I got this wild hair and decided to work this part time job figuring I could pay off some debt and pay to get a water softener installed in my house. I figured it could not be too bad being that they would allow me to work from home because they were getting their new phone systems. I was also told their hours were flexible. I figured I would put in 15 to 25 hours a week. I got hired the first week of January. I had to go through training, which was a total joke. I asked the trainer to just send me to the floor right then and there. What was even funnier is when we went around the room and introduced ourselves, I was the only one with a real job and 2 degrees. This place hires tons of college kids, which is not totally a bad thing. When people found out what I did for my real job and how I had two degrees, they were all like, "What the heck are you doing here?" To be honest with you, I am not exactly sure. A week of training and a week in this phone room with no windows called the "dungeon" that was run by a young, thin, fake blonde girl who touted she had been smoking since she was 8. I guess you would be able to tell that being she had that gravely "smokers voice".
I get to the floor two weeks later to work nights. The original plan was to work 10pm till 2am, figuring that I could come home, crash and have plenty of time to wake up to get to my real job. Of course, I get put on this 11pm till 4am shift 5 days a week. I work my 8 to 5pm job, get my youngest son from daycare, come home, cook dinner, feed the boys, make sure Josh has done hs homework and then put the boys in bed. I crash around 7pm, only to wake up around 9:45pm, to get up and go into the part time job. It does slow down after 2am most nights. Since I am way over qualified for this job and my team lead tells me I have more experience and skillsets that all of the L2's put together who work nights, I am optimistic they will just make me an L2 and give me a few more bucks. There is another guy who also works nights with me named Ryan who has a real IT job like myself. He is also way over qualified. He and I joke about the day we both get fed up, and walk out of that place never to return. Ryan is a good guy and is very tech savy. Ironically, I have mentioned that what I make in one week at the Telenetwork is what I normally make in a few hours of work at my real job, I start to wonder why I am even there. My team lead is named Bob and is realted to Adrian Belew the musician. He is the most underated guitar player out there. Bob used to be in the Army and install phone equiptment. I like his "take no crap" attitude. He is a fun guy to listen to. He is dating another girl who works nights. She makes me laugh because she comes off sounding like she is mean; but, she is a real sweetheart. The L2 who works nights is name Ben. He makes me laugh. He tries to act like a player but I am sure he is a good family man. He tells me he has 4 kids. He can not be more than 25 years old. He brags about getting with a few of the girls there at work. I laugh and shake my head because I have a feeling he is more talk than anything. He reminds me alot of myself when I was his age. I was fearless and loved to party.
I have been there almost 2 months and the calls are not too bad. I do get tired of talking to elderly folks who have nothing better to do than to call up the tech support line and ask for help. Once they get you on the line, they want to ask where you are at and talk about life; but, you have to keep them on target. If I hear, "I am not very technically literate" when I am asking someone to click on "Start", I am going to scream. One lady was complaining about how she had so many computer problems. I told her, "Well Ma'am, some people should own computers, other should own etch-sketchs." I did not think that was as bad as when I told a lady I could not "send magical elves to come down and magically fix her computer. Ironically, my team lead monitored that call. We both got a big laugh out of it. I am constantly amazed at these computer illiterate people who have modems and routers. Most of these people can not even run their modem. Meanwhile, there are those people who are still on dial up. I ask every one of them, "Is there not DSL in your area?" Most people are happy with the slowness of dial up. I guess I am spoiled. If it is not at least DSL speeds, I am whining or complaining. I always wonder why these people decide to call tech support at 3am just for assistance.
The big pull at this place is first time fixes and talk time. Basically, you can not have a low talk time if you want a high first time fix rate. People are going to call back just because they started screwing up stuff and you have to refer them to their manufacturer. I do like telling those people who are still running Windows 98 that we can try it once and if it does not work, they might want to consider upgrading their machine since there is limited support for Windows 98. The best people to talk to are the folks who own Macs running OS X 10.5 and the Linux people. These people understand what is going on. They have an issue and you are on and off that call in record time.
I am not sure who wrote the "tracker" tool but this guy needs to be fired. It is buggy, outdated, and is in dire need of a complete overhaul. This place has over 800 reps, you would think the owner would invest in a support tool of some sort. You have to log into your phone and then log into the tracker. I have had the tracker gone down, only for it to tell me I was "tardy" because I had to sign back into it. They had a $50 bonus every pay day just for showing up on time. I NEVER saw that on my check. The network is locked down by Websense. There are tons of sites you can not get to. Some of the tech sites have message boards attached and those are blocked. There are ways around the Websense but they have put a network sniffer on their network. If my team lead gets any more emails from the network admin, I am going to have to have a few words with him. From what I understand, the network guys all have degrees. I am not sure where those degrees are from because it seems like they are running the network by the seat of their pants.
For a part time job, this place is not too bad. The pay is not very high to start out with. What they gave me to start and even with my "night shift" differential, it is still like almost $5 an hour under the industry standard. What they are hoping for are these college kids who are going to come in and work for them. They hire at least 50 to 100 reps a month. Ironically, they end up firing most of them. I guess there are worst part time jobs out there. I could be working at the local HEB again. I would be on my feet all the night and would probably be even more tired that I am now. I am going to see about getting my hours cut back. This working till 4am business is driving me nuts. I start to look forward to the 2 days off I have from the part time job where I can go to bed at a descent time and can catch up on my rest. I will probably stay long enough to see what working from home is like. If it works out, I might work there long enough to pay off my debt and my water softner and call it a day.
The next time I get a wild hair and decide I am going to go off and get this flexible part time job to help pay off debt, I will get a job teaching college and put my Masters degree to work.
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