No Longer Alone

Chapter Two

    The nice thing about heading into work early was that I was always able to get a decent parking spot at work, and being the only one bringing in an income, I was thankful for that extra income that I was getting doing extra work that wasn't exactly in my job description.  Grabbing my cup of coffee and making sure I had my badge, I headed into my building exchanging morning greetings with the security guard and the janitor as I headed to my desk.  The security office was a kind old man that looked like he should be a great grandfather, while the janitor was lived up to the stereotype of a grouchy little old man, but both were always nice to me, and I always did my best to be nice and polite to them.

    Reaching my desk I got to work on signing into my computers, going through the list of things that needed to be done before the new agents got into work.  Their first week had been rough, with a lot more drama than we had seen in a long time from a new group of agents, and some of them really struggling to fully understand what they had signed up for in an inbound call center.  I'd been employed for almost nine years, and the majority of it was in my current role helping new agents with their calls, training, coaching, even being a shoulder to cry on more than once.  Personally I loved my job, but I knew it was tough for some people, and I was good at helping them through it, after they stopped being scared of me.  My work personality is a very direct and energetic person, I'm there to do a job and it needs to be done right, which seems to be pretty off putting to some people, so I usually get the tougher cases rather than the ones that need extra sugar coating.

    After almost an hour of work reviewing information, listening to calls, and doing more research on how to these agents are handling customers and how we can improve it, I stand up and stretch just to see that two of my peers have shown up, two of my favorite people in work.

    "Mornin' guys" I call out to David and Bob.

    "Mornin' Nicole, you're here pretty early this morning." David looks at the clock and I notice it's about 15 minutes before our shifts would normally start.

    "Yeah, boss gave me permission to do OT and get some other work done so I could spend more of the normal hours helping you and yours out.  However, since I have been here for almost an hour, and you two haven't clocked in yet, care to join me outside for a moment before the real work begins?"

    The guys smile and agree, and we all head to our designated smoking area.  I've tried to kick the habit multiple times, even succeeded for periods of time, but then end up doing it again.  Pulling out a cigarette, I light it and look over to David.

    "So what's the plan for this group, they are on their second week and we are really seeing some struggles here."

    "I can't seem to break this group of thinking the only way to service a call is to spend twenty minutes or more on a call, I feel like I am banging my head on a wall here, this is only my second time leading a group and I need some ideas."  David was shaking his head, seeming to be a bit discouraged, which was odd to see in him.  He was a good six inches taller than me, and if it weren't for some medical issues, looked like he belonged out working on a construction site, not in a call center.  Contrary to his looks though, David was a big teddy bear, and loved to pick on me and try to hug me since he knew I had personal bubble issues.  I was thankful that he had a fiancée who had to deal with him, even though I still wasn't sure how she managed it, he was a very clingy guy.

    "I am watching Larry teaching class today, maybe I will be able to see something and clarify it, worst case, you know I have taken my own agent calls this month, we may be able to have them listen to what I do, and how I talk to the customer so they can see how calls should go."

    "Thanks for the support there, that might be the best thing we can do, after all, you let Larry take on teaching your class on soft skills."  David grinned at my groan.

    I may come across face to face as a very direct and blunt person, but on calls, I am something else, based on the soft skills I not only preach to agents, but do my best to follow on my own calls.  Really it is just how we talk to other people, smiling, using courtesy, things like that, my groan was knowing that Larry has some of the worst soft skills face to face and on calls, but maybe this will knock out two problems with one class.  

    Bob has just been silently listening and watching us through this all, and we all agree to try and get through the rest of the day with as little drama as possible.  We head back to our desks and get ready for a day of running.

    ***A few hours later***

    Slumping over my desk where I have moved my keyboards to the sides, I have been slowly banging my head against the desk for the past five minutes, David and Bob watching me with an amused expression on their faces.

    "That bad?"

    I rest my head on my desk and roll my head slightly to the side, looking at Bob from the corner of my eye, then look at David giving him the stink eye, before looking at Bob again. 

    "You have no idea."

    I went back to banging my head on my desk as David laughed.  Bob looked between the two of us, then shook his head, not really understanding as he had been working with another group last week, and part of this week.

    "They can't be that bad, I mean they aren't like that group you had to take over a few years ago..."  I knew what group Bob was talking about and shuddered.

    "No group can be as bad as that group.  This group wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for Sally and Sarah.  I swear if those two stopped talking for more than two minutes their heads would explode from the pressure.  Sarah at least has learned to a degree when I am around to at least try to contain herself, but Sally is trying to tell me every detail of every last little bloody thing that happens with every single freaking agent in this group and I am not allowed to say what I want, which is if it doesn't pertain to work I don't give a rats rear end what is going on because I don't care.  I don't want the personal life story of every agent in this group and it isn't her damned job to tell me all this.   Meanwhile she has also figured out her problem with call time is over servicing but she still can't figure out how to shut the hell up."  I get done with my rant to see the two of them laughing.

    "Five more minutes and we are done for the day, I am so thankful tonight is grown up night cause I could use a stiff drink tonight and a night with no drama!"  Little did I know then that my plans weren't going to go the way I had hoped.