Phone musings..

I have gone back and forth in my thoughts, whether or not I want to leave the employment I currently have, or return to one that would pay higher and have better benefits. I do not have an offer for another position and where I reside, employment is almost impossible to find in the type of work I did before. Yet, I still question myself, whether I wish to try to dive in and return to that, or stay with what I am doing now.

Finances are tight, as they have been for many years. I do not enjoy living hand-to-mouth, and yet each pay period, I end up having to take some from the upcoming paycheck to pay for the bills I currently have. It is not convenient, nor does it make me feel very secure.. but, still.. weighing that to the daily stress of a corporate environment, I still remain where I am.

I read a site frequently, one where others in technical support ‘blow off steam’. It is not a site to read if you must call for technical assistance often and do not have a sense of humor about your abilities or what their lives must be like. Some of the stories are irreverant, but still and all, they are true. There was one that I read yesterday which stuck in my mind, reminding me yet again why I remain where I am.

It related to an IT person who went into one department and fixed their printer. The secretaries were so pleased at how easily it was handled, that they offered that individual a chocolate. These were not the average types of chocolates, much more expensive, that were set out for the secretaries and their bosses to eat. A senior secretary, an older woman, entered the room and chastised him, after seeing he was eating the chocolate, ‘Those are too good for you!’. Just now I read another, where a mother was upset with her daughter and had to pick up her cell phone to speak to her, asking the technician to wait. After hanging up with her daughter, returning to the technician and sighing, “Working there, you’re probably too young to have kids of your own, but you have any idea what it’s like?” “What makes you think I’m young?” “Well, everybody knows tech call centers are staffed by teen…”

No, not all tech call centers are staffed by teens. The one I work with has the corporate offices in Amsterdam. Drug screening is against company policy, so yes, our company tends to have quite a diverse group of employees. I did not know why I was not asked for a drug screening, it was commonplace for all other jobs I had applied for over the last 10 years. I only found out why it was not done here, about a year ago.

But at my company, just about every type of individual works there. Tolerance is key to survive, the education level ranges widely, from college professors to corporate suits to high school teenagers to housewives returning to work after their children leave home. The latter is not as common, but there are a few.. they struggle to learn, likely much more so than I. 80% of the employees wear leather jackets, there are a few who attempt to be models, others who have hair of various colors with piercings adorning their features.

The one thing that most have in common is tolerance. Not all, but most. Some are still too young to have learned it, cliques and popularity are still with a few. But over time, you see them learning to get along with others, for the most part. The ones who do not, are not thought highly of by their peers.

My first manager is now a senior tech. He opted to take a lesser position in order to retain his job, when there was a huge layoff just a year ago. When working on the graveyard shift, he would stand on a ladder, throwing huge cloth covered foam ‘bombs’ over the walls at various technicians, just to help lessen the stress of our day. Nerf gun wars were commonplace, and when there were few calls, he turned a blind eye (or not so blind if he came to watch) if one or two would put on a DVD and watch movies between calls.

Of course, we cannot do this now, and yet.. a few of those I worked with 2.5 years ago remain in the company, the ‘veterans’ so to speak. One who changes his color of hair every month, it is bright orange at the moment, though he intends to have green in a week. I rather prefer his dark blue hair, but anything is better than when he had the color of hair like Bozo the Clown and shaved off the front portion. I could not sit across from him for a few weeks, he had shaved his eyebrows and the front portion of his head. His headset rested just at the place the hair was shaved to, the bright red of his hair spiking upwards from there backwards. It was just too humorous and distracting for me to sit near him.

Walking through the company is a bit like walking through a mall, every age, shape, size, many nationalities, style of dress. Those who dress in business attire are rare, those who obtain promotions rarer still. Yet many remain, some who are brilliant and could likely find another job, with better pay and hours.. still they remain.

Perhaps it is the feeling of finding a niche.. any niche, regardless of how practical it is. When first I was hired here, they had an onsite university, offering classes to the employees that could be used to further their career. When layoffs happened frequently, the classes were stopped and we await word on whether or not they will begin again, now that the company is doing better.

On one call I might be ridiculed for knowing little, on another I am lauded as saving the person great time and expense. Each individual I speak to as diverse as those I work with.. though it does drain one, to need to explain again and yet again how a mouse works, or a keyboard, or that turning off the monitor does not turn off the computer. I suppose I still debate, how much patience it takes to tell an individual to read the words on the screen. How illogical some are, as the one I just spoke with, advising him that if he already has an account set up, to not choose to create a new account. How frequently someone will create account after account after account and then become upset when they are billed for 3.

But when I can sign off my phone at the end of the day, knowing that I am free of that for this time. My weekends not filled with worrying of a project or deadline or meeting.. calls that frustrate becoming anecdotes instead. Is it not better to be free of the ongoing stress? Trading in one for another type, I suppose. So here I sit, waiting for another call, idly tossing the chain mail brass hackesack balls that were made for me. Commemorating the fact that when I started, I was ‘too nice’, and the men I worked with asserted that I grew brass balls, able to be assertive or deal with the irate customers. Well.. according to the one who helped the most, they are titanium now.. so brass is just for memory.

Speaking of chainmail.. I think that is one reason I am comfortable here. It reminds me of the eclectic mix of those I worked with for so many years at the Renaissance Faire. Perhaps that is why I do not actively seek to leave.. missing that part of my life.. and though few here would have interest in the Faire itself, they are so similiar in other ways..

Ah well, back to the phones.. I hope everyone is having a good Peeps day.

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Addendum:

While bored.. changing the diary style.. is it easier or harder to read?