Depression - Still Here & just like Faster Pussycat, No I won't shut up, I just Babylon and on. Babylon on, Babylon and on.

     I work at a call center for a big telecommunications company. The pay is great, the benefits are unheard of nowadays & I even have a strong union to back me up & protect my jobs security. But the job sux, it's such a depressing & negative environment. I was hired for customer service & some sales when there was an opportunity for them. In the 17 years that I've been at the company, everything has changed, it's not the same. Every aspect of the job has become revenue driven & micromanaged. I used to like going into work & now, now I feel a little piece of me die everyday I make my commute to work. Nevermind the DEAD MAN WALKING feeling I get riding up the 2 floors on the elevator. I can almost feel my soul crying out in pain. Now it's not labor intensive work but it's mentally & emotionally draining & just plain soul crushing. I used to laugh & enjoy OFFICE SPACE, thinking of how absurd it appeared, but now, living OFFICE SPACE, it's not entertaining in the least.
                                                             Shut Up!

     So I have to answer to my direct manager for the daily numbers. The calls I took, the time spent on each call, the hold time on the calls, the amount of calls that I took in a single day, time devoted to offline work to fix the customers problems, how much credit was issued, how many new sales, how many disconnections & how many times I could have sold new products & services or upgraded their existing ones. All of those things get tallied & I have to reach a company set quota but am expected to surpass that minimum. So, 17 pieces of Flair is the minimum acceptable amount but you know, that's the minimum. Do I just wanna do the minimum, the least accepted amount? After my direct manager I also have the 6 other managers on my side of the office, the call center manager & the regional manager to answer to for my daily numbers. They say customer service is their #1 priority but I cry SHENANIGANS on that shit. See what I did there? I made a reference that was made famous by SOUTH PARK but also plays a big part in this rants running motif of how sadly true to office life OFFICE SPACE is. Sometimes my intelligence rears its ugly head. I apologize for being somewhat smart. Maybe that's the crux of the problem. Maybe I'm too smart for my own good. Maybe it's true, Ignorance is bliss. Have I done a disservice to myself by experiencing & learning life lessons & for being a wee bit academic in some of my pursuits? Probably, but I like to believe that it's my intelligence that is one of the main reasons that I go on. And the other thing that makes me continue is that I have hope & faith that things will get better anytime now. They gotta.
     Then there's the computer systems that never seem to run at full efficiency. Whether it be the clocking of one screen to the next or the never ending upgrades to the program that get rolled out before all the bugs have been fixed & honestly don't really add any groundbreaking changes or make my job any easier. Surprise problems that seemingly appear for no particular reason on random accounts that arise & require special help from special representatives that you can only contact via computer during select days & hours. Calls being transferred to the completely wrong department because the last rep just didn't wanna deal with it or the customer. For a big communications company that is heavily vested in the newest technological breakthrus in interpersonal communications & to have such a poor in house representation of it is a missed opportunity.

                               Now if I could make a video I'd do it just like this........

Upgrade the entire operation in house first. Everyone would win. The customers will get the help they need right away from the right department, making them more satisfied with the company & the products & services it now provides them thereby more willing to try the new new. Not the good good, but the best best. The representative can do his job more efficiently, quicker & smoother, making them less stressed & that happiness leads to a better job done. The fat cats get their required results, make their profits & more than likely have the company save money on medical insurance claims, absences, sick time & such because a happy worker is a healthy worker that likes to come into work & do a good days worth of work. The positive results seem almost limitless as one positive outcome results in another positive outcome being able to be achieved due to the positive outcome of the first positive result. It's beauty lies in the fact that it's sycophantic at it's core, one feeding off the other to help it stay healthy.