Category: Work

Questions and Answers
Aside from the questions that I get on the phone, I get it from a few more others now. Sometimes I don’t know where I get my patience from when the same people would ask me the same question over and over again. I don’t know whether they are not putting any effort into remembering things or it’s just too hard to remember what to do. I guess tomorrow I would be seeing the same face again, asking me the same question. And again, I would have to answer
with unlimited patience.

The Guy
Remember that someone who wrote me a very annoying email which I replied nicely? He called me on my direct line today.

“I’m Mr.N.”

“Hello, Mr.N.”

“Do you know me?”

“Oh, you’re the one from xxx department.”

“Oh, so you know me?” He sounded like he’s so handsome, everyone should know him. Aleh.

“I don’t know you. I only know your name.”

“Oh, that’s a very good first move.” I’m not flattered.

Then, what did he want? He wanted a favour from me. So the moral of the story is, always be nice to people, you never know when you’re gonna need help from them.

The Standing Fan
Since there are more people in the office. New staff, old staff. The place is getting warmer so there stands a fan that is doing a very good job in cooling us down. But, I find it somewhat irritating because of its position. Whenever I make my way out from my desk, I would definitely need to pass through it and each time I do that, the fan would blow my coolness away. My hair is blown is such a way that I looked more stressed than I should which eventually causes more stress.

I can’t turn down that fan because everyone else feels warm so tomorrow and the days to come, I’ll be blown.

Lunch
I sneaked out for lunch earlier than my usual 1 pm. A colleague asked me to tag along with them. It was so tempting because I’ve never had lunch with a such big group of colleagues for such a long time already. Seeing that there are still others manning the department, I sneaked out, well, couldn’t really say I sneaked because Mr.Boss was next to me when I just walked off.

I know if I ask him, he would joke and say I can’t go out and so I didn’t ask. I just prayed that he wouldn’t mind, at least for this one time. Yeah, I sound desparate now.

It was a good lunch because I was laughing.

Mr.Run Bun
“Grace, you have to help me!”

“Who is this on the line?”

“I’m E. Look at this line. Why is it updated as “Mr.Run Bun”? Where got such a name?”

She laughed and I laughed too because Run Bun sounds so funny. Sounded a bit like Run, Bunny. Run!

“It’s supposed to be Mr.Ryan Bun. Not Run Bun.”

“Okay okay, Run Bun no more.”

Airspace
Then, this customer sounded like she’s short of breath, telling me that she wants certain words to be inserted into her document.

She wanted words like “Airport”, “Airspace”, “Aircraft”.

“Cik, container kamu ni naik kapal, bukan kapal terbang. Jadi, kita tak boleh masukkan perkataan “Airport”, “Airspace” dengan “Aircraft”. Yang kita boleh masukkan ialah “Port”, “Territorial Waters” dengan “Vessel”. ”

“Saya tahu bukan naik kapal terbang tapi saya nak juga!”

How to talk to people like that? I repeated myself for 3 times. I gave up, told her I will check, knowing that it’s not going to be possible but I still had to check for the impossible, just to let her know that I’ve gone through all territorial waters and airspace to get her an answer, which says, “No.” I will break the news to her with an aircraft tomorrow.

Your Eyes
In the lift when we left the office.

“Yerrrrrr!! Why your eyes like that one?”

“Like what?”

“So big.”

“So big the eye bags!”

“I’m tired lor.”

“When I’m very tired, it looks bigger lor.”

I know I looked very tired today because there were just so many problems and I had to walk in and out for so many times I think I wouldn’t need to go to the gym anymore. Weird stuff are happening again and I’ve got to uncover the mystery.

Treadmill
I was feeling so sleepy. I was sleep walking on the treadmill. Well, I only exercised for about half an hour because that’s really the most I could do. I was still thinking about Run Bun when I ran slowly on the treadmill.

I can just smell the problems I’m going to get tomorrow. The unsolved mysteries, the colleagues that are going to ask me the same questions again, the customer who wants to be in “airspace” and etc.

Till then, I need some beauty sleep.

Run Bun.

Something happened and I’m feeling rather outraged about it. My whole Sunday afternoon was ruined just thinking about it. I had no mood to do anything at all. What accompanied me was tears and unnecessary confusion.

I couldn’t sleep well either because I wake up every hour. Went back to sleep to find myself waking every hour again. Woke up in the morning and I didn’t feel like going to work because I know I look ugly after all the crying and I didn’t have enough of sleep. But I thought I should just differentiate between work and personal life. And I told myself there are many customers out there that still needs to speak to me. I have to teach someone to upload files to the intranet. I cannot just walk away.

I went to brush my teeth but the tears kept flowing.

I went to work and a colleague asked why I looked like that.

“I didn’t have enough sleep.” I replied but of course the answer was more than that.

The first few calls I had, these people were frustrated and one screamed at me. I wasn’t as patient as usual having gone through what I had to go through yesterday but I tried very hard not to lose my temper because I so wanted to. I gave up and just let her scream all that she wanted.

Before lunch, Mr.Boss asked me.

“Grace, are you okay? How is it? Are there many complaints? Anyone screamed at you today?”

I told him about all the complaints like there weren’t complaints at all, as in I didn’t complained about the complaints. I was just telling him stories of what had happened, sharing him weird things that are happening which I don’t have a clue to solve it. Emails that were sent on 24 February but no one is reading it? I can’t believe that myself. How do you answer a customer who asks you if someone has read that email and responded to it? Sucks, right?

“So are you still okay?”

“I’m still okay for now.”

“But you won’t be okay for long, right?”

I laughed.

I don’t know what he’s trying to say really because it gave me a feeling like he knows I can be gone for good soon and he would understand why I would make a choice like that if one day I were to leave.

But, that one question from him, by just asking how I am doing was enough to make me feel a whole lot more better. That was what made me go through my day as bravely as I can.

Then, I discovered that two of my beloved colleagues of a different department is leaving soon. They are very smart girls. Very capable and I deal a lot with them. So, when I know they are leaving the company soon, I can’t help but to feel the impact it would have on us. But then, at the same time, I feel happy for them because I know they wouldn’t need to do what they are doing now and are capable of doing something better.

Today, I was the only one that’s sitting far away from my old team, which I’m still helping out with. My colleague would occasionally wave out to me, like they missed sitting near me. Yes, I miss them too even though they are just a few steps away.

Normally, they would just shout across their desk if they wanted to ask me something or just to express their feelings after a difficult call. Now, they would have to call me on the phone instead but I’ve been making walks over to their desks as well to become a busybody.

Came back home and I’m back to the real world again to face the thing that I’ve ignored and trying not to think about when I was at work.

I forgave someone today but I don’t really know whether it’s a right thing to do.

I pray that I’ll be fine.

I don’t know why but I think working has started to become fun. At least for the past few days. Yes, it is more stressful and tiring. Problems are getting more serious but it only means I’m thrown with more challenges. Each time I get to solve problems now, which happens to be problems I’ve never faced before, problems that seemed so impossible to solve at the first time hearing it has somehow bring me some contentment. Let’s see if this can continue or I’ll be back to the normal grind.

A new colleague asked me what to do with one problem she encountered so based on my past experiences, I told her what to do. However, after sending out that email, another colleague told us that someone else is rectifying it already. So, what I could do is to tell the new colleague to send another mail out to inform the relevant parties to ignore the previous message.

But then, the email was replied as well and we all knew clearer of what should be done. That happened in the morning.

In the afternoon, someone else came and replied to the same email as well but this time, he sounded so annoyed, like as though we are creating problems for him out of nowhere.

I decided to reply to that email. I told everyone that I’m going to reply that email so that there won’t be two people replying to the same email which was what is happening. I felt so good after hitting the send button. I replied very nicely but when you read it carefully, can mean something else lah. I can be mean if I want to, especially to people who don’t know how to behave when writing emails. I might not be able to do the same if I were to talk to him face to face but if I were to write, then I still can lah.

When it comes to the end of the week, people push you to the maximum. So what do you do? You also push your other colleagues to the maximum. That really is my job.

A customer asked, “Do you get screamed at?”

“Of course.”

“Then what do you do?”

“I listen.”

“After listening?”

“I explain to them. I try to help them.”

“If they don’t listen?”

“No choice. I can’t do anything.”

Okay, today I was able to leave the office earlier since it’s a Friday but some of them had to move places. Current team to move to new desk. New team to move to current desk. I am the exceptional one where I would still be sitting where I am sitting right now. I like where I’m sitting now actually. Behind me is a wall. I feel more secure that way.

Since one of my colleagues was on MC, I helped to move her things to her new desk. Carried her CPU, her phone, her tray. I like what I was doing just now. Unplugging and plugging in the cables.

After dinner, went to attend a gathering where I got to meet up some of my high school mates. As usual, I’m the quieter one. But that’s because I love listening to people. I’m not shy, I’m just conversationally selective.

So, the usual questions will pop up.

“So what are you working as?”

“I work in a call centre.”

“Hey, that suits you!”

I don’t know why she said that but it must have been something that made her say that.

I’m feeling very tired and I would like to continue but I can’t think of anymore to write. So pardon me that I’ve got to end it this way.

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:

First of all, I want to get a schedule
I send them an email but no one replied me
So I have no choice but to check it online
I sit in front of the computer from 1 o'clock to 5:30
Chatting with your live support team,
yes they have been very helpful
But I keep getting the message,
"Error on Page"
Eventually I can't get the information that i want
So I ask your live team to mail it to me
So i spend almost 5 hours
just to get 3 schedules from the system

After that I make the booking today
I sit in front of the monitor for one hour more
from 3 o'clock to 4'o clock
I can't even make one booking,
your live team keep asking me to do the steps like
internet tools, delete files,
refresh, setting,
every visit to the page, restart computer.
but I just don't get the information.
So your live team have to tell me the information that they get,
and i key in myself,
but still i cant make the booking
and have to do it over and over again

So I plan to call your company
but out of ten times
nine times i will get the message
"your call is in delay, your call is important to us, please stay on the line, thank you"
over and over again

Compare to other company,
i just need to mail them the info,
then they will fax me the booking confirmation
and if i have any problems
i can call them up and can always reach them

my closing date is getting closer, but i can't make the booking
hope that you can help me with it.

i want to place the bookings as 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!