Last week I reluctantly signed up for a temporary customer service position.
Before you send off a nasty email to me, yes, I have been unemployed for a LONG time and yes, I am grateful to have finally found a position although it is temporary.
The conditions for this work-at-home position included that I physically leave my home and go for training.
Ugh. Leave my home? I have rarely done that in the last few years except the occasional supermarket run or doctor's appointments.
This means I have to wear real clothes? Not tank tops, pajama bottoms or whatever suits the mood I am in?
Oh and I guess I have to shower and look presentable?
Wow. All that for a paycheck?
(yes, I am kidding) (kind of)
I agreed to go for two days of 8 hours each day for training. I would be treated like a temporary employee and have to follow the "rules". I felt like a contestant on a reality game show.
Being that my husband is employed by this company and he basically got me through the door, I had to be on my best behavior. Nothing like pressure.
I showered. I even washed my hair and put makeup on. I wore my best jeans. I showed up on time (well- pretty much on time, give or take a minute)
I bit my tongue when I got reprimanded for returning from a 10 minute break ONE minute late. I just smiled and nodded.
Physically the first day was a challenge for me. Although the office chair was comfortable, with my back condition sitting is rough. I do better when I am free to walk around. Not at this job.
It is a customer service position and although I have had no trouble communicating with people online, talking on the phone to a live person is a stretch. No time to feel cranky from being in pain and although in my mind I wanted to tell some customers that they were asking stupid questions, I had to hold back.
I have a customer service background so this wasn't new to me. It has just been a LONG time.
Personally, I order from websites all the time. I probably shop online more than going into a store. I just don't like dealing with people sometimes.
Don't get me wrong; I love people. I just don't love STUPID people.
This job is a call center operator. The websites are very good compared to a lot. Everything is spelled out. Any question you might have is answered yet people pick up the phone and call and ask for answers that are right in front of their faces.
Really? Can You not read? No, I bit my tongue. You must be nice to the customer. Direct them to the answers that are right in front of their faces if they bother to look.
I hate to sound like a teenager who just got their first job but having to ask permission to go to the bathroom is just not for me. I get why you cannot have food at your station - people can be pigs. A half an hour for lunch is really not much of a break and ten minutes, well, by the time you walk to the bathroom you already used up 2 minutes. Smoke a cigarette and you used up 5 more. Not much of a break.
I cannot imagine doing this 40 hours a week. No wonder people have road rage during rush hour. No wonder they CALL it rush hour. I know that I did above the speed limit desperately wanting to get home ASAP!!!!
I am holding back from sharing my return to the work world with my teenager who next year will be old enough to get her first job.
She will find out soon enough how awful some jobs can be.
The truth is that for a teenager, paying your dues working a job where there are strict rules for behavior isn't tragic for a teenager. It motivates you to get an education so you can move up the ladder.
For someone my age, re-entering the work world after 3 years of self-employment ventures has been a rude awakening.
I will work at home doing customer service rep but in my free time I will be working my ASS off making self-employment my reality.
It beats having to ask permission to use the bathroom.
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