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pmsumner at 12:18am on 09/10/2003
pmsumner at 12:18am on 09/10/2003No real reaon for it. Well, I guess that's not accurate. I've got about 25-30hrs of overtime in this month, in preparation for the big move. I'm trying to do as much as possible, without killing myself. Mon and Tues I did 9-9 days, which wasn't hard really, but work's been pissing me off again. Reasons explained later.
Tonight has been my night, the first time I've been able to sit, read, relax and not worry about having to do anything for a while. I have nothing left to do (housing-wise) until the end of October now, when it all kicks off (various people demanding a month's notice and having to do change of addresses and things). Tomorrow Jane arrives late-morning or early-afternoon, my parents want to do something for my burfday, so it looks like Jane will be meeting the parents. Scary biscuits. I see no reason they shouldn't like 'er. Probably :)
I've been considering money matters tonight. I'm trying to figure out how I am going to manage having to wait to get my deposit back from the current agency, before moving into the new place and having to pay them a deposit. I don't think it's gonna be possible, so I may have to ask the parents for a loan until I get this deposit back, and I'll give that to 'em.
Yes I am thinking out loud, but you know it's the only way to solve certain things when they've been floating in your head for so long.
I got pizza again tonight. I am so bad, I've spent so much money on eating out over the last week. I just haven't been in a cookie mood. On a plus point - Domino's veggie pizza is fantastic. On a minus-note, I think I am going to have to start ordering by phone, their stores are really crap for going to pick up from.
Page 408 of HPatOOtP - it's pretty good so far. I'm beginning to think that I may have not read the Goblet of Fire like I thought I had, as there are some bits about "the past" that I don't seem to be able to make sense of. Ach well, at least if I read it now, it'll all fall into place ;) Some people said that they thought Harry was too 'angsty' in this book - I think it suits him quite well. And besides - I was like that when I was his age and I hadn't been through half of what he has *G*
That really is all. I'm excited about the 'weekend', it's proving to be an interesting one already and I don't have a clue yet. I get the impression that I'm going to have to do something really big on Jane's Day (It's not Valentine's Day, it's just a coincidink that it happens to come on the same day as Jane's Day) to equal this!
Update: I said I'd explain why work's pissing me (and others) off
When I started in TDMS we were doing Cust Serv overflow - i.e. if CS got busy we would take some of their longest waiting calls. Fine, we all accepted that as a necessary evil. Pain in the arse, but needed. Then about 2 weeks ago they changed that. They agreed with us, that 2 or 3 folk from every team would do a week's worth of CS calls only, then 3 weeks on TDMS calls only. This meant that when you came in to work you knew what you were doing, and could concentrate your efforts in a particular direction. This is good, and accepted by all.
On Monday we came into work and started to notice CS calls filtering through. Odd, thought we. Thought it was just a routing problem until everyone started to get more CS than TDMS calls through. Nobody had bothered to tell us, but apparently Peter Scott (head of Cust Serv for T-Mobile) has decreed that CS service level (80% of calls in 30 seconds) isn't being hit enough, so wants to rope TDMS in again to taking their overflow.
What he doesn't seem to acknowledge though, is that TDMS have hit their SL only 3 days out of the last 30. And why is this? Because TDMS agents are taking CS calls. And what are they doing? They're routing some of the TDMS calls to selected CS agents! ARGH! What? So we take their calls, they take our calls... *gets dizzy*
Tonight has been my night, the first time I've been able to sit, read, relax and not worry about having to do anything for a while. I have nothing left to do (housing-wise) until the end of October now, when it all kicks off (various people demanding a month's notice and having to do change of addresses and things). Tomorrow Jane arrives late-morning or early-afternoon, my parents want to do something for my burfday, so it looks like Jane will be meeting the parents. Scary biscuits. I see no reason they shouldn't like 'er. Probably :)
I've been considering money matters tonight. I'm trying to figure out how I am going to manage having to wait to get my deposit back from the current agency, before moving into the new place and having to pay them a deposit. I don't think it's gonna be possible, so I may have to ask the parents for a loan until I get this deposit back, and I'll give that to 'em.
Yes I am thinking out loud, but you know it's the only way to solve certain things when they've been floating in your head for so long.
I got pizza again tonight. I am so bad, I've spent so much money on eating out over the last week. I just haven't been in a cookie mood. On a plus point - Domino's veggie pizza is fantastic. On a minus-note, I think I am going to have to start ordering by phone, their stores are really crap for going to pick up from.
Page 408 of HPatOOtP - it's pretty good so far. I'm beginning to think that I may have not read the Goblet of Fire like I thought I had, as there are some bits about "the past" that I don't seem to be able to make sense of. Ach well, at least if I read it now, it'll all fall into place ;) Some people said that they thought Harry was too 'angsty' in this book - I think it suits him quite well. And besides - I was like that when I was his age and I hadn't been through half of what he has *G*
That really is all. I'm excited about the 'weekend', it's proving to be an interesting one already and I don't have a clue yet. I get the impression that I'm going to have to do something really big on Jane's Day (It's not Valentine's Day, it's just a coincidink that it happens to come on the same day as Jane's Day) to equal this!
Update: I said I'd explain why work's pissing me (and others) off
When I started in TDMS we were doing Cust Serv overflow - i.e. if CS got busy we would take some of their longest waiting calls. Fine, we all accepted that as a necessary evil. Pain in the arse, but needed. Then about 2 weeks ago they changed that. They agreed with us, that 2 or 3 folk from every team would do a week's worth of CS calls only, then 3 weeks on TDMS calls only. This meant that when you came in to work you knew what you were doing, and could concentrate your efforts in a particular direction. This is good, and accepted by all.
On Monday we came into work and started to notice CS calls filtering through. Odd, thought we. Thought it was just a routing problem until everyone started to get more CS than TDMS calls through. Nobody had bothered to tell us, but apparently Peter Scott (head of Cust Serv for T-Mobile) has decreed that CS service level (80% of calls in 30 seconds) isn't being hit enough, so wants to rope TDMS in again to taking their overflow.
What he doesn't seem to acknowledge though, is that TDMS have hit their SL only 3 days out of the last 30. And why is this? Because TDMS agents are taking CS calls. And what are they doing? They're routing some of the TDMS calls to selected CS agents! ARGH! What? So we take their calls, they take our calls... *gets dizzy*
awake
Ah, joy... Helpdesk call routing.
Some managers suffer from what I call "Anal Passage Induced Reasoning Deficiency" (APIRD). In layman's terms, the fact that their head's jammed fast up their own arse stops them from seeing reason or thinking straight. The first effect has an obvious cause, the second effect is probably due to a lack of oxygen, as the blood cannot flow so easily when someone is in this position.
These managers will proceed to do the craziest things to meet business requirements. You've already experienced the Reassignment Roundabout, which is a truly bizarre management practice that apparently involves confusing the employees, in the hope that they're merely being lazy. Management evidently feels that if they can confuse you enough that you will forget to be lazy, they can boost productivity.
Be glad you don't get the Callback Cockup - the sure sign of a bad time. That's when, due to overwhelming call volumes, they decide to simply answer the phones, take details, and promise a callback. The manager reasons that you must be failing your SLA's because of busy periods - 9AM, 11AM, 3AM usually - and that if they take details, they meet the SLA. You can then call them back at your leisure.
A fine theory, were it not for the overlooked reality that you don't have the staff to handle the normal call volume, let alone the peaks. That is of course why, at the peaks, the queues go from ten minutes waiting time to half an hour or longer. But the callback stack grows, and you're expected to find time to call them within the day. And manage any callbacks on outstanding calls you have. And take more new calls.
But apparently, saying that you can call them back makes it so. Such is the understanding of space and time for the manager suffering from APIRD.
There have been times in my career when I have truly felt that Dilbert has it easy. You are evidently experiencing the same thing, and I offer you my condolences. :-)
Re: Ah, joy... Helpdesk call routing.
Well, we haven't quite gone as far as the callback cockup yet - we don't promise call backs for that kind of thing. Though this continually amazes me; as we have 5 centres round the country, if we have system downtime, we're expected to ask customers to call back in a one hour slot depending where in the country we are. Hmm, nice theory to try and avoid call spikes - but seriously when has a customer EVER called back when requested?
I like the theory on laziness, and I believe this is the true answer, considering nobody in the business can see our stats right now - the monitoring software sees every agent logged in as being on an inbound call 100% of the day ;) Maybe this is their ploy to try and make us forget this!
Oh, and our busy periods are becoming incresingly less and less over the past week - whether is is because Resource are actually forecasting call volumes correctly or not, I don't know though I would doubt it. I think our customers are fed up of listening to Royksopp ;)
Re: Ah, joy... Helpdesk call routing.
And the T-Mobile hold music is truly atrocious. I was stuck listening to it for prolonged periods of time when I was trying to get in touch over my failed DD and your systems were down for about two days. Ho hum.
Re: Ah, joy... Helpdesk call routing.
Re: Ah, joy... Helpdesk call routing.
That's just whacky. I've only ever seen that happen on one helpdesk, and that was because it was a premium rate number. You had to get it doen within fifteen minutes, so if you needed to do research, you gave yourself a suitable time period (half an hour, an hour) and asked them to call back then.
And I thought that was cheeky enough, given that they were being charged for it. ;-)
Laziness is the main concern of management. They know that everybody else is lazy - because they themselves are. Only by continuosly trying to prove that others are lazy can they salve their filthy consciences. ;-)
Hold music is something we'd have loved at ICL though. I suggested that we put the chorus of Ozzy Osbournes' "I Don't Know" on repeat, until they took the hint. Or maybe Led Zep's "Communication Breakdown", so that they expect those magical words 'The line's going faint, sir...'. Instead, out customers had stony silence, puctuated by a message informing them that they were waiting in a queue. Like they couldn't have figure that out anyway...
For this suggestion, I was branded "not a team player".
Not a team player, indeed! If I wasn't a team player I'd have suggested "Go To Hell" by Megadeth, or "Get The Fuck Out" by Skid Row. As sung by the entire helpdesk team, after a rollicking booze up. Just so that the customers understand how we feel about them. :-)
Re: Ah, joy... Helpdesk call routing.
We ask them to call back, simply because we are free, we don't charge for Cust Serv calls...
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TDMS = Technical, Data and Multimedia Services
We're second line support, essentially. We have a few more tools to aid diagnosis of problems.