Ain’t It the Truth

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted,
“Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied,
“You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground.
You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

 

“You must be in Information Technology,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the woman, “how did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist,
“everything you told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

Woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman,
“you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

The Beginning…

We all need jobs, and working part-time in “Lawn & Garden” wasn’t paying the bills, and neither was the bowling alley. I met a friend who worked for the company I work for now doing tech support in a 24 hour call center. He would brag about the money, the commission on sales, the youtube watching, and the general laid back atmosphere of the job. I was naive and needed the money…

I applied and low and behold I got the job. “YAY!” I thought to myself, $13 an hour, free TV and Internet, what could go wrong?

Paid training for a month. And I use the term “training” lightly. You learn nothing, everything I know now about our services and how to troubleshoot them I picked up on the floor in the first 90 days. We would come in a 8am, listen to our instructor brag about his level 80 elf and the raid he went on last night, then watch junkyard wars, and take a test. Needless to say I passed with flying colors. It’s not that hard when all the questions could be answered with “reboot the machine”.

“So, this really isn’t a specialized Tech Support job, so what, that should make it easier. And I still have free TV and Internet” Once again I was naive. It would take some time, but I would soon realize that this may have been a mistake. More on that later…

My first shift was and has been 4pm-12:30am. The days off changed though. I started with having Wednesday and Thursday off. Because you know, everyone parties and chills on Wednesday and Thursday. I eventually switched shifts and got Friday and Saturday off. I could have a normal social life now.

It was at this time I slowly started to actually enjoy the job. In the beginning it was relaxed, I started in the summer for the call volume was low, the customers that did call in had simple questions, and the 15 minutes I had between calls were used Bullshitting with coworkers about video games and movies or involved me surfing the internet. But then winter came…

We were constantly in Que, people complaining about things that haven’t been working all summer and just now called to report them. They were mad that they couldn’t get online or watch TV. It became a life and death situation. I had one guy threaten to shoot up the front office. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I should save some storied for posts.

Before I knew it, I was there a year. This blog will share stories and info about that past year and beyond. You’ll read about crazy customers. You’ll read about stupid supervisors. I’ll tell you about careless and clueless coworkers. I’ll share all this with you on one condition. That you keep all this in mind when you call and talk to one of us.