was happening.

So I don’t nanny naymore, I did funeral service for a while and that was great, mostly.  The perfect job for blog fodder but the company was dead on serious about their privacy rules.  Poopy butts.  Maybe someday when I’m bedridden I will tell you all the stories.

Now I work at a call center for a satellite television company.  It’s everything you imagine when you hear the words “call center”.  It is cold, and gray, and there is a buzz of conversation that is indescribable.  It’s like out of a movie.  Stories?  I got stories.

We wear headsets and look like we are selling magazines.  In actuality we are the “operators” that are “standing by”.  We work in teams of about 5 people with not a boss but a “coach”.  She’s 24.

We have a lot of fun but it’s a very strict environment.  QA, CSAT’s, AHT and ACW and a whole bunch of other really important letters are all closely monitored and people are released to pursue employment elsewhere for very minor things.

I work from 5pm – 145am and I’ve really gotten the swing of it.  I stay up for a few hours when I get home and sleep till it’s time to get ready for work. It’s odd and a pain on my days off, but most of the time it works.  My mom said “when do you have time to clean and do laundry?!”  lol silly silly mom.

I know this is all just thrilling but it is time for bed.  Nice seeing you all again.  Close the door behind you and watch yourself on the steps.  They’re icy.

R&R April 16, 2009

Sorry, I just don’t write here very much.  I post on FB all the time so I’m sorry if you don’t go there.

I’m in the hospital, having been here two days now.  Severe kidney infection, very high blood sugar are among the predominant factors.  I’m not having any fun, believe it or not.  The hospital is not a conducive place to rest, in case someone told you otherwise.  There is a “soiled utility” closet right across from my room and every 4 minutes someone hits the passcode on the door (beep beep boop boop beep) and then goes inside.  SLAM.  Then they come back out.  SLAM.  Last night I had an IV that you couldnt move your arm at all or it would go beep beep beep pause beep beep.  Tonight thankfully I have a different kind, but my next door neighbor does not, unfortunately.

We also have Mr. Hello who every hour or so starts hollering out (can you guess?) “Hello!   Hellloo?” HELLOOO?”.  I guess he just can’t seem to figure out that pesky “call nurse” button that  is so hidden and elusive.

Hospitals will poke you, prod you, inject you with all sorts of medicine and narcotics and not even tell you what they are or what they do.  They will shout out your door to the nurse’s desk  several rooms away that room 236 needs MORE diarhea medicine and a linen change.  They will wake you up for a myriad of reasons, at least every 2 hours.  Sometimes they are waking me up more often than that to check my blood sugar, something that could easily be done while I slept.  What will they NOT do?  Give me a tampon.  No you cannot have a tampon.  You can have this gigantic diaper thing for your feminine needs.  Enjoy.