Category: Work

I have a new definition of happiness. It’s when customers are complaining and scolding you but you still feel so happy because you know you are going home soon!

That was exactly how I feel today. Such a bliss!

I was coughing the whole morning and it was really bad. Even Mr.Boss shares the same opinion. I tried to control it while I was on the phone talking but the more I suppress, the more I felt like coughing my lungs out. So, I had no choice but to let it out which of course wouldn’t sound nice on the other end.

I kept saying “I’m sorry” after I coughed.

“Sick ah?” One customer asked.

I couldn’t even answer him. I coughed in reply to his question. Ahaha! Action speaks louder than words anyway.

Another one asked, “What happened to your voice?”

“I’m having cough.”

“Chinese new year is coming already.”

I certainly need that reminder because I want to be well before I fly home.

Of course, you would always get to meet painful customers in a day. I had my share too, which has become more like a norm now.

Sometimes, it’s hard to put words to be interpreted correctly by others. You want to put it as subtle as possible to soothe the customer who’s already very angry and upset. However, words alone can create more anger when interpreted wrongly.

I have been telling this lady, “It is still in process.”

She complained to one big shot in the office who wasn’t very pleased at all.

She came over and said, “Next time, don’t say ‘It’s still in process’. Say, ‘It’s not done yet’ or ‘Cannot be done’”.

I am very flexible so if that’s what that particular customer wants to hear from me., I’ll know what to tell her the next time I get her call again.

But the term, “It’s not done yet” and “Cannot be done” when used can also build up bitterness among customers. They would go, “IT’S NOT DONE YET??!!”

So you see, you’ve got to customized the words used for different customers accordingly.

On any normal day, maybe I’ll get a little pissed off but today I just buat duh aje. One and a half more days of nonsense and I’ll be back home, indulging in delicious seafood and no traffic jam to beat, lion dance to watch, friends to talk to, parents to be disturbed.

There was a terrible jam while I drove home from work. It came to a standstill while I was about to approach the Damansara toll so I heeded Priscilla Patrick’s advice to avoid using the exit at Damansara if I’m coming from Subang. Instead, take the exit at Kota Damansara.

One stupid car just have to block your way as he’s trying to cut the queue.

“Grace, honk him!” My colleague blurted out.

I tried to squeeze my way through the oncoming traffic on my right and once I was out free again, I honked out long and loud.

“Ya, you must honk him. Doesn’t it feel good to just do that?” She added.

Yes, it felt so good indeed.

Pappy replied the email I sent to him about the terrible day I had just a few days ago.

It was entitled, “Working Blues”.

Pappy, like Mummy, would always tell me that since I’m being paid to do my job, I should just do it, nevermind the bitterness that comes with the package. Pappy would say, working life is like that.

So, it makes me wonder whether I’m weak or not strong enough, therefore unable to turn terrible things that happened into positive challenges. Or, it’s just a period of transition from studying life to working life so there need be a time where adjustment would come into the picture (it has been 10 months and I’m still adjusting?) Since both worlds vary, I’m just not accepting the fact that it’s tougher when you come out to work. Or, that my parents come from very poor families and have gone through many hardships (I am sure it would be ten times worse than what I’m going through now) that they think I ought to just hang in there.

Or, maybe they just want me to feel better.

Whatever it is, I will just hang in there while looking for better opportunities. I’ve said this for a thousandth times, I know.

It’s not the job that I can’t do but the emotional torture I go through most of the days.

I’m okay when it comes to weekend. Maybe that’s why weekend exists. To allow us to breathe and perform some sanity check.

Coughed the whole day. *ahaks ahaks*

Biggest achievement today was when I managed to locate the 3 copies of papers that meant so much to a customer.

“Grace, a guy will be there to see you. You arrange it accordingly, okay?”

The guy came. His name is Tommy. He knew me before I could even speak my name. Handed out his name card to me, which was already held in his hand before I even appear.

We shook hands. I know mine are cold. They are always cold.

He gave me a copy of the document but I told him I need 3 original copies. He made a phone call back to the office and then pass the mobile phone to me to speak to the girl.

“I have already return the documents to you last week or on Monday. Can you help to check for me?”

Grace went treasure hunting.

“Grace, did you find it already?” She called again.

“Nope. Not yet. Do you know who did you pass it to?”

“I didn’t write any name. But I put it in this big white envelope.”

Grace approached a colleague who has the highest possibility of having the documents. However, she asked me to check with the Finance department. And so I went to talk to this lady and she didn’t want to even look at me when she speaks, which I totally hate.

“You ask Ms.L, she would know.” She said.

“But Ms.L asked me to ask you.”

“I don’t know.” Still not looking at me and gave me an unpleasant look, which I totally hate too.

I went back to Ms.L and again I asked her politely of the possibilities of anyone who might have seen the documents.

Nil.

I tried my luck with the receptionist since they are the one with the first contact with the customers. She checked on the log book but found no records. I described the envelope to her and she began to remember things. She said it might be with Ms.S.

However, Ms.S was in a meeting and it would take a while. I could only wait.

The phone rings again.

“Grace, have you found it already?”

“Tak de lah. So now I have to wait for my other two colleagues to come out from the meeting and I will ask them if they have it.”

“Grace, ini urgent lah. Tolong saya? Boleh tak?”

“Boleh. Tapi kena juga tunggu lepas meeting.”

“Boleh tak you suruh mereka keluar dari meeting. Saya urgent ni.”

“Tak boleh lah. Meeting tu urgent juga. Lepas mereka keluar, tentu saya tanya.”

“Kalau macam tu, okay lah.”

Finally, I managed to get hold of the last person who would determine the end of the treasure hunt.

“Do you remember receiving a white envelope with documents in it?” I asked.

“Oh…I think I have it in my drawer.”

She unlocked it and ta da!!! I found it! A bit appalled of why it landed in her drawer but I wasn’t in the mood to start investigating.

I called the customer.

“Dah dapat dah. Saya tolong arrange kan lepas lunch okay? Sebab person in charge dah keluar.”

“Secepat mungkin ya, Grace?”

Later after that, she called again.

“Grace, belum keluar makan ke? Cakap nak keluar pukul 1?”

“Oh, setengah jam lagi.”

“Grace, thank you so so so so much!”

Sometimes, that is all it takes. A thank you to make my day, despite the bouncing here and there, people not looking at you when they talk. It was important to her because if I don’t help her, she would get good firing from her boss. And also that the consignee at destination won’t be able to clear the goods from the port.

Mr.Boss once said, our job is to help the customers and make them feel happy even if it means internally, people may not find us loveable.

Sneezed the whole day and now I must retire to my bed.

Went to work with a very dry throat. Thanks to the crying I did to myself and the lack of sleep due to crying so hard.

I had to clear my throat for every call that I answer. Pretty annoying I must say. Today, I had to juggle between English and Malay version greeting. Like if the screen says “1”, I must say Good morning. If it says “2”, Selamat Pagi that is. Until it came to a point, I had to think of what to say after I was on the line with the customer. There better not be any “3” because then I’d need to say “Zao An”.

Things aren’t getting any better and I would say it’s turning from bad to worse. And it can go downhill somemore. Mr.Boss informed us of what we’ll be going through for the next few months. Just thinking about it gives you a headache so I don’t dare imagine being in the real thing itself.

So if another new girl or guy asks me the question I dread to answer, “How it is like working here?” I would say I don’t have any comments.

It has come to a point where customers are in pain and agony, in which they inflict it upon you. Let’s say you’ve got 50 calls in a day? 50 customers. 50 times of pain and agony. I need a bullet-proof heart. They call but I have no answer for them but apologies and empty assurance. Even if things are not going to be done really soon, you still need to give a minimum form of assurance. You can’t just say, “I don’t know.” (Even though I really don’t know, you see?)

The nice ones would understand that the one answering the calls have no power in delivering certain things that they want immediately because it has to be escalated to another party. One customer called and I simply knew I have no others words to say to her plus the fact that she’s been calling and calling and calling. She understood my situation as well. We both laughed on the phone because there was nothing else to say, nothing that we could do but WAIT.

Another one, whose name is Grace called to ask me a very good question. One that I don’t have answers to yet. I couldn’t get the answer for her today so I just called to tell her I’ll call her tomorrow for an answer. She said okay. Mr.Boss also doesn’t know the answer to it when I asked him just now. No one knows actually. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get an answer for Grace tomorrow. I can’t disappoint someone who shares the same name as me.

Forget about work, I’m just counting the days before I’m flying home. Tomorrow – 1 more day. Next week – 3.5 days. 4.5 more days. I’m looking at the calendar more than once a day in the office. Tomorrow, I’m going to label it as “I’m flying home”. Ah ha!

Sent colleagues home and I rushed to the nearest bakery to get a cake. It’s called Chocolate Lady.

It’s Iris’s birthday today. I only manage to get her a cake, which took her by surprise since she wasn’t expecting any because I told her I would only get her a gift later.

I was the only one singing the birthday song and then we hugged. She then rushed off to celebrate her birthday with many other people, leaving her sister at home to dwell in her own sorrow. Oh hoho!

Happy Birthday Iris! This may be the last birthday I’ll be here to celebrate for you before you leave for UK this September. I’ll be all alone by then again. *sob sob*

After writing last night, I went to bed and before I close my eyes, I sent him an SMS to say good night whether or not he is already asleep. It was already midnight you see.

“I’ve already booked the tickets.” wrote he. *memoirs of the geisha* tee hee hee!

I called him right away, just to talk. And it was a long one because I cried so hard, just telling him my stories and he gave me lots of his advice and opinions which I loved listening to. They were things I already knew but when someone tells it to you in his own way, it’s different. I cried even harder just listening to that.

Woke up this morning with such bee-stung eyes, which in this context didn’t seem to appear very sexy. Went to work with this very dried heart since the tears are long gone. Not expecting anything but the worse. It was okay for me today because I felt less heartsick.

The new girl asked me, “How is it working here?”

I’m afraid I’m not the best person to answer that, given the situation and the feelings I’m going through right now.

I could only utter, “It’s okay.” Not wanting to sound very promising nor very discouraging.

Didn’t go to fight at the gym today because I was very tired and sleepy, with all the crying and talking to customers on the phone. My colleague felt the same too but not because she was sleepy but because she simply didn’t have the mood. “I’m tired. Kena marah.”

Silently I said, “Saya faham.”

I came back from work and dived onto my bed, hugged Ducky and slept. I just want to forget about the world for a while and have a good rest. I can bathe and eat later.

On a side note, I also got an email from Pappy which comes with an attachment. He found it in one of the Sabah papers, scanned it to me and attached it as a file. It was a job advertisement for positions in KL. A simple act from him but means so many things to me. It can mean, “Don’t give up.”, “It’s not the end of the world.”, “I love you.”, “I just want you to be happy.”, “Please don’t cry.”

I love you too.

Today’s a day I feel happy and excited to go to work after such a long long time. I still dreaded thinking about going to work this morning that I hugged onto Ducky longer than I should. I hugged her really tight then I told myself, “Come on, Grace. Get up!”

Reached the office and saw a new headset and I didn’t know how to use it. The new VOIP phone system went live today and all of us were thrown to use the new system, juggling ourselves with the new phone, the new soft phone (a software that allows you to answer your calls with a click of the mouse), the phone directories that changed overnight (we had to re-learn all the numbers again). Now when customers call us, there would hear something like, “Thank you for calling our company. For English, Press 1. Untuk Bahasa Malaysia, sila tekan 2” kind of intro which voice belonged to one of my colleague of the same department.

“Eh Grace, kenapa guna suara Ms.R eh?”

It took me a while to get what the customer was talking about. Then it rang a bell.

“Oh, sebab suara dia seksi.”

“Hahah. Tapi suara Grace pun seksi.”

“Haha. Tak lah, tak cukup seksi.”

New phone system is quite cool, gives you a very advanced kind of feeling. We were all in a mess trying to get it connected that we only started our normal operations at 9am instead of the usual 8:30am.

The software is quite cool too that you could answer your phone, put it on hold with just a click of the mouse. It comes with a statistics as well which measures the total number of calls you’ve handled, total time used to handle calls, total talking time, total time “not ready”, total “hold” time.

Now I can choose whether to put my status as “Ready” or “Not Ready”. So when I’m Ready, the calls would come in and every call is assigned to one call agent. You would have no choice but to kill it. If you’re Not Ready, the call would not come to you until you make yourself ready again. So, yeah, hopefully my boss won’t set a specific “Not Ready” that we are entitled to have because then it would be so stressful to just limit yourself how much rest time you could have.

The General Manager came over to our desks today and he joked about something and then he mentioned my name but unfortunately, I was on a call. I heard my name but I couldn’t answer him. Then he continued talking to the rest. He then came back to ask whether I was still on the line and I nodded my head while talking to the customer.

Then, he came to talk to me again during the forum that we had in a hotel this evening while I went to get my cup of tea from the waiter. He was standing next to me, wanting to get himself a cuppa too.

“How’s things?”

“Okay.”

“Is it a busy day?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, couldn’t get to talk to you because you are on the phone all the time.”

I smiled.

Then he continued asking about the new phone system and I explained a little to him.

Sometimes, when someone so high up talks to me, I feel very excited and can be very tongue-tied. It’s like you want to make sure you don’t sound stupid but at the same time appear fun and friendly to talk to. I’m still learning to tackle that but it was nice to have talked to the GM.

Today’s quite a day to remember as well because 16 new staff joined us today. 16 new joinees on 16th Jan. Cool, huh? And they all come under Customer Service and Customer Care Centre. Got to know a new girl. She’s a fresh graduate, studied Chemistry and would be doing the exact same thing I’m doing now. She was saying she studied a field totally out of what she’s going to do now and I can relate to that.

Then, another colleague told her, “Grace is the person you would want to talk to because she’s one of the pioneers in this call centre and she keeps all the systems updated.”

Wow! Yes, I was one of the pioneers but I’m certainly not the person who keeps ALL the systems updated but only the intranet.

So, new girl said, “Hmm, I definitely need to catch up with you!”

Listened to the rants of another colleague who was just transferred to the Logistics department and it is quite hectic for her that she gets call at 9pm from customer telling her they are unable to collect the container from the depot. Then, the HR Executive came in and told us that we are lucky to be here instead of the logistics department. If you want to be peaceful and happy, then Call Centre is the best choice for you.

She just made the whole thing sound so simple and then I thought over it and she is quite true in certain ways. She also added that, “If you’re bored with being in Call Centre and you want a more challenging position, then you could try logistics.”

For a moment there, I felt like staying a little longer with the company. That’s typical me, easily brainwashed by people. Whenever one states something that sounds logical, I would put some thought into it and if it sounds right, I would think more about it. It was also the same HR person that convinced me in coming to the interview because I initially rejected the interview on the morning of the interview itself and she sounded so disappointed. Even though it was my first time looking for a job but I’ve never seen a HR that would get upset that I’m not coming for the interview. She insisted that I give it a try and which I did.

I went to the company, all blur and lost, because as much as I wanted to just give it a try but deep down inside, I know I just wouldn’t want to be in this. Somehow, she managed to talk some sense into me and so I took the chance and dip myself into a world so unknown to me. I know I didn’t do very well in the interview because I didn’t really prepare of what to answer if the Customer Service Manager asked me on questions like, “What would you do if you get an angry customer?” and stuff like that. I just answered all that I know.

Eventually, the manager found that I’m a very quiet person because probably, I didn’t talk enough in the interview but this HR person, she was so eager to get me this job that she told me if I really want this job, she would be able to help me.

Still not knowing whether I want this job, I told her I REALLY want this job. I told you I’m all blur and lost. Directionless.

It still surprises me how I landed myself a job here because most of the people here are very outspoken. I mean really outspoken. That’s why at times I feel like I don’t belong here. Like how one of the seniors would always tease me saying, “Grace will only speak when spoken to.” It’s sarcastic but very true. As much as I can, I’m trying to minimise that effect I have on someone.

But then, if I asked what is it really that I want to do, what is that I truly desire and what is that I really want to achieve in the longer run, I could say I wouldn’t want to always work in a Call Centre. I don’t know whether this happy feeling is just temporary but I’m still going to look for a job and if a better offer comes along, it is time to re-think and decide again.

The problem with me is I think too much with my heart sometimes instead of my head.

Whatever it is, I’m all eager to use the new phone system again and at the same time all eager to get at least another interview.

May your day be a good one!

Woke up at 2:30am to find that it’s that time of the month again. It’s fantastic how I can wake up at such odd hours. But it was good or else it would be quite a scene in the morning if I had just sleep through the night. It takes a lady to understand what I’m talking about in this first paragraph.

Went to work and applied for Chinese New Year leave. 4.5 days carried forward from last year. Took 2 days off this year’s annual leave. Total 6.5 days taken. All approved! Yippie!! I better enjoy to the maximum when I fly home this time.

Training on new phone system. We’re using Cisco. It’s quite cool.

“Grace, kenapa suara kamu semacam? Sakit ke?”

“Saya sakit kerongkong.”

“Oh, patutlah, suara kamu lain.”

I didn’t mention it but I took sick leave yesterday to see the doctor to get rid of my sorethroat.

“What is wrong with your company?”

“Work with your company can die eh!”

“I want it NOWWW!!!”

Today is quite a “sakit hati” day but I just let it pass. Today’s a day I allow customers to scold, rant and complain without me explaining much because my throat is still a little sore and I didn’t feel like fighting today. I can expect a harsher Monday though.

More training on new phone system, this time only for our department. It’s going to be different. No more direct lines for us, which means my favourite customers won’t be getting me directly anymore. If they are lucky, I will be serving them. Else, not.

We are measurable now, which can be both good and bad but I’m starting to feel like everything is being controlled to a certain extent that there is lesser freedom because they could even track how long your break is, that is the time you use to go to the toilet, go to the pantry, go for lunch and stuff like that. All conversations are recorded. All incoming calls are recorded. Missed calls. Dropped calls. Even outgoing calls, so no more calling your boyfriend using the company’s phone because firstly, they could trace it from the number. Secondly, all conversations are recorded, you wouldn’t like someone else to listen to your lovey-dovey stuff.

Couldn’t fight at the gym today because I didn’t have the usual energy level stored. I walked on the treadmill instead of running. Managed to work out on the cross trainer as usual. Cycled but it was slower and the more I cycled, the more I yawned. Didn’t sweat enough so it wasn’t fun enough but I was tired. Maybe because I’m on medication and it’s that time of the month.

But what I like about all this gym sessions is that my menstrual pain has disappeared and I’m really happy with that because when I have one, it’s really painful. Therefore, this is another point to motivate me to exercise more.

Have an enjoyable weekend!