Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Sometimes I pray for rain...

Which you wouldn't think necessary in this state.

I've been feeling the need for change, lately. I might end up moving to a small town, building a new life, but that won't be happening for awhile. For now I'm looking at finding something different where I am. Been sitting down for 8 hours with a headset strapped to my face for more than 2 years now.. it's become automatic, do the work, take the calls, go home, do other stuff. I don't dread going to work, but it's hard to get excited about it.

Most recently I had to make the difficult decision of asking my boss for a transfer. I've been on a contract for the last nine months in which I have to deal with some very frustrating things. calls where I can't hear the customer very well are commonplace. We get a ton of cold transfers, often transferred to us by the very department which should be taking the call. It's miserable. And I think the part that offends me the most is that the client pretends to care. They have an elaborate system for reporting misdeeds.. And I've heard, once, that I did something naughty. We can look up and see how many times particular individuals have been reported. Sometimes it is dozens. It feels like they just don't care.

I don't want to go into further particulars on this.. I'm not doing anything rash, I love my boss, I love the company I work for. Just sick of the client. They'll tell you this happens everywhere, but I did another thing for a year and a half. Got bored, but never this angry.

It's been hot and muggy.. Got steamcleaned the other night when my wife and I had friends over. Good night, though. We played two games of cranium, then i suckered everyone into The Great Dalmuti. Teh awesome. Too damn hot, though.

Made some vague pretense at forward progress. Got myself re-acquainted with my library account (got my 17 year old membership with king county library system, same card they first gave me), got some stuff on software testing. Now I only have to read it when it actually gets to me. software testing pays at least as well as I'm getting now, looks interesting, and gets this headset off my face, so i'm finding it tempting.

2 comments:

The Mushroom said...

As you are aware, I feel your pain... been there, done that. I too loved the employer but hated the client -- you know all about that client and its arbitrary and usually senseless decisions, including the one that moved you to another contract. I wasn't bored when I got the shove, but I just didn't want to be there for about two months and it showed. I could do my job, but hated it whenever a new edict would come down on high that did more to prevent us from doing our jobs than helped customers. The day I got canned was one of the best days of my life cuz I didn't have to deal with the client or its minions any longer.

We all know clients don't care. Unless they hear you doing something Bad, like telling the truth. As long as the call times are low, the call volume is high, and the QA department's menu of the week is correctly filled, they're happy. Oddly, being deficient in one but leading in others still doesn't do it for them. Because you CAN be replaced.

Yup, it's that time of year where you ponder moving east. Right on schedule. (And I will see you in the usual place at the usual time, I have Sept 1 off from work for the purpose.)

aag said...

*sigh* Sorry to hear that the job is less than ideal...or rather that the less-than-idealness is becoming so unbearable. :(

Software testing sounds like a good option. They have to pretend to care more than most departments do (actually, our QA testing group really does care, since we're still a fairly small company). I bet you'd enjoy that work (as much as a person CAN enjoy work anyway).

You know, it's funny. I don't like change...I'm not big on adventure or spur-of-the-moment decisions (yes, I know, that's the understatement of the year--you can stop laughing now). But today as I left work I was thinking...what would it be like to just walk away, never go back, start a new life somewhere else, just disappear? Very, very unlike me. It's frightening what a frustrating work environment can do to someone. :)

Good luck with the current job issues and with the possibility of something different. I really hope something works out for you.