Give Me a Break !!!

Give Me a Break

After having irate customers since you started your shift, don’t you wish you’re just the automated IVR stating this one? Hahahahaha

Before You Resign: Think It Over !!!

As I was visiting the Operations supervisors, I came across one supervisor who is currently contemplating if he will be applying in a different company or what. He has his own list of “Things to Consider” and here are those:

- Travel, time and effort

[On my personal experience, I once worked in a call center which always takes me 2 hours to travel before my skin feels the super cold aircon in our office. And it is really tiring. I asked myself one day, can't I just get a job that is near my place so I won't have to be like this everyday. And I got what I want. Really, you can save a lot of time, travel hours and effort to wake up less than an hour before you go to work because your job place is just a walking distance from your company]

- Reset of Tenureship

[I have been working in our company for five years. And once you apply in a new company, you will be on a probationary mode again with no vacation/sick credits yet on your attendance sheet, have to battle either 6 or 3 months before you get to be regularized and received the right amount of your salary ... Why go to a company wherein you will be a new player again vs. on your current one which you are already one of the pioneer? Think it over like I said]

- Friends, Colleagues, Warmth

[For me, this is less of a consideration if I will be applying for a new job in a different company. 'Coz true friends will always be there no matter what. If ever you will be accepted in a new company, isn't it that you will have additional friends to invite on your Twitter, Facebook, Multiply, Friendster and amongst other related things?]

- Money

[ If the salary is doubled or tripled than what you are getting now, why not? But remember, bigger salary most of the times means harder job responsibilities.A company won't be paying you that too good to be true salary if they can't maxed our your performance. Ohhh ... been there done that]

- Better company [or at least the best company]

[Research first and foremost. Asked not just the people you knew but also try to ask somebody that is working there or have been there before before saying yes to a job offer. Look for a forum on the internet that tackles not only their good side but also their bad side. This is a practice for me. And after all the research, if you think it is a better company compared to your current one, then it is worth trying your new luck there regardless of the preceeding "considerations"]

So you still want to resign? :):)

It’s Been One Year

The day that I have been on this post was like — really?!? I already got in to this department? I rock!!!

Now, it’s been one hell of a year! I can’t imagine it. I escalated two agents from being a fraud, because they are, to the management, and unfortunately for them, they got fired. We’ve handled one new successful account and they just renewed the contract for another year yippee [it means we'll still have another year for this job]. And my body clock is rumbled because every two months we’re changing our schedules. How’s that?

However, this one year is very fruitful. New experiences. New friends to connect with on my Facebook and Friendster, new acquiantances, new kind of escalations to me compared to when I was still an agent, new enemies [it's a common life when you are in the management side -- you are versus with the Operations ], new drinking buddies, new shopping mates but old friends still remains [I make sure of that], and most importantly, learning to balance my relationship with the management and the Operations.

So far, I got a nice feedback from the Operations. The friendly and nice WMS. And recently I just received a kudos from one of our managers hoorays!!! Yoohoo to me!!!

So for me and for the rest of us — Happy 1st year anniversary. We survived one rocking year hahaha

I am a Workforce Management Specialist !

Well .. I belong to the first level. In case you are interested to level up with just being a call center agent, here are my duties/responsibilities for this kind of job:

• Support the management of call center staffing by planning based on historical data and relevant assumptions, employing strong analytical skills.

• Actively monitor the progress of programs on a real time basis using the Avaya CMS Supervisor, TCS and RTA.

• Report any anomalies to the appropriate Operations Management and analyze data to identify any trends that may exist and offer solutions.

• Create, modify and delete employee and program information as requested.

• Create and modify both User and Agent information within the application, ensuring appropriate security restrictions are enforced.

• Maintain a good understanding of call routing and vectoring, assisting in decision making of routing requirements and suggest improvements to maximize performance of the program.

• Generate schedules that closely match the workload of program.

• Liaise with Team Leaders to ensure all program requirements are met.

• Maintain a good understanding of all factors that must be considered in the forecasting process and comprehensively explain these to our internal and external customers.

• Liaise with Operational and Client Solutions departments as well as the client to determine forecasted call volume and required staffing levels for each program.

As a call center agent, you might wonder why you are getting a lot more calls than your colleagues, why your team is scheduled in this very odd hour, why your team has been transferred to a different shift, why your days off need to be in split off, and among others..

Well .. it is US.  It is what we [I] do in our seat whenever we look at our two monitor stations. We make sure that the service level of the center is met always, always see to it that the agents are not just seeing idle / not doing anything because this is not profitable to the center you are currently working for, be vigilant on the agents that are just avoiding calls or releasing chat transcripts to be on AVAIL mode and among others — It’s US

So wanna be part of US?

Recalling Employees

Due to the recession wave, three supervisors were booted out of our company. So, we in the Workforce Management group thought this might have scared our other supervisors because some of them started applying for either the same job or higher position in a different company.

And our guess was right. Two supervisors resigned. One gave a notice and the other filed for an immediate resignation. These two supervisors were already tenured in our company so our management find it so hard to replace them with more deserving employee.

And what was the master plan after?

Recall the two employees they booted out of our company. And the two just happily accepted their comeback to the office.

Resignation Day

I am not going to resign — at least not yet. Not for now. I still have some things to attend to before I tender my resignation.

Just like any other companies, tendering resignations in a call center is just the same. But what makes the difference is being informed on how to formally resign from your company.

Rule #1: Don’t go on AWOL.  Don’t go on “Absence without leave” just because you decided to resigned. What if you decided you still want to go back? Others just felt the heat, just got drained, felt bored but when all of these are over, they felt like coming back. You already have a bad record. This company would not “recall” you anymore. So why not try to apply for an “indefinite leave” while you are still thinking things over or trying to recharge your life?

Rule #2: Choose your “plan” of exit. Either immediate, 15 days or 30 days notice. Any of these three, back it up with a formal letter of resignation. Reasons can be personal, personal growth, career growth, undisclosed, migrating to a new location — be plain and simple in explaining. What’s important is that your exit to the company is formal and the company is informed on the details why you are leaving. We document every reasons why an employee resigned in our company. This helps us analyze how we can grow as a company and makes us understand better how we can keep our employees stay for years.

Rule #3: Be clear with your compensations/last pay. Before leaving the company, ask them what comes next after my last day in the office. These includes when are you going to get your last pay, computation of your backpay / separation pay [if there is], clearance, things you need to surrender before finally leaving the office, etc. When you are already out of the office, it’s already difficult to ask for these information as most of the time, the company is very busy for people who are no longer supplying them money hahahahaha

Rule #4: Keep your friends closer. Your friends are your access to the company if you need info. If you can’t get through your HR department because the line is always busy or the person you are looking is always not in the office, at least have some of your friends asked for the info you need.

If you need resources in writing resignation letters, check out this site:

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/sampleresignationletters/Resignation_Letter_Samples_Examples_of_Resignation_Letters.htm

Salary Talk 1

To all the people who are just new in the call center industry!

You need to be reminded that not all job promotions would mean salary increase. Take my experience for example [well, it's just not me but a lot of us actually in our company]

The word is “lateral transfer” — related to being parallel. Same length, same width but different location of lines.

That’s us!

We got a new job in the company. Same company, same employment, different post but no salary increase. To take it bluntly, it’ just like they’ve transferred you to a different post and you should say to the management “thank you”.

But I find it hard to say “thank you”. That’s money we are talking about!

Salary Raise We Never Had

When you are promoted to a new position, you are always expecting to get a higher salary. And that’s what I thought. When I got promoted to my new post, I am already excited because there will be some additional money every second week of the month. But it did not happen.

So, I just thought again, look at the brighter sides. You are learning so many new things and you get to land a very exciting job!

After almost 9 months, the performance review happened and so we thought this is it! At last!! However, after a week of waiting for it — the tragic news came!! We won’t be having our much awaited salary increase!

Something Is Wrong

After we felt the recession, here comes the new wave of stressing news in our company — our big bosses are resigning from their jobs!

What the hell is going on here?!?!?

Is it about the salary raise issue? Or is it about moving towards a greener pasture? Well, different questions but same meaning though — all boils down to money.

That makes me scary again! Because for our account there should be a new batch of new hires to be trained but it was cancelled and so our company decided to train them for another account!

And solely, just in our department, we have so many employees who resigned recently!

Another thing, there are lots of employees just in our account alone that is being terminated. Higher numbers than last year. Sometimes I am thinking if they are being terminated because of what they did or the company is just really trying to decrease the numbers of the employee so we won’t feel that this is the recession happening in our own site!

Jeez!!! Is this a sign that I already need to resign and find a new job — no that’s wrong. I need to find a new job first and resign afterwards! Hahaha

No Permanent Seat is OK

I started my day right. While travelling to the office, I have my mp3 player stuck in my ear and my bf just send me a good morning message. Then I entered our office. In our team, there’s at least 18 of us. In the row where I have no choice but to sit, I still have three seat choices.

It’s not some sort of statistical solution of where you should seat. But at that moment, it seems like it the best thing. Where will I mostly like seat — here or over there?

I thought of that because on the cubicle where I am supposed to sit, the conversations I heard is my colleague saying something about her problem to my other colleague.

Nice morning.

Nice weather.

Nice aura.

Here is the seat I can choose which is beside her or choose the seat over there where in I won’t be able to hear any rants in life.

Being so selfish that I am, I chose the seat over there and not the one “here”. Call me a selfless and heartless colleague but my disposition in life is always start your day right. If you have any problems at home, leave it there. Concentrate on your work. Most of all, know what the problem is, decide what are your options to resolve it, choose which solution you want, stick to that decision and never look back. Hmmm … am I being too hard on that person?

That’s the beauty of life in a call center compared to a usual office life. You are already assigned to this seat. So if you’re being bitchy on this day and you dont want to be seated right next to this person [although you don't have a personal vendetta to that person], you don’t have any choice but to seat beside him/her.

So am i just being bitchy that day?

Probably not.

I just don’t really want any negative vibes to associate with my happy day.