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...

[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.

[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?

[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

[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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

[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