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champagne posting posted:I hope your company likes replacing your broken phone Lol. I've seen one start smoking once. Right before a guy was going to hop on to take his first call ever. It was an omen. He was actually pretty good at the job, in all aspects of it. But he just broke down after a year and couldn't do it anymore.
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Mar 26, 2022 18:49
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blackmet posted:Lol. I've seen one start smoking once. Right before a guy was going to hop on to take his first call ever. 'Couldn't hack it' usually means blaming the employee for not putting up with terrible working conditions.
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Mar 26, 2022 19:24
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Critical posted:I'm actually on the AP side so I don't have to make collection calls, fortunately. Oh boy I had no clue this thread existed but I’m sure I’ll have lots to contribute soon! I feel this post. I AM on the collections side and man do I miss AP… They are constantly juggling our accounts and I’m stuck with trying to collect on 1yr old invoices  Most of my issues are to do with web billing though… Each customer has their own loving portal and nonsense they want you to jump through before they pay invoices. I don’t do the web billing but I sure as hell have to sort through the bs when it’s not done right. Oh did I mention the reason I’m in collections now is because they outsourced my previous AP position (and entire dept) to IBM India in the middle of the pandemic? It was either muddle though an uncertain job market or jump to one of two positions leftover. I chose the safety net because in 2020 we all really needed one.
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Mar 26, 2022 20:02
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Years ago I was a supervisor at a call center that did market research, i.e. telephone surveys. I was one of the supervisors in charge of training, and I got used to a high washout rate. Out of a class of 40 or so, I expected a couple to not even make it through their first day, and a bigger chunk to not make it through their first week. For some people phone work is just not tolerable for whatever reason - for me it was always a nice fallback since I took it to it really easily despite having struggled with social anxiety over the years.
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Mar 26, 2022 23:12
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Years ago I was a supervisor at a call center that did market research, i.e. telephone surveys. I was one of the supervisors in charge of training, and I got used to a high washout rate. Out of a class of 40 or so, I expected a couple to not even make it through their first day, and a bigger chunk to not make it through their first week. For some people phone work is just not tolerable for whatever reason - for me it was always a nice fallback since I took it to it really easily despite having struggled with social anxiety over the years. I'd dig ditches in the rain before ever working at a call center. Almost got fooled to interview for one back in early 2000 and noped out of their so fast the door didn't even have time to close before I turned around and left.
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Mar 26, 2022 23:31
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I work in a photo lab that's been around for a while. One of the main daytime printing techs used to work in a huge call center in the area before this job, and absolutely hated it and the place he worked. Moving over to quietly running printers without needing to talk to folks was a good change of pace for him. The lab recently purchased a new, much larger building that we'll be moving into this summer. We got to tour the new building a few weeks ago--it's not quite cleaned up or built out, so there were some old cubicles, office equipment, and a bunch of phones still left over, piled in a corner. When we got back the printing tech seemed kind of out-of-sorts. We asked him what was up. Turns out the new building we're moving to... was formerly a call center. The very same one he worked at. He thought he got away...
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Mar 26, 2022 23:58
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Takes No Damage posted:I like to use 6969 as any 4digit PIN, but only because the numbers are next to each other on the NumPad I swear 1337 for me. Plz don't steal my phone.
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Mar 27, 2022 00:40
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SkyeAuroline posted:My one Excel weakness. We never use pivot tables in my current position. drat near everything else, including VBA, but never pivot tables. Hah same, I've been meaning to learn pivot tables just so I'm not caught off guard in an interview. I think I'm an unusual case because I've used excel massively but never anything involving money.
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Mar 27, 2022 00:46
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If you use Excel regularly pivot tables take about an hour to teach yourself how to use them or about 15 minutes if someone will show you. It's easier to figure out than a lot of IF and similar formulas.Slayerjerman posted:I'd dig ditches in the rain before ever working at a call center. Almost got fooled to interview for one back in early 2000 and noped out of their so fast the door didn't even have time to close before I turned around and left. Same. I'd rather kill myself than do the same pointless bullshit stuff everyday. I had a stupid pointless job a few years ago and I had to quit because it was so miserable and depressing I was starting to get ideas. That said I worked in a cafe for about a year baking bagels, flipping the grill, making coffee and sandwiches etc. If it paid well I'd have happily done that for the rest of my life, I loving loved it.
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Mar 27, 2022 01:36
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Outrail posted:If you use Excel regularly pivot tables take about an hour to teach yourself how to use them or about 15 minutes if someone will show you. It's easier to figure out than a lot of IF and similar formulas. Yeah that's kinda unreal how much more satisfying that can be. I feel like I should make a deeper observation but I'm really tired right now and I just think it's interesting.
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Mar 27, 2022 01:44
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Smik posted:Yeah that's kinda unreal how much more satisfying that can be. I feel like I should make a deeper observation but I'm really tired right now and I just think it's interesting. The free sandwiches and coffee weren't exactly a massive bonus but they really helped.
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Mar 27, 2022 02:13
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Smik posted:Yeah that's kinda unreal how much more satisfying that can be. I feel like I should make a deeper observation but I'm really tired right now and I just think it's interesting. I struggle with this one at times. I chalk it up to the difference between doing something tangible, as opposed to the intangible nature of a lot of IT work. Cooking, making coffee, things like that, there's a certain satisfaction in doing that task well. For me, if I build a hundred vm's perfectly, it's still an intangible thing to my brain and doesn't bring the same satisfaction as say, cooking a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. I dunno, I think I get the deeper observation you're going for, but I'm not doing well at putting it into words either.
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Mar 27, 2022 04:19
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pile of brown posted:My sous chef was giddy with joy when I let him know I'd changed his punch in code to 666 and also had it print HAIL SATAN every time he clocked in My department is responsible for issuing parking passes to several thousand employees. A few years back, we switched to a new style of sequentially numbered plastic passes that hang off the mirror. As soon as the order arrived, I scooped #00666 for myself. I'm a little disappointed that nobody else fought me for it.
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Mar 27, 2022 04:30
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My most fulfilling job was managing restaurants, the problem is it only pays half as much as spending half my time on zoom calls and half my time telling other people how to manage restaurants
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Mar 27, 2022 05:12
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I understand people not liking call centers, and the nature of the work being done definitely plays a role for me. Like, I hated anything close to collections calls. Doing phone surveys was great, though - the topics and where we calling changed depending on where we were calling, so it was only a few weeks at most of real repetition. And I used to love the really pissed-off people. "You're calling me at dinner! You are literally the devil!" Well, with a lot more profanity. My personal game was to apologize but never hang up. "I understand. I'm terribly sorry." Things along those lines while they worked themselves up further and further. It was glorious. Like, if you're mad that I called you why won't you hang up the phone? I'd just keep apologizing until they became incoherent and slammed the phone done, and my day would be improved.
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Mar 27, 2022 05:14
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CaptainSarcastic posted:My personal game was to apologize but never hang up. "I understand. I'm terribly sorry." Things along those lines while they worked themselves up further and further. It was glorious. Like, if you're mad that I called you why won't you hang up the phone? I'd just keep apologizing until they became incoherent and slammed the phone done, and my day would be improved. This might be a hot take, but have you considered that you aren’t a good person?
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Mar 27, 2022 05:28
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I had a part time job at a call center one summer and we were not allowed to hang up. I was real bad at it and I don't think I ever made a sale, and I started to get real depressed when I realized that the only people who would actually talk to me were either inebriated or were lonely elderly people
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Mar 27, 2022 06:12
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EoRaptor posted:This might be a hot take, but have you considered that you aren’t a good person? Yeah. Like my favorite thing to do during scam calls is to waste as much of their time as possible. Because they're criminals. But you're wasting regular people's time who don't want to talk to you like why?
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Mar 27, 2022 06:19
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xdice posted:there's a certain satisfaction in doing that task well. For me, if I build a hundred vm's perfectly, it's still an intangible thing to my brain and doesn't bring the same satisfaction as say, cooking a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. There is actually quite a lot of research on this, and it’s about the difference between intrinsic motivation (satisfaction/rewards derived from performing a task well) and extrinsic motivation (the external rewards for doing something). People are usually far more motivated to do something if they are intrinsically motivated, and no matter how much you pay someone or say it’ll help their career, most people would still rather do something they just find satisfying. A lot of corporate bullshit culture, values, “family” etc. is built around giving workers a sense of intrinsic motivation, pretty clearly so that you don’t need to provide so much extrinsic motivation, i.e. you can pay less
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Mar 27, 2022 07:41
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CaptainSarcastic posted:"You're calling me at dinner! You are literally the devil!" Well, with a lot more profanity. I’m amazed people haven’t figured out the one weird trick of not picking up your phone during dinner
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Mar 27, 2022 08:08
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champagne posting posted:I’m amazed people haven’t figured out the one weird trick of not picking up your phone during dinner I'm surprised I didn't pick my nose during dinner
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Mar 27, 2022 08:12
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champagne posting posted:I’m amazed people haven’t figured out the one weird trick of never picking up your phone
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Mar 27, 2022 08:13
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EoRaptor posted:This might be a hot take, but have you considered that you aren’t a good person? Meh, I was just trying to do my job - wasn't my fault if people wanted to freak out on me. It was pretty drat funny, though.
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Mar 27, 2022 08:13
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Volmarias posted:What's going to happen, she gets fired? You can't be fired if you're the only person in HR, there's no one else to do the paperwork. My last job did fire everyone in HR except one part-timer who was working only one day per week. She wasn't interested in going full-time because she was going to school and was about to graduate and get a job related to her degree. So when the company needed to hire some students to do some part-time work cheaply, the CEO had to deal with the HR paperwork because nobody else could do it. I'm sure that was a good use of his time. I left the company. So did the CEO apparently. We had six different CEOs in the 7 years I was there, so I'm excited to see who will take the job next.
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Mar 27, 2022 10:12
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CaptainSarcastic posted:My personal game was to apologize but never hang up. "I understand. I'm terribly sorry." Things along those lines while they worked themselves up further and further. It was glorious. Like, if you're mad that I called you why won't you hang up the phone? I'd just keep apologizing until they became incoherent and slammed the phone done, and my day would be improved. My personal game is to hold the phone up to my smoke detector and let it beep a few times before hanging up. Just because I don’t have anything louder and more obnoxious.
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Mar 27, 2022 10:37
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liz posted:Oh boy I had no clue this thread existed but I’m sure I’ll have lots to contribute soon! Collections is for the few, most of us can't do that kind of work, and that's a good thing. AP though. A couple of jobs ago I had a small project going with our network consultants; 2 hours to figure out how to do a highly specific thing, and 5 hours to document it so I could do it when it came up again. I got the two hour part, and then they stonewalled on the providing documentation part. I hadn't quite gotten ready to start yelling when our AP hands me a copy of an invoice. They'd billed us all 7 hours, close to $3k, while not answering phone calls. And AP just went and paid the loving invoice. Needless to say we never got that documentation. I forget which consultant group it was, I guess just assume any small ones in Oakland, CA are thieves or something.
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Mar 27, 2022 10:51
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Zopotantor posted:My personal game is to hold the phone up to my smoke detector and let it beep a few times before hanging up. Just because I don’t have anything louder and more obnoxious. Whisper a bit first. "I'm sorry sonny, my voice hasn't been any good since the operation. You'll have to turn your volume up. More.. more..." Then blow the whistle into the phone
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Mar 27, 2022 13:19
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Dongsturm posted:Whisper a bit first. "I'm sorry sonny, my voice hasn't been any good since the operation. You'll have to turn your volume up. More.. more..." Posts like this are always puzzling. Power fantasies about sticking it to the minimum wage service worker. Also just a fantasy because you've never actually blown a whistle or put the phone up to a smoke alarm. This is the dumb poo poo your work does thread, not dumb poo poo you imagine it would be cool to do to other workers.
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Mar 27, 2022 14:56
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I just don't answer the phone because caller ID is a thing for me since I'm not living in some kind of time hole where it's still 1988. Also legitimate question here: What do project managers even do?
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Mar 27, 2022 14:59
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Rent-A-Cop posted:I just don't answer the phone because caller ID is a thing for me since I'm not living in some kind of time hole where it's still 1988. Tell different and conflicting lies to the customer and the project team to maximize success and pipeline communication
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Mar 27, 2022 15:03
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Ideally they keep tabs on what multiple people or departments are working on for a common goal and make sure a struggling part gets the help required to not fall behind and waste the time of the other people or departments Bad ones just waste everyone's time directly
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Mar 27, 2022 15:05
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Dongsturm posted:Whisper a bit first. "I'm sorry sonny, my voice hasn't been any good since the operation. You'll have to turn your volume up. More.. more..." Yeah, dont be a shitweasel and intentionally try to permanently injure minimum wage workers.
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Mar 27, 2022 15:11
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Shugojin posted:Ideally they keep tabs on what multiple people or departments are working on for a common goal and make sure a struggling part gets the help required to not fall behind and waste the time of the other people or departments This. With any management job, you need to distinguish between what they're supposed to do/what the good ones do, and what the bad ones actually do. Good project managers are worth a lot but the bad ones can gently caress up a lot.
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Mar 27, 2022 15:12
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In my experience, project managers are there to avoid supervising GCs and also to act surprised if D&C or P&D hosed something up.
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Mar 27, 2022 15:38
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xdice posted:I struggle with this one at times. I chalk it up to the difference between doing something tangible, as opposed to the intangible nature of a lot of IT work. Cooking, making coffee, things like that, there's a certain satisfaction in doing that task well. For me, if I build a hundred vm's perfectly, it's still an intangible thing to my brain and doesn't bring the same satisfaction as say, cooking a perfect grilled cheese sandwich. If your job is to monitor track 3 of the cup making machine's output line for defects then where's the feedback? There isn't any. So it's very important that you get regular, direct, positive feedback on your work in other ways. And no a monthly pizza party in lieu of a wage increase with a generic "good job everybody" banner does not count.
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Mar 27, 2022 16:31
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NPR Journalizard posted:Yeah, dont be a shitweasel and intentionally try to permanently injure minimum wage workers. But do do this to scam callers obviously. Good project managers, like all managers, are there to do all the stupid bullshit that holds up project/work getting done so the actual workers can focus on doing the actual project/work. Bad project managers do the oposite of this.
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Mar 27, 2022 16:46
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Rent-A-Cop posted:I just don't answer the phone because caller ID is a thing for me since I'm not living in some kind of time hole where it's still 1988. Funny enough, despite having an S21+ and being on Verizon, never did get working caller ID from them or elsewhere. I get a location and that's about it. But I also don't really get called by scammers so I'll take that as good luck.
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Mar 27, 2022 16:47
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SkyeAuroline posted:Funny enough, despite having an S21+ and being on Verizon, never did get working caller ID from them or elsewhere. I get a location and that's about it.
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Mar 27, 2022 16:49
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Meh, I was just trying to do my job - wasn't my fault if people wanted to freak out on me. CaptainSarcastic posted:My personal game  Aramoro posted:Posts like this are always puzzling. Power fantasies about sticking it to the minimum wage service worker.. CaptainSarcastic posted:I understand people not liking call centers, and the nature of the work being done definitely plays a role for me. Like, I hated anything close to collections calls. Anyway everyone relax and listen to Lenny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgbhpgO_AbM&list=PLduL71_GKzHHk4hLga0nOGWrXlhl-i_3g&index=579
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Mar 27, 2022 17:19
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Rent-A-Cop posted:I just don't answer the phone because caller ID is a thing for me since I'm not living in some kind of time hole where it's still 1988. From my experience, things project managers do:
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Mar 27, 2022 17:21
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