late nite ponders

Hey there! Sorry I’ve been MIA.

I am so happy that this is the last story of the SHITTIEST job I have ever had (yes, even worse than when I worked in a restaurant).

Well, when I last posted my schedule was TBD and I wasn’t t sure if I could get Aug 25-28 off for a family wedding.

WELL…we get our schedules during the 3rd week of training. I am prepared to get up and walk away if the schedule is an overnight shift, as that was not at all explained to me during the interview/onboarding process. I get my schedule, and it is 6:30AM-3:00PM Mon, Tues, Weds, Fri and Sat. I get Thurs and Sun off each week. Tad early, but “hey it could be worse” I thought to myself. HA HA HA.

Then, on Week 4 of training, they show us how to see our schedules online and how to navigate the schedule website….AND THEN THE BOMB. We are told that we are REQUIRED to work “Mandatory Overtime” and said OT is 6-8 hours/week. I’ve had a lot of jobs…NONE of them have forced me to work OT, it has all been voluntary. On top of this BS, I also discover this call center is 24/7, 365 days a year. Yep, that means you have to work holidays! I mean, you can ask off.. but the scheduling staff have to approve it…so basically no. At this point I am sending out applications left and right.

Then the wedding….after nagging and nagging I FINALLY get Mon 8/28 off. But not Fri 8/25…because I do not have enough PTO hours. “Can I take an unpaid day off?” NOPE. If you don’t have PTO, you don’t get off. Also you only get 4 hours of PTO every paycheck, which is bi-weekly, AIN’T THAT NEAT? AFTER THE OFFER LETTER SAID WE GET 15 DAYS OF PTO? Then the week of I ask to use 2.5 hours left in my PTO balance to leave at 3PM on 8/25 since we have to drive 4 hours to another state. This gets approved…..then I’m told I will get half a point on my attendance record for “leaving your shift early with notice”. I asked about this on Mon 8/21. HOW…JUST HOW? At this point I’m like fuck it, give me a whole point or half a point. Whatever.

We go to the wedding, have fun and get a break from our dogs and then come home…..then my coworker texts me. Remember that Mandatory OT? 7 hours has been assigned to me on my day off, Sun 9/3. I am outraged, because no notification has been sent to me about this. I’m able to work out a deal with my new supervisor and switch it to Thurs 8/31…..but that’s where it went downhill.

For the whole month of September I have been working around 50 hours every week. I’m dealing with nonstop phone calls about people and fraud on their cards…usually because they’re Boomers and click on links on Facebook or in spam emails. I am pulling 10 hour shifts to meet the OT requirement and in order to keep my days off, well, my days off. I am a miserable cunt. I worked, made dinner, fed the dogs and went to bed and repeated it again the next day.

Well after applying nonstop during my shift, because my only motivation was to not get fired, and having a few interviews…I finally land a new job! I gave the current shithole company 24 hours notice and their response was “OMG WHY WHAT HAPPENED?” And I fucking called them out on their BS. They send daily emails about how to have a “great work-life balance” and told them that was nonexistent for our team, that the supervisors were horrible with communication and that I was physically and mentally exhausted. They asked what they could do to change my mind. I told them to change my schedule and stop the OT…but the client wouldn’t like this. I dick around on my last shift and clock out at 3:30pm on Sat 9/23. Me and my husband go out drinking and have a grand ole time.

Then…the shit show of returning my work equipment begins. I fill out the form my boss sends me for FedEx and find a local Dollar General that can handle pick ups. Perfect right? No, because FedEx sends me a QR code and not an actual shipping label. And the Dollar General cannot scan or print labels. I live in a small town, in a rural area. The closest FedEx store that can scan and print labels? TWO hours away from me….across the state boarder. Fuck no. I then email and text my supervisor and FINALLY the IT teams sends me a PDF of the actually shipping label for printing. I took it to the library, printed it and took it & the box to the dollar general and dropped it off. DONE.

The New NEW job is going to get it’s own post, because they don’t deserve to be in the same post as ShitHole Company.

Well….strap in for this roller coaster of a ride/tale.

I started “training” on 7/13/2023, a Thursday. They focused on us getting our onboarding shit and mandatory courses completed. You know…your basic sexual harassment, cybersecurity training, and equality training.

They also had us all create usernames, passwords and profile to access all the needed portals for the company…..but on our personal devices, not the work equipment. No no…we had to wait for that shit to arrive. The following Monday, we got…a laptop. Just that. And said laptop need a username and PW…which the client had not given us yet. So what do we do…? Nothing. We have access to these online skill trainings…but they aren’t mandatory or actually pertain to what our roles will be post training. A few days later I got the rest of my equipment.

Well, yesterday, 7/25/2023…after a 1.5 weeks of sitting around doing jack shit, we got our PWs and usernames. Great, now we can actually set up our work devices now right? NOPE. We all entered our info only to get this message “This user’s account has expired”. A ticket has now been opened for IT. One girl i’m chatting with privately said she has been doing this for 5 WEEKS now.

I also emailed my new manager about my schedule and needing some time off in August for a wedding. WELL…that schedule I was promised of Mon-Fri 7am-4pm? That is not guaranteed for me. So I have no idea what my schedule will be after training. Could be 8-5…or 3pm-10pm. Also…training goes until 8/25….when do I need off? 8/25-8/28. Manager said “if you’re performing well, I do not see any issues with accommodating that request”. THAT IS NOT A YES OR A NO. It is for a FAMILY WEDDING IN ANOTHER STATE. I have mentioned this to their fucking hiring staff 50+ times!!!

So what have I been doing with my time?

I’m playing Animal Crossing and watching “Outlander”. And I’m also applying to other jobs and hope something better comes along. The only good thing about this training is that we are, in fact, getting paid the $19.00 an hour. So essentially I’m getting paid to fold laundry, play video games and watch TV.

God…I really need a new job to come along ASAP. Otherwise, I may just quit at the end of training if they can’t give me off for that wedding.

Learn from my experience: if you have a bad gut feeling about a job…DON’T TAKE IT. Never doubting my gut again.

Well…after basically no word for weeks: I got an update. They confirmed the new start date for me (which is today 07/13/2023). The delay in my start time was due to a change with the client we are doing CS for. But with this change came a pay increase. My pay is now $19.00 an hour instead of $16.00 an hour. My schedule is FT, Monday-Friday 7am-4pm with a 1 hour lunch….MAYBE. I will have to work a rotating Saturday shift. But with that, that means I’ll get 2 days in a row off like a Sunday and a Monday.

Day 1 of training is almost over….and I don’t feel confident. No one can really confirm my schedule information or answer me if I can get some days off in August for a wedding. And today has been a complete shit show. Nothing is organized and for whatever reason, they decided to get us into our systems even though we don’t have our work equipment yet.

So we will see how this goes I guess.

In other news…I had a phone screening with another company. Schedule is Mon-Fri 8-5, no weekends and pay is $20-$22 an hour. Seems like a low stress environment, as they only expect agents to take 20-30 calls a day (if you work in a call center, you know that’s nice and low stress). I’m waiting to see if they want to schedule a second interview with me. The only catch is that I can’t ask off during Dec-Feb because it’s busy. But to be honest that doesn’t seem bad, especially when you get holidays off.

I’m waiting to see if they want to do a second interview.

So as some of you (aka 1 of you) saw on my last post…I got a new job. And quit my old job.

Well….new job kept nagging me over and over to sign their offer letter but wouldn’t answer my question about needing time off within 90 days of hire. So I caved and signed. Then no one would tell me when I was starting…despite me telling them multiple times that I was still employed and needed to give my employer a notice of some kind. So I emailed and emailed….no response. Finally I called the guy who offered me the position. We will call him Danny. He picked up and helped answer my questions. Time off shouldn’t be an issue, he said. He asked if I could start on 6/14/2023….and at the time of our phone conversation it was 6/12/2023. I told him, yet again, that I was still employed and needed to give my notice. He should he would check and call me back. A few hours later he called me back and said I could start 6/19/2023. Ok, that works….but what about work equipment? (Remote call centers typically send you all your equipment before the 1st day of training). He said the first few days were onboarding stuff and all I would need would be a personal device and Zoom. Ok, no problem.

Well, I gave a 1 week notice and leave my job on Thursday 6/15. Ended things fine, no bridges burned or anything. Then me and my husband go to the in-laws for the weekend. I check my email on Friday night, no zoom link. I check again on Saturday...still no link. I check again on Sunday night. No link. I sign into the company website where I've been doing all my onboarding paperwork....and see there is one more document I need to sign. Did I get any type of notification of this? NOPE. So I sign it. After signing said document I see the start date says 6/26/23. A little annoying but ok I can take a week off.

I send an email on Mon June 19 to follow up about my start date. Danny tells me it is not confirmed yet and will update me ASAP. Well Wednesday June 21 comes and I have no update, so I call him. He told me my background check delayed my start and that leadership needs to update him when my start date will be, but the background check is completed. Okay fine. I call again on Friday 6/23, twice, was sent to voicemail. I left a message asking for an update.

I check my email on Monday, 6/26/2023. Guess what? NO LINK.

I checked their onboarding website yesterday, 6/27. Guess what? MY START DATE IS NOW JULY 10! Did I get a call or email about this? NOPE. My goddamn start date has been changed THREE times now.

At this point, I've started applying to jobs. Started applying last week because I just see fucking red flags all over the place. I can't be rehired at my old job because I only gave a 1 week notice.

And yes, I researched the company before signing their offer. I found their website, LinkedIn page and Glassdoor reviews. They have a 3.9 star rating.

Just…what in the ever fucking shit is this bullshit? Because it sure ain’t fucking professional.

So I interviewed for a remote #CSR job on Saturday 6/3/2023. Pay is $16 an hour and the schedule is Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, with a rotating Saturday shift.

They gave me a call on the following Monday to tell I’ve been offered the position.

That Wednesday, 06/07/2023, I met with Kathy and asked about the raise request status. HR/Nancy gave a bullshit excuse as to why they couldn’t give me a raise. So….I proceeded signing the offer letter and onboarding documents with the new company. Gave my notice on Monday 06/12/2023 and today (06/15/2023) is my last day. I clock out in less than a minute.

I feel…sad. Honestly. I really enjoyed working with my team and supervisor and loved the relaxed call center environment compared to other places. But with all the hoops they were making me jump through to get the $$$ bonus, it felt stressful & frustrating. I know I’m a good worker and have been told such by both Kathy and Nancy…but I felt so unappreciated here. I was bending over backwards…only to make $12.52 and hour and MAYBE meet the goals for the bonus.

I have a life. I have goals. And while I wish I could stop working entirely, I need a stable paycheck that will help achieve those goals.

So…onto greener pastures I suppose.

Call Center #3 job starts, Monday 06/19/2023. I’m going to enjoy a nice long weekend with the hubs and dogs (probably the last I see in a while).

Grew a pair and finally sat down and discussed my wage with Kathy this past week. (Kathy is my supervisor but doesn’t have much power).

It was a good conversation actually. She actually agreed with me and even said I do a lot of work for very little pay. She again mentioned me being on of the top agents on the team.

She told me she is going to push up a raise request to Nancy and one of the CFO’s but explained it really comes down to HR.

I have no college degree. Just a high school diploma. I feel like if I want to keep working at home (which I do), I’ll be stuck in a shitty call center being a CSR.

So since I have accepted that fact, I’ve decided what I want with the next job.

A wage of $16-$20 per hour

A PT (part time) schedule of 9am-1pm Monday to Friday. No weekends.

If I can get the wage & schedule I want, I can deal with working in another shitty call center. If my wage is not dependent on how “well” I do on recorded calls, then fuck it right?

As long as I do well enough to not get fired, make $16-$20 per hour and have the PT schedule I want, then I can deal with asshole customers and asshole management.

At the end of the day, it’s just about money for me. At least for now. We just need my income to help get us out of some debt our house put us in. Then hopefully once we get that taken care of, I can stop working or figure out what career I actually want & would enjoy doing.

Pro tip: don’t buy a 140 year old farm house, despite how cheap your mortgage will be.

So I was temp to hire at my job. I started May 2022, and in October became an “official” employee at my job.

I make $12.30 an hour.

Call me crazy, but I figured I would get a annual review this month or in May.

NOPE! They decided every employee should have their annual review in April each year….and because I wasn’t an “official” employee until October of last year, they decided to push mine out to April of 2024.

To “compensate”, Nancy gave me a raise…..

How much was the raise? 1.75% AKA ¢22 per hour. So my new & “improved” wage? $12.52 per hour.

A fucking joke. I’m one of the top CSRs and do a lot at my job. I bend over backwards here. I clean up messes constantly made by other agents, actually do a thorough job of taking care of customers and even help train new staff.

$12.52 is not a sustainable wage, especially with all the work I’ve been doing.

They give us monthly & quarterly $$$ incentive goals, which are nice. But lately…there has been so much change in the company. And with that change has come additional change in how the QA (Quality & Assurance) Team scores our recorded phone calls. To put it simply, if you get scored 90-100% and are on time for your shifts, you get a nice little bonus each month and get a bigger bonus at the end of the quarter if you do well consecutively.

But the concern I have is my call center is going the direction all call centers all go. They stop caring about employees & care only about $$$ and numbers. The goals for a “perfect” call or stats are becoming unrealistic and therefore, unachievable. If they continue to make it impossible to receive that incentive bonus, people will walk.

I myself am applying to jobs during the down time at work. Unfortunately, with the shit show that is today’s economy I can’t just quit with nothing lined up.

You pay minimum wage, expect minimum effort.

Me: “Hi thank you for calling _______! How can I help you?”

Customer: “I’m having trouble with my password”

Me: “Ok, I’m sorry about that! Could I have—”

Customer: “it keeps asking me for [thing] and I don’t remember what it was”

Me: “okay, let me take a look into that for you! Could I have your first and last name?”

Customer: *gives me name*

Me: “Thank you! May I also—”

Customer: “Would it be the same password I had last year?”

Me: “Yes, it should be but I can double—”

Customer: “Because it’s not allowing me to get past this section.”

LADY. SHUT UP. STOP CUTTING ME OFF. I’M TRYING TO HELP. But in order to do so, I need to verify you and make sure I have the right account. LET ME DO MY JOB.

Let me talk. PLEASE.

Fuck this day and fuck customers.

I had a 1:1 meeting with bitchy manager Nancy yesterday.

Thought I was in trouble since the schedule change. Nope. We actually had a really…nice…meeting? I’m still in shock.

In short, she actually wants feedback from us CSRs on how management is doing, what needs to be improved, and what we would like to see as incentives.

Wow. I’m still surprised. Maybe the direction of this company isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be……

…maybe…

Sweet success!

Had a 1:1 with Kathy last week. Discussed going to PT and working 9am-3pm since the 8am slot was “unavailable” for me to start at. She encouraged emailing Nancy, since my supervisor can’t approve schedule changes.

I sent a email on Wednesday and got no response. So on Friday afternoon I, respectfully, asked for an update. Yesterday (Monday), I get an email from Nancy saying:

“Currently, we don’t have a need for part-time, but we do need our full-time agents to stay full time. I am working to see if there is an opportunity for you to shift your schedule an hour instead. Not sure if we will be able to do this but it does take a little time to figure out. I will let you know by end of tomorrow.”

Ok…you’re connecting the dots Nancy. Glad to see your brain actually works.

This morning, I got the email with the approval for my schedule to be 8am-4:30pm. This change takes effect this Monday 2/27/23.

I too know how to play this capitalism game, Nancy. I’m not gonna stay here if I have shitty pay and a shitty schedule to match. I’m glad she was able to connect the dots and figure it out without my having to threaten to quit.

So I guess I will continue to stick out a little longer here. Hopefully a raise is coming in April/May. Lord knows we all deserve one.

It had been one week since my 1:1. So after hearing no word from my supervisor, I reached out to her and asked about the schedule request.

She said “Nancy [bitch manager] said there are no available openings for the morning shift and with [coworker] going to part time, there would be no one for the 9-530 shift for 2 days of the week if you moved to an 8am shift. I'm sorry, [my name]”

So there’s that.

Schedule aside, the direction of my company is heading in a area I don’t like to see. I make $12.30/hour but I don’t complain about that because if you do well with your schedule adherence and with your call evaluations, you get a nice bonus at the end of each quarter. For me it’s usually $440.00.

The problem? They are slowly setting the bar so high that it may become unachievable to reach the incentive goal and therefore receive my bonus.

Last week for instance, they gave me 96% out of 100% on a call. At the end of each call we are supposed to send a FAQ email to the students to help prevent them from calling back if we can avoid it. I sent this email on this particular call, and told the student I was sending it. The reason they deducted 4 points? I didn’t describe what was in the email.

So yeah. I updated my resume yesterday and have been slowly applying to jobs. Don’t know if I’ll actually quit…but I don’t know if I want to stay. If I can go to another call center and get a $4-$6 raise, and not have to worry about reaching goals in order to get money….it may be worth it. I don’t know. We’ll see.

My supervisor is a sweet angel. We’ll call her Kathy. Me & Kathy worked together as agents before she got promoted to supervisor. She’s been great as a supervisor so far. I have no issues with her whatsoever.

I have a one-on-one with her on Wednesday 2/1/23. Nothing bad. We all have 1:1 meetings with her. The new staff has one with her every week. She and me only meet 2x a month because I’m a “veteran” at this point. I’m also one of the top agents on our team.

I’m going to approach her about the schedule change again. My ideal schedule would be 8am-4:30pm, instead of the current one if 9am-5:30pm. One of the other “veteran” employees is going to part-time so I hope it gets approved.

The problem? Manager Nancy has to approve it.

We’ll see what happens…

My manager is kind of a bitch. We’ll call her Nancy.

Well, I had 2 doctors appointments on Monday Jan 9. Nothing major, just basic stuff. So I submitted a schedule request to work 8am-11am that day and to make up the remaining hours on Sat Jan 14. My request gets approved. By Nancy. I submitted this request back in December.

I come in on Jan 2 and see that my schedule not only doesn’t have any of these updates, but also shows I’m scheduled to work 2 Saturdays, when we only work 1 or none every month. And I, the crazy person that I am, made traveling plans for the weekend of 1/27. Why? BECAUSE I ASKED TO WORK SATURDAY 1/14. But yet, here I am, scheduled for Sat 1/28.

So I go to Nancy and explain all this. It takes us a week and a half to get my schedule corrected. And Nancy said I had to work “back to back weekends because of this change”. Yup. So now I work today Saturday 1/14 and next Saturday 1/21. She also said to “submit time off requests before making traveling plans”. I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO IF I ASKED TO WORK ONE PARTICULAR SATURDAY AND YOU FUCKING APPROVED IT.

We also got more staff so I did this crazy thing and asked back in December if I could come in a hour earlier and work 8am-4:30pm (I currently work 9am-5:30pm). My supervisor, an angel, was like “oh sure! We can definitely do that since we have more staff!” But then she had to get Nancy’s approval.

Nancy came back and said the people in charge of scheduling shifts and “right now there isn't anything available for the mornings.”

I call 100% bullshit. Also, leadership should be in charge of schedules. Not a 3rd party that messes up our schedules constantly.

If it weren’t for the fact that A) I need money and B) this job is still 100 times better than my last job, I would quit.

Could always be worse I guess.

Me: “Hello ‘Nancy’ (my manager, since my supervisor quit), I need Thanksgiving weekend off so I can visit my in-laws.”

Nancy: “But you don’t have any PTO until December”

Me: “Okay no worries, I still need those dates off so I can take as an unpaid day off.”

Nancy: “….well you won’t be able to use your PTO, so just you know it WILL be unpaid time off…”

Me: “I understand, I still need this time off which is why I wanted to submit this request now in October.”

Nancy: “Just as long as you know it will be unpaid time off…”