"Patience and Shade"What do you do when you're sitting on the phone and no calls are coming through, you have no one in your pod to talk to, and you're looking at 8 hours of Zzzzzzzzzz? (1) Turn on the online classical music radio station, low, so no one carps at you. (2) Take out your knitting. (3) Fight the urge to bang your head on the desk. (4) Watch 10 people leave for the day with management's blessing... Wait. What? Yep! People left for the day, valiantly saving funds for the company! Such selflessness! Such bravery! We salute thee!
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"When It's So Bad It's Good"Working for a retailer has introduced me to TONS of interesting stuff I would never have known. Brands I never heard of: Giani Bernini, Cuddl Duds (a brand name just cute enough to nauseate), Alfani, and Tasso Elba (sounding ever-so-Italian - but probably made in New Jersey, who knows? Certainly not me, the non-style queen.). And I have seen some weird things - from the Lobster On Pedestal I wrote about in a previous blog, to a scent - Bvlgari - that is bottled and marketed as though it is a combination lock on acid...or that has been beamed up when the transporter has had a really bad day. I'm fascinated with all of it, really. Shape and color and general weirdness have always fascinated me, so in this way, working in retail is A Kinda Cool Thing. Except for the exceptionally ugly pieces of clothing that you just can't even imagine someone buying, much less wearing. I look at marketing like this and I wonder how these things could be used in alternate ways. Like...earrings, maybe? The purple really does look like something I'd cheerfully wear on my lobes! There are pieces of such breathtaking beauty that I find myself wanting them, even though I'm not a major jewelry maven. But too many pieces of jewelry are jewel-toned, and that's where I just fall into the computer monitor... "Reflections On a Year in Customer Service""What's APR???" they would say to me, their voices dripping with fear and frustration and anger. "Why do I owe $6,000 when I only borrowed $500???" That was RISE, a company that offers short-term loans with interest rates through the roof. Up to 298%. And yes, you are reading that correctly. There, I offered education and respect and understanding to those who called me, freaking out. I couldn't offer them lower interest rates. I couldn't believe the high ones are lega but it turns out they are in fact legal. "Moral" is an entirely different story. I did try to get out of that gig and get into a better sales job within the matrix of sales campaigns available, but we had an odd cast of characters leading the charge. The Supervisor who had a substance abuse problem and an anger problem. The 21-year-old Supervisor - need I say more? - who followed the lead of the Supervisor with the substance abuse problem. The Scapegoat Supervisor who the drinking Supervisor hated for no particular reason. The Head of the Department who smiled well, made beautiful promises, and was preternaturally resistant to fulfilling them. Stories within stories within stories unfolded in that crazy department, and anyone who actually did make it out of there (they for some reason hated letting anyone go to another campaign, especially if it bettered the lot of the employee) was seen as a heroine. It's actually the people on the phone that make this kind of job fascinating. I met Johnny on the phone one day. Johnny lived and worked in L.A. in its heyday, and he had stories to tell about seeing Liz Taylor across the street and being absolutely dumbstruck by her remarkable, purple-eyed beauty. He was a Casting Director back in the day, so you can imagine how ardently I wanted to keep him on the phone all day long. Okay, so that was December of 2017, not 2018, but I love that guy, so I just had to mention him. |
AuthorWorking in Sales at a Call Center for one of the biggest stores in the country should come with hazard pay. Archives
December 2019
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