Vocational Anniversary

December 15th was the 3^rd anniversary of the day I started working at my current full time job. Although I have mentioned the name of the cable shopping channel I work for before; because of the internet communications policy that the company has implemented over the last year or so I won’t mention it directly.

I will however say that if you take the 3 letters of the TV network I mentioned in my last post and place them after the fact that you can SHOP from home you’ll get an idea of where I work. If that doesn’t make the connection for you just look back at my posts from December 2008.

Although this is my 3^rd full time job in a call center it’s much different than the other two. For all intents and purposes this job is like working in a retail store. The only differences are that you don’t have to really worry about shop lifting (just credit card fraud but that’s handled by a different department) and you have to deal with the incompetency of the delivery services (UPS, the US Postal Service, and FEDEX).

While the basics are about the same, my job today and the way our company handles customer service is almost totally different than when I started. Computer systems have been added and others have been changed. There have also been a lot of changes for me as an individual employee as well.

The first major change was moving from the small call center on the ground floor of our distribution warehouse to the newly built much larger call center on second floor. This change happened about 4 or 5 month after I started. It also meant a longer walk that involved going up a set of stairs. At the time it opened getting to the new call center was a real physical challenge for me. I had to take the stairs one at a time very slowly both up and down. These days every once in a while I take them 2 at a time but only on the way up.

I started out as just a part time 2^nd shift worker.  Quickly I went to full time after only 3 months of employment in February 2009. In September shortly after I got back from my weight loss surgery I got the opportunity to change to first shift (8AM-4:30PM). That was a major change. The hours meant that at least Paula and I would be on the same day time schedule even though my days off were Thursday and Friday.

The problem with that was that I wouldn’t be able to go to church on Sundays because I had to work. It would take me about a year and 11/2 to get that changed.

In June this year my days off changed to Sunday and Monday. That has really made a big difference in my life.

The other occupational hazard of the call center business is the high rate of turnover in employees. This means that as a psychological defense mechanism you don’t allow yourself to get too close to your co-workers. Because one day without notice they could be gone and more often than not without even a “good-bye”.  There have been a lot of people who have come and gone in the last 3 years. A few of them are still very memorable to me even though they’ve been gone for a while.

As of today, there are only 2 other members of my training class still working at the call center. Both of them have moved up to being lower level management. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I guess I’m just content being an Indian and not a chief.

So as I begin my 4^th year of employment in the call center I’m not exactly sure what the future holds. According to my supervisors and my performance reports I’m doing a good job. So I guess I’ll just keep on doing what I’m doing and change with the changes.

Reaching the three year mark puts this job 5^th in regard to length of service on the list of the 8 full time jobs I’ve had. By the middle of January 2013 it will move all the way up to #3. But only God knows what the future holds.

Last week management made a kind gesture toward me in recognition of my 3^rd anniversary. They gave me a nice pen and pencil set, a certificate from Wendy’s for a free Frosty, and a nice card.

Although, like any full time worker, I do get frustrated with my job at times I’m thankful that God has given me the blessing of a steady paycheck for the last 3 years.

So I go on to year #4. If the pattern of the last few years is any indication I’ll be getting a break with a temporary layoff sometime about March or April but until then I’ll just keep answering those calls and giving our customers “Service with a Smile.”