4 posts from 2009

I am writing this at a time that I would normally be driving to work. I can't get over this feeling that I am going to be late! I should have left the house 17 minutes ago....but my "work" is now just down the hall! Today is my first day being a "Home agent". After several hours of much cussing and crying last night, I Finley got the computer and phone equipment set up. They did give us a 6 hour training course that briefly skimmed over how to hook it up and use it....but it was not as easy as they made it sound. And thanks to a computer person with no common sense, we were given directions in "tech talk" that totally confused most of us!

I guess I will find out in a bit if I truly have it all hooked up right....if no calls come in I willo know I did something wrong.......Now I am taking my shoeless, sweat pant & sweat shirt wearing self to work!  It feels good to wear comfortable cloths and no shoes!!!!!!!!

I feel like the circus puppy. You know.... the little dog that jumps through hoops just to get a few scraps for a reward.

Well, I jumped through all the hoops master put before me and came out the other end as a "Home Agent"!

I just got the news today from our call center manager that my Internet is good enough and the space I have in my home is acceptable for the work space I need. Two more hoops jumped through.

I'm still a bit nervous about this. They haven't really told us much about how this works. I just found out today that the equipment they are supplying me with will use our phone line. Unfortunately it also means if that is the only phone line we have, no one can use it while I am working, not even when I am on break! I guess once I log into the company system from my home it locks my phone line to them and stays that way until I log off.

So now we are looking into getting a second phone line. Our cell phone service out here in the boondocks isn't that reliable. I would like to know there is a way for some one to call in or out in case of an emergency. That and a reliable phone for hubby to use to keep in touch with his employer. He still doesn't have steady enough work to have a daily schedule. He still has to call in to see if they have work for him or not. I would hate to have him miss out on work, just because they can't call him or because or cell phone didn't have a good enough signal.

I just hope it doesn't cost to much. I would hate to spend all the gas money I am going to save on paying for a second phone line!

I also hope the equipment is easy to set up. They are not sending an IT person along with the equipment. It sounds like we are going to get the stuff Wednesday and have to hook it up ourselves. Then it's work as usual on Thursday!

They are giving us a 6 hour training course on Wednesday and then sending us home!

A few of my coworkers that are also going to be Home agents started bringing home some of their personal belongings from there desks today. It was kind of funny to watch. One lady was hauling out her 2nd box of crap as I was leaving today. As I stopped to hold the door for her she asked why I wasn't bringing anything home yet. All I could do was smile and tell her "I don't have anything except a picture of my dogs, I cup I use for water and a pen!".....I just work here...I don't live here!"

It's going to seem really wierd not seeing these people 5 days a week any more.

Every year the call center I work for hires on extra help for the Christmas season. The positions are mostly temporary with a few of the positions turning to to temporary employment after the winter holidays are over. This year they projected to need almost three times as many temporary employees as last Christmas. That means they have hired on almost 70 new people in just the past 6 weeks!

All the new hires means, they all need a place to sit and work, they all need desks and phones and chairs.......More then our little call canter building can hold. We are busting at the seams.

The company also had a very small portion of our call center in the Northern part of our state. It was a very rural area and not much population so it was hard to get and keep employees. So they announced earlier this summer that our northern call center was closing and the customer service reps were going to be working from thier homes. About 20 of them were part of a pilot program to see if the kind of Customer service work we do could be done from home.

There project was a success and now our branch has decided to relieve some of the crowded conditions we are working in by turning a few select employees into "home agents".

We were all told this was going to happen in early July. I have been thinking about how working from home would help out in so many ways since that day.

Not having to drive to/from work during a crappy Minnesota snowy winter.... Being able to be home while a fire is burning in the wood stove, (if you have all elctric heat, you know how much $ that can save!) ... Not having to spend $40 a week to put gas in the van to get to work. .....No more 1 hour each way drive time to add on during the already mandatory 10 hour work days!

I wanted to get one of those Home agent positions when the became available!

Last Thursday the company announced they would be making only 11 Home Agent positions available. The call center manager told us she would be hand delivering the letters to the employees that are choosen for these jobs.......My heart sank. We have more then 100 employees to choose from. Many of them have been with the company since it re-opened in 2002. I have only worked there since last year. Technicly I have not even been employed with them a full year. I was hired as a temp and only official became a company person this past March. 

I was sure I didn't stand a chance.

Today at 12:15 pm. The call center manager handed me a folded peace of paper. I opened it and saw "Congratulations! You have been choosen for a Home Agent position. Our desicion was based on your work performance and abilty to work independently.........

WooHoo!

Now I just have to fill out a questionare and hope the house/phone/computer...part of this all qualifies!

One hurdled jumped!

I blog to get my feelings out. I blog when I am frustrated, angry, happy bored.....you get the picture.  As anyone who has/had a blog at efx2 knows, there where issues with the place. I'm not even going to pretend I understand enough about computers to use the proper words...the on again off again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't thing. I don't think I'm the only one that said bad things about the place and even used a swear word or two about it. Some directed at Kieth (since he was the maker)

Frustration from lack of information as to if/when Keith might be around to fix something....grumblings about a mystery man named Martin holding keys to the castle......You bet I was frustrated and angry about being left in the dark and I blogged about it....I even said a few times I'm going to quit blogging and may have even said "this is the last time!" I felt dupped...grant you I only pitched in a few bucks...it's all I could afford, but when Keith dissapeared with no explanation, I felt like I was taken advantage of.....My feelings right or wrong.

At the time I wrote the blog, those were my feelings....and I am entitled to them!

Now at Efx3. The new place. I understand that it is underconstruction. The people involved in making the place have done more work then I ever could....heck I couldn't even figure out where to go in my e-mail spam folder to go look for the e-mail reply that was sent but some how never made it in my actual e-mail in box (efx3 is'n't the only e-mail I've lost, I never get the ones from my employer either) But some how after a very public flogging over a blog written critisizing the place......I'm not real sure if that is the environment I want to be in. I would like to think my blog is where I can write whatever I want to...leave comments on it if you don't agree, but don't drag it on to the front page.

I'm writing this post in nutural territory because I don't want what I write to get deleted..... But I do have a few concerns about the new place that keeps me from going "all in".

first...like Kieth. this new efx is hobby, now for two people, what happens when real life gets in the way or the pressure gets to be to much? I know it is free...quit bitchin' seems to be the war cry as of late, But I'm getting tired of making/breaking ties to people I grow fond of thru blogs.

second.....Other attempts failed or fell to the wayside....efx2.info comes to mind. It started as a gung-ho, lets get this place up and running in no time place too...But stuff happens and the progress came to a stop. I understand........but I still can't find my way around there, I'm still frustrated as hell with the place I still don't know how to make it look pretty.......and won't be going back.....doesn't mean I didn't apreciate all the hard work everyone over there did.......it means I got mad. I blogged about it and I moved on.  I think I wrote pretty much the same rant when I tried to move to Blogger the first time efx crashed...I even referred to the template as looking like I was visitning my Grandmother's house and the service as being about as freindly as a visit to the DMV...I think I said a few more harsh things about them too. 

I almost feel like my blog will be monotored and if a speak badly about the wrong thing I might be in the target too. I'm starting to think it's time to take a break and let the dust settle...........................