by zutgorak | Oct 1, 2008 |
Time to get a little philosophical I think. Or what do you say?
Time and time again people have meditated the large mysteries in
the world, like “how do they get the toothpaste in to the tube” and
“if you choke a smurf, what color does it turn”
Well, thanks to Discovery Channel, one of those
mysteries is solved….. The smurf turns black.
Another question or rather, prejudice filled notion
has been floating around for a while aswell. How do
you tell who is gay?
Well, I think I may have deviced a pretty good test.
Now, hear me out on this one (and if you cant see
that this is irony and sarcasm, get the hell out
right away. I cant stand people with no humor.)
At work, we are a few guys and one woman in our department.
Now, this woman gives as good as she gets so she is
in no way to be pitied to be among those levels of
testosterone, but rather feel priviliged. Not to be
“working with a few excellent examples of the male
species or any other thing like that, but rather,
she has a lot of guys she can boss around because
we all want to be nice to her.
Anyhoo, out of a whim I asked her “whats inside your
handbag?” And whew .. she was like any other woman,
she was carrying a few different lipsticks, a pacifier
for the kid etc etc etc .. I mean.. it was easy over
30 different items in there.
Now, lets sidetrack a bit here. On my former blog
I had a post regarding a theory about womens handbags.
I will repeat that in brief here so you understand.
The major designer companies for handbags all gathered
together and summoned a minor demon from the netherplane
and bribed that demon with human greed to get access
to a dimensional portal. They combined that with
modern science to lock the dimensional portal to human
chromosomes. If the hand that comes into the bag
has a set with X-X the dimensional portal “reads”
the hand and the item that the hand is looking for
pops right into the hand. However, if the hand
is carrying X-Y chromosomes, the dimensional portal
opens, but shoves tons and tons of miscellania into
the hand, making it pointless to even try to find
anything in it for a male.
However, as scientists of today have discovered that some
people have extended Y chromosomes, pretty much an X with a
half lower-right leg, this might also work for certain males.
The same scientist insists that because of that half lower leg
some males turn gay and feminine. I am guessing that this
is why so many gay men actually carries a handbag and can
get the portal to work.
Now, when this woman in our team had replaced all her
items in that gaping maw that was her handbag. I asked
a male collegue to locate the silvery lipstick.
I now suspect i have a gay co worker.
by zutgorak | Jun 15, 2008 |
Isn’t it odd how ones perception of a job can change?
I mean, you rarely know how tough a job is until you have tried
it for a period. Now, I am gonna talk about Customer Support since
thats the area I know most about to be honest, and truth to be told
its an area that I have found most useful outside my workplace
aswell, when tackling ignorant neighbours who needed an explanation
why it isn’t a good thing to pour mocca latte down into your laptop
because it looked thirsty.
A few years back, if I called customer support at all, I would think that
they where snooty brats that didnt know diddly squat about what I
need, and they would connect me to this and that department only
to end with me hanging up with a frustrating sigh.
You recognize that? I am pretty sure that you do. How can I be so sure?
Ive been there, and I have also been the snooty brat on the other side
of the wire, albeit that I tried to treat all customers with respect until
they shown that they didnt think I was worth any.
When I started the CSR position a few years back, I hated phones
and to be honest, I still do. When I am at home, I try to touch the
phone as little as possible, unless its my little HTC of course, since
I use that for other things then calling. (More on that later)
I learned how to talk o customers, although I actually had another system
worked out in my head, that I combined with what I was taught.
I was taught the product pretty thourough and I felt I was prepared
when I came out on the floor. I loved the job, really I did. And I found it
a personal defeat when I couldnt find the “correct cause” for the error
myself. I also admitted to the callers that “I simply didnt know, I would have
to ask someone because this is a little way over my head”
Generally, when you put it that way, customers understand, because if you
ADMIT that there is something there that isnt right, they can wait on hold
for quite a while, just make sure that you project that feeling of confidence
even though you have no idea whats wrong.
(I am getting sidetracked here, gimme a minute)
Back to perceptions.
Nowadays when I call customer service for this or that reason, and yes
just because I work with one product and support for it, doesnt mean
that i know EVERY product by heart, I open the conversation with a hearty
Hello there, my name is …. and I have a little problem that I hope that we can
solve together.
I give the support person a happy encounter at first, and that WILL have a
huge impact on the call as a whole. The CSR usually asks about the problem
at this point, and since I know that the CSR mostly has a timelimit on the call
I try not to dwell on what has happened far back. I simply concentrate on
the most immediate symptoms. A good example was a call to an ISP. Ill give you
a rough writeout.
The CSR welcomes me to the support, takes my name and customer ID.
I start to state my problem. None of my computers are recieving an IP adress.
I have tried with the switch, without it. No difference. I also had a friend
try to ping the gateway and the DHCP server that is usually shown in IPCONFIG
and he cant find those either. Any clue as to what is wrong.
Ok. Here is where the CSR gets in a pickle. He can either tell me that they
might be having a problem, he has to look it up, or, he can try to see if
there might be a local problem at my end. So, he asks me, have I tried
a different ethernet cable to the switch. Good suggestions, since if that
is broken, I cant get an IP. Alas, that cable was fresh out of the box yesterday
and its the same thing with the new one. Ok, so that might not be the problem.
Here’s the killer. Since the gateway cant be pinged from the outside, and
neither could the DHCP, my guess was that something was wrong on their
end. Not a bad guess if I may say so myself. So I tell the CSR “Hey, I know
you are probably not allowed to say something about it, but is there
some malfunctions on your end?” And I can hear how this CSR sighs
and almost pounds his head on the desk and states that yes, there is.
Their DHCP has been sunk, all tables have been lost, and it will be
fully functional within the next five days. Why, thank you, thats all I wanted
to hear. I tell the CSR to take a short break while I am on the phone
and then I ask him to have a good day. No hassle. Why? Well, because
I got a straight answer, and he really did try his best not belittleing me.
I think that chap needs a raise.
I think ive confused you enough for a while. Write you later.
by zutgorak | Jun 14, 2008 |
Ok, I am soooo tired right now but im trying to do good at work anyhow.
I have someone to ask if theres something in the issues that I am not used
seeing, but still, i guess it could be worse. Last place I worked is still bleeding people
and yesterday, another of the old faithful crew jumped ship. So I guess that
the few people that are still there are pretty much going on their knees now I guess.
Oh well, enough about writing about work. Lets do some of it aswell.
-Z-
