Category: Life

I wore a black long sleeve shirt today. A shirt I’ve bought for a very long time but never really got to wear it. When you are stressed, you want to wear something new to create some kind of new energy. I like the way I look today.

Started the morning by helping a new colleague to set up her printer, installing systems for her, creating shortcuts for her.

Answered some calls before I read this email below:

I’ve never seen a complaint as such. You can feel that she’s very frustrated but you can’t help to feel that her letter comes with a sense of humour too. She practically wrote down every step in detail that she had to go through, which was really good I would say. At least, it shows other people who are not aware of what’s really going on on what’s really happening.

The task was assigned to us to call this customer. No one did so I challenged myself to give her a call. You must do one thing that fears you everyday. I imagined to myself that it’s not going to be easy because after reading that email, you know how mad a customer can be.

She sounded okay. I asked her what problems she was facing but she told me she has managed to do it online. That was nice to hear from her and she didn’t speak much after that and so I didn’t want to remind her of her pain to ask her what actually happened.

I’m starting to believe that others think my stomach is made of steel. I was made to answer calls alone again during lunch while the others went to have a lunch meeting, except for me because I don’t belong to this team anymore soon. So, the manager offered to “ta pau” for me while they have their meeting.

The office was so quiet and at the corner of the office where I sit, I was alone. I felt like I’m in charge of the whole place. What being a 15 minutes meeting turned out to be slightly more than an hour. Mr.Boss must have felt bad to leave me alone, answering calls with a hungry tummy, he came out from the meeting room and pass me a box of pizza, with 3 slices of leftover pizza. It wasn’t really leftovers but I just felt so because it was cold and yeah, it looked like leftovers lor.

“Grace, don’t bother about the calls. Go eat first.”

I went to the pantry to eat alone. It was 2pm. Well, I wasn’t alone. The office cleaner was there with me. While I was eating, those who attended the lunch meeting came to the pantry to get some water and they sort of pitied me. So, they asked whether I’m very hungry. Some just said, I’m sure you are very hungry. And what do you expect me to say? Smile and say “Ya, I’m really hungry.”

When I finished the pizzas, the office cleaner asked whether I really finished all three slices. I said yes.

She was amazed. She came over to rub my tummy.

Funny lady.

Then, Mr.Boss broke the news to me that even though officially I should be in the new team but I can’t go yet but to stay in this current team to help them out since many of them are still new. That wasn’t good news to me. So much for the lunch meeting for the current team and yet I don’t get to join in and now I can’t go into the new team yet and would still be stuck in the current team. Entahlah apa nak cakap.

The only positive way I could look at it is “I’m important. They still need me here.”

Later in the afternoon, I had to train somebody new again. She’s an ex-secretary and she’s the very polite and graceful kind of lady. While I was teaching her half way, she said, “Grace, you are very good.”

I paused and gave her a smile.

“Grace, are you going to join the other team?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Oh!” She pouted her lips.

“Can I still ask you if I have questions when you have joined the new team?”

“Yes, you can.”

She smiled again.

My comfort drink today during dinner to make myself feel good again was Teh Ais.

When I am stressed, I use more money. Like today itself, I had lunch alone. Fish and Chips. Since I had a little time to spare, I went to the bookstore and bought the book I was talking about yesterday.

I came back, had dinner and I still feel like having something else. I got myself two slices of cake. Marble Cheese and Moist Chocolate Cake. One for tonight. One for tomorrow’s breakfast. Then, I went to buy ice cream from the petrol station while at the same time, feeling what it’s like to pump petrol at an increased price. My previous full tank is not a full tank now.

I feel so good spending today. It’s like de-stressing. Rewarding myself at the end of a tiring day.

I think I answered the highest number of call in my entire working life today. 8 more calls to go to make it 100 calls today. I’m sure I would get that number if I don’t go out for lunch. The calls today wasn’t that problematic as yesterday so every call came and went. Of course, you still couldn’t run away with some of the usual problems. Yesterday, I only managed 37 calls. Pathetic.

“Grace, I’m so lucky to get you today.”

I laughed.

“Who’s this?”

“Joanne.”

She told me what she wanted and then we chatted a little.

“Grace, how long have you been working here?”

“One year. Almost a year.”

“Is this your first job?” I like it when people ask me this because it means I sound young on the phone. Woohoo!

“Yes.”

“Then, you are very young. Graduated from uni and this is your first job.”

“Grace, you answer calls only, is it?”

“Yes, from morning till evening.”

“How is it like?”

“Sometimes when I go home, I don’t feel like talking anymore. Because I’ve been talking for the whole day. It’s okay if I talk to people like you, Joanne, but if I talk to difficult people, it’s tough.”

“Hmm..ya, those that scold you, right?”

Grace nods her head.

“Furthermore, I’m not really doing what I’ve studied.”

“What did you study?”

“IT.”

“Hmm…I think it’s still ok because it’s still a little related to IT. Look at how you just guided me to use the system.”

“Grace, is our phone conversation recorded?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

I really don’t know. Record or not, I still need to just be myself. When you always imagine that someone’s always listening, watching your every step, it’s rather pressuring. So I figured just let it be, as long as I think I’m doing the right thing then it’s fine.

The receptionist came over and told me some Arabic guy came to look for me when I was out for lunch. I knew straightaway who he was. The same guy who called me up three times, asking me the same question and I gave him the same answer, three times. He then gave me a surprise appearance in the office. I was thrown to meet him with nothing else that I could think of to tell him.

So, when I knew he came again today. I went, “Oh please, no!”

The receptionist told me that he’s coming back either tomorrow or day after to look for me again. Oh God, why can’t he just ask someone else instead when he had already come all the way to the office for help.

The receptionist then added, “Grace, saya tak faham apa dia cakap lah. Tak tahu apa dia nak.”

“Ya, saya pun tak tahu apa dia nak.”

Sometimes it makes you wonder why you don’t get to meet people you love talking to on the phone but always getting the ones you avoid meeting the most.

What does it mean when you get bird shits all over your car windows? I discovered one bird shit on my left front car window yesterday. This morning, there were two. One on the driver’s window, one on the rear window. While I was driving out to have dinner just now, another came falling down and landed on my front window. Wonderful, ain’t it? Shit all over.

I was telling my colleague while I was driving her home today that the shit that we get in the office wasn’t enough that the bird decided to give me more of it.

She couldn’t stop laughing. It feels good to make someone else laugh.

When times are tough, do you quickly answer a call and get on to the next or spend a little bit more time, educating the customers, guiding them?

Calls today are problematic. First call I received wasn’t a pleasant one. I apologised to her many a times then allowed her to express her dissatisfaction. After that, I charged towards someone who might be able to help me. The customer called back several times again and I’m always very lucky to get her call. I could only tell her to be patient and wait a little longer. I gave her a last call at 5 as promised, whether or not she will get what she requested. I told her I was sorry but I could only get it for her tomorrow morning. To my surprise, she told me she’s got it already. I was shocked. I then refreshed the screen that I was looking and yes, it’s done! At least, that’s one case down.

Another customer faxed something over but there were things that wasn’t allowed to be done. I could choose not to even bother about it because it was a faxed copy lying on the fax machine, waiting for someone to pick it up. But I decided to give him a call instead because I figured he had to put up with some nonsense with us in the past so maybe it’s time I do something to make him feel better. I felt happy after I made that call. He was listening to what I was trying to tell him. He understood the whole thing. I even guided him to do everything online and he was patient enough to let me guide him and now he knows how to do it already and it’s simply amazing.

I received another call from East Malaysia. It’s like receiving a call from home. He was also desparate in getting help that he comes directly to us. It isn’t really correct way to do it that way because he should liase with his agent instead of coming to us but knowing that he called all the way just to get us, it would make me feel bad not to help him at all. He spoke in English at first but you could just sense that he wasn’t really very comfortable conversing that way. He asked whether I am able to speak Mandarin and he sounded so relieved and happy after that.

Really, I didn’t know where the energy I had came from today.

I’m having lunch alone again and again I’m the only person answering calls during lunch. After lunch, I had half an hour more to spare and I’ve been killing time at the bookstore. A time just to be quiet and not talk at all.

I think I want to buy Yvonne Lee’s “The Sky is Crazy“.

An ex-colleague called me up yesterday. He wanted to meet up to talk and have dinner. I agreed to it, without even thinking. This guy, he used to be in the same department as me. He wasn’t happy with his job, he left in style. He didn’t even resign. He just left. He just walked out all of the whole thing.

I didn’t see him after that until now. So, I don’t really know how to describe it but it was interesting to talk to him again.

It’s good to know that you are still remembered.

I’m going to tell you a very long story.

I felt more burnt out today. At 9:23am, I didn’t know whether I would be able to survive throughout the day because I’ve been talking to a customer who doesn’t seem to be listening to what I’m saying and we ended up arguing. Not the screaming kind but I was trying to talk some sense to her.

It went on and on. It wasn’t solved yet till the end of the day. I was being treated like a fool too because I didn’t know how to solve it so I went round asking. Different people are giving me different answers which resulted in me calling up the customer and telling them different things each time. I hated that, really.

People like me would find it hard to survive in a customer service environment when the customers are the very aggressive kind. I would always want to help someone but when people know you are nice, they step all over you, which is why I think you need someone who is not afraid to be firm and not nice to get the message across.

A colleague of mine shares certain characteristics like mine. She’s very kind-hearted and would try to help the customers in all possible way that she could, which at times would really get you into unwanted trouble. So, another colleague of hers couldn’t stand seeing her being taken advantage by the customer, she advised her to just be firm but it sounded quite harsh because I felt the pressure. I was there too when they were talking.

I felt bad for her for a while there because I know it’s not her fault when all she is trying to do is help. But I also understand why her colleague is advising her to not be too nice.

After that, she came over to my desk and told me her story. I listened and she paused. I could see tears about to roll down her cheeks but she didn’t cry. She just swallowed everything back again. I put my hands on her shoulders while we were walking to my desk again in the afternoon to tell her indirectly that it’s okay and I’m here to listen.

Remember the guy who asked me what to do if the buyer doesn’t pay him? He called me three times yesterday and I’ve been telling him the same thing that I didn’t know what else to tell him if he were to call today.

He gave me a surprise by appearing in the office and he was specifically looking for me. The receptionist came to me with his name card and upon reading the name on the card, I almost fainted. He’s a General Manager of his company. Oh my God!

I panicked a little. So, I told Mr.Boss that there’s this customer outside waiting for me but I just don’t know what to tell him and answer his questions. I was hoping to get some guidance from Mr.Boss so that I would be able to handle the customer. But he offered to meet him instead. I asked whether I would need to come along because the customer hasn’t meet me yet and I thought it would be courtesy to just show up since he wanted to look for me in the first place.

Mr.Boss then hesitated and thought that the right person to talk to the customer would be the Customer Service Manager. So, I went to talk to her but instead of offering herself to talk to the customer, she was telling me exactly what I should tell. So, that left me with no choice but to talk to this guy all by myself. Do or die.

I went out and greeted him. He told me the exact story he told yesterday and I told him the exact same answer I told him yesterday. He wanted more so I told him I’ll check while he waits. Hopped back into the office and asked my colleagues but they couldn’t give me a definite answer just then because we would need to contact the office in South Africa to get more details. So, I went out again to tell him that it’s better that he writes to us so that we can follow up from there. I felt bad for not being able to help him there and then.

He asked for my name card and I gave him mine. That was scary. Talking to someone when you don’t know exactly how it should work. I wasn’t confident at all when I was talking to him but I tried not to show it.

So, yeah, I can expect him to continue bugging me in his thick accent. I need to talk to people like that more often to build up my courage. If given a second time, I think I would be able to handle it better.

Next story.

Two customers were surprised when I told them I’m a Chinese because they thought I’m a Malay.

Another customer asked whether I’m new here. I told her it’s going to be a year.

“You are still new. That’s why you are so soft and nice. If you work longer, you won’t sound like that anymore.”

“Ha! But I don’t want to become like that.” I told her. She then laughed by herself.

She’s the easy-going type of person. She speaks like she’s always happy and each time after she says something, she would laugh. It’s uplifting to just hear her laugh.

More new staff are answering calls which meant more questions for me. It can be that I’m answering the call on one line and then comes a person in front of me asking you question and then someone on your right, asking another question at the same time. Which do you answer? I had to multi-answer at the same time. Tell customer a bit while I put them on hold and check. Answer the one in front of me quickly to get her kill the call. Answered the phone again telling the customer a bit of what I’ve found and then answering the one on my right so that he can get his invoice printed.

It was like working in Bursa Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Very busy.

After working hours, another person still came to me with one question so I helped her, while looking frantically at my watch. I had to leave the office as soon as possible for my phone interview. Luckily, I was just in time to order a can of soya bean while I took out my resume and details of the company, a pen and waited for the most important call of the day.

Two people interviewed me. The HR person and the immediate supervisor. It was only 20 minutes long. But I found it interesting, it being my first phone interview and that they sounded like really nice people. They asked me what kind of job I’m looking for. I told the them the truth which isn’t exactly 100% matching the position I’m applying now but indicated that I’m open to try other IT job opportunities.

The question that I felt most comfortable answering was, “How do you feel about your current job?”

“I used to enjoy my current job but it’s starting to get a little routine now and I don’t derive job satisfaction from it lately so I want more challenges.”

Now, let’s just see whether I will pass the screening test. If yes, then I’m going to the next screening level. The real interview by a person of a higher position.

Drove home and while I was sending my colleague home (I happen to meet her while I was coming down using the lift after the interview), we heard that the hitz.fm crews were somewhere near where we were. My colleague sounded so excited and so I drove us there to meet the crews for some goodies.

I got myself an F &N drink, a Biotherm moisturiser sample, Dentyne, a pocket calendar, a car sticker, a Fort Minor poster, tickets to watch the Fifa World Cup Trophy Tour. Not in Germany, babe, but the World Cup is touring the world and you get a chance to see the real world cup. The cup itself only at Berjaya Times Square.

Came back home and had to answer more calls. Mr.Boyfriend called. Mummy called. Pappy called. My parents are more excited than I am about the phone interview.

Good night!