| View Blog
|
|
|
|
Work is getting out of hand. It's now a dirty four-letter word. 
They give us bad campaigns and a lot of pressure to make sales. There was actually a period when my team manager went around with a red marker and put big slash signs on the foreheads of those who had no sale yet. Then he called out our names for the whole floor to hear.
The atmospehere was so tense that I actually felt the need to use the cigarette break as a cigarette break when mostly I just use it to go to the ladies'. After the break, I immediately had a sale- thank the Lord God Almighty!!! I'm sorry for breaking my resolve not to smoke unless it's on social occassions when somebody offers one and it's rude to turn it down. I just really, really needed it. I felt like I was going to blow up or something.
Then I had another sale. This was the part where things got really ugly. I've always wanted to make good, quality sales and leave the customer happier than when I found him. That has always been my core belief, even when my TM has repeatedly assessed me as being "able" but "too nice" and that I had to be more "assumptive".
The thing is, I told the customer I could try to call him back if needs to think about it some more but he said no, he wants to do it now. Okay, that was great so I put a lot of effort into it and went over the options that he had because he was very interested. We went back and forth on a lot of things and I had to verify his identity because he couldn't remember his security information. And then when I was giving him the breakdown of the order, he suddenly had hesitations! I couldn't blame him, because taxes in his state are astronomical. But I was already on overtime and I wasn't about to let go that easily. One of the guys on the team, a "tech wizard" heard my strugglings and he told me to say zero dollars for the fees, including tax! He then did something on the computer and lo and behold, the customer didn't have to pay the extra charges. It was zero for everything except the plan!!!
I should have spoken up at that point but I was just so caught up in the moment. I hadn't had lunch, I've been talking to this customer for over an hour, and a couple of other guys on the team were suggesting these things. It was amazing at the time. Almost like magic.
Yeah, and we'll be magically out of jobs tomorrow.
One of the guys who "helped", Chad, keeps sending me text messages that I shouldn't worry about it, thinks he did a good job covering for me... but I suspect he just has a crush on me 'coz he also wants to go out this weekend.
The other guys were just laughing it off 'coz they've apparently done it thousands of times and they haven't gotten caught but I'm bad at these things. The quality coach has already chewed my head off for unintentional errors, I don't even want to imagine his face when he hears this!
I told my TM about it and he just grinned and asked if Mark did his techie thing. Oh great, the TM is in awe of Mark. I'm in awe of him too but at that moment I felt like strangling him because it was my ass on the line.
Afterwards, I bumped into R when I was getting my stuff out and I just blurted out the whole thing (Well, after he told me I had a mark on my forehead).
Unsurprisingly, he just grinned and said my team would back me up- "hopefully".
He said that last word under his breath and I was so surprised that I replied with "putang ina nman" (it's a curse in Filipino, with Spanish origins).
This time, I caught him by surprise. He repeated the words, laughing like he couldn't believe he'd heard it from me.
People are always surprised by me. Sometimes, I surprise myself, too.
Anyways, for lunch we all shared the same table again and one of the guys on R's team asked about me (my friend told me later). It was nice but I wanted it to be Rai. I don't know why I keep liking guys who don't seem to have the same feelings. This is why I'm single and obsessing about my job.
|
|
Posted by nichan on 2008-03-12 04:13:14 | Rating: | Views: 57
|
|
| |
|
|
| Blog Comments
|
|
|
|
|
Your boss drew on people's foreheads with a marker? Wow. Talk about treating your employees like objects.
|
|
Posted by hairytoad2005
on 2008-03-12 05:53:57
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, it gets that crazy on the floor.. He's actually one of the nicest team managers, I see others who are a lot worse. So I guess I'm lucky..
|
|
Posted by nichan
on 2008-03-13 07:15:03
|
|
|
|
|
|
Email This to a Friend 
