A dollar a day
I have been at work for 6 months. Since starting, I haven’t had time to write up a description of what it’s like. I wrote something about having to go to the dole office after about 10 minutes, so it’s about time I recorded for posterity my time working for JD Williams.
Annoying. This one word sums up most accurately what it is like to work at JD William’s customer contact centre. Almost every aspect of my job as an inbound enquires advisor, is annoying. My hours, 12pm to 8pm, are annoying. They aren’t terrible, as I do get to lie in, and I am sent home early occasionally (not nearly occasionally enough, mind), and for the last two hours there is very little to do. This does mean that my free time is shifted to the beginning of the day. If I oversleep I lose it, and when I do get it, it’s wasted. Usually watching The Wright Stuff, Homes Under the Hammer, or some other bit of daytime dross. Mornings are when I’m at my worst to boot, so I’m usually on the bus before I’ve remembered that there is some decent telly on the BBC’s iplayer, or I have to send an important email, and that I have loads of other shit to sort out. It’s annoying.
The offices are tacked onto the side of the MEN arena, formally housing a mulitplex cinema. This is quite evident in the layout of the building, which is retarded. My department is located on what is colloquially know as “the mezz”, being a mezzanine floor slotted into a large open space which is open at both ends to the full height of the building, a space big enough to fit several cinema screens inside. It’s like an office in an aircraft hanger. Why this building was chosen above others, baffles me. I know a lot of our telephony is outsourced as it is, so why site a call centre in the middle of town, in a disused cinema, next to the MEN arena? It’s annoying.
The job itself is actually not too bad. I do get to sit down all day, and it’s warm, and the work is very easy. It’s only hard about 10% of the time, if hard is the correct term. It’s not hard in the same way quadratic equations, or running towards enemy gun emplacements over barbed wire through a minefield would be considered hard. When it is hard it’s essentially telling someone something they don’t want to hear, which as quite a passive person was difficult at first, but is now less so. It is hard trying to explain why someone else fucked up for the Nth time to someone who won’t stop screaming at you to listen, or to try and decipher some crone’s bleating into useable information, although these calls are quite rare. Most of the time it’s the same undemanding, effortless and morose shit over and over and over again, usually about 120 times a day. Which is why I’m paid to do it I suppose. A side effect of this is that I have lost my faith in humanity as a species. It disappeared about the same time someone asks you why they made a specific decision, or why a mail order company would need your post code. It’s annoying.
My colleagues are nice. Most people are younger than me, quite a few college dropouts, the rest are slightly older than me, or bored old people waiting for retirement. The 18 and 19 year olds seem to work really hard at this mediocre crap, which is quite depressing when you think what they could otherwise be achieving. A lot of cosmetic surgery, cars and tattoos are being saved for with the money doled out to us each week. I don’t know what to say when I’m excitedly told this. If it wasn’t for Si working in the same place I’d feel lost. It’s annoying.
It is annoying and boring and I know I should STOP MOANING AND LOOK FOR ANOTHER JOB, and I am. I know working here will be quickly forgotten when I find something more suitable, I’m just spending more time doing it that I first imagined. When I finished university my plan was; Move home, Work Off Overdraft, Save Some Money. I’ve done all that and I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to do next.
Answers on postcard, please?
Annoying. This one word sums up most accurately what it is like to work at JD William’s customer contact centre. Almost every aspect of my job as an inbound enquires advisor, is annoying. My hours, 12pm to 8pm, are annoying. They aren’t terrible, as I do get to lie in, and I am sent home early occasionally (not nearly occasionally enough, mind), and for the last two hours there is very little to do. This does mean that my free time is shifted to the beginning of the day. If I oversleep I lose it, and when I do get it, it’s wasted. Usually watching The Wright Stuff, Homes Under the Hammer, or some other bit of daytime dross. Mornings are when I’m at my worst to boot, so I’m usually on the bus before I’ve remembered that there is some decent telly on the BBC’s iplayer, or I have to send an important email, and that I have loads of other shit to sort out. It’s annoying.
The offices are tacked onto the side of the MEN arena, formally housing a mulitplex cinema. This is quite evident in the layout of the building, which is retarded. My department is located on what is colloquially know as “the mezz”, being a mezzanine floor slotted into a large open space which is open at both ends to the full height of the building, a space big enough to fit several cinema screens inside. It’s like an office in an aircraft hanger. Why this building was chosen above others, baffles me. I know a lot of our telephony is outsourced as it is, so why site a call centre in the middle of town, in a disused cinema, next to the MEN arena? It’s annoying.
The job itself is actually not too bad. I do get to sit down all day, and it’s warm, and the work is very easy. It’s only hard about 10% of the time, if hard is the correct term. It’s not hard in the same way quadratic equations, or running towards enemy gun emplacements over barbed wire through a minefield would be considered hard. When it is hard it’s essentially telling someone something they don’t want to hear, which as quite a passive person was difficult at first, but is now less so. It is hard trying to explain why someone else fucked up for the Nth time to someone who won’t stop screaming at you to listen, or to try and decipher some crone’s bleating into useable information, although these calls are quite rare. Most of the time it’s the same undemanding, effortless and morose shit over and over and over again, usually about 120 times a day. Which is why I’m paid to do it I suppose. A side effect of this is that I have lost my faith in humanity as a species. It disappeared about the same time someone asks you why they made a specific decision, or why a mail order company would need your post code. It’s annoying.
My colleagues are nice. Most people are younger than me, quite a few college dropouts, the rest are slightly older than me, or bored old people waiting for retirement. The 18 and 19 year olds seem to work really hard at this mediocre crap, which is quite depressing when you think what they could otherwise be achieving. A lot of cosmetic surgery, cars and tattoos are being saved for with the money doled out to us each week. I don’t know what to say when I’m excitedly told this. If it wasn’t for Si working in the same place I’d feel lost. It’s annoying.
It is annoying and boring and I know I should STOP MOANING AND LOOK FOR ANOTHER JOB, and I am. I know working here will be quickly forgotten when I find something more suitable, I’m just spending more time doing it that I first imagined. When I finished university my plan was; Move home, Work Off Overdraft, Save Some Money. I’ve done all that and I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to do next.
Answers on postcard, please?