In college I was a “big dreamer.” I wanted to be a movie director, but short of that an editor. Originally I had planned after graduation to move to L.A. and just “make it happen.” Nobody could say that with a little bit of talent, a little bit of creativity, and some luck I might not find George Lucas knocking on the door one day. It all seemed very DO-able in college.
In school there is a natural structure for success. The tools are just laying around for you to pickup and there are dozens of people there to help you be successful. After all that is the privilege that you are paying for. In every classroom there is someone dying to give away validation and praise. The idea that life would be any different didn’t occur to me. Considering it now, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because dammit I had a PURPOSE. I had a dream. Whatever happened it would be the strength of that vision that would carry me through any hardship. (more…)
The View From the Bottom: What you’re working against already
Working at the telephone tech support level of IT, actual expertise in technology was considered mostly irrelevant by the numerous middle-managers above. We on the phones deal with the same set of five to ten problems, for fifty-five calls (per person) per day. When we receive a problem that isn’t one of those five to ten, there is an unspoken expectation that we send your problem up to the next tier of support, a group that doesn’t spend their days answering phones. This is never explicitly stated in our job description of course, but is evidenced in the expectations of our “stats.”
Our “telephone” is a headset (the shackle) plugged into a computer, with a piece of software on-screen used to accept or disconnect a call, dial a number, or take a break. That software tracks everything we do including breaks. At the end of every week an e-mail is sent to each of us with a breakdown of our statistics which generates a score that is tracked against everyone else’s score. At the end of the quarter the top three scorers from the quarter win a fifty dollar Best Buy gift card, a free dinner at Chili’s, or songs from the iTunes music store. Promotions (when there actually are promotions available) are ordinarily dolled out to those quarterly winners. What this means is that someone who is going to excel in the job spends as little time as possible with each customer, transfers people the fastest, writes reports for the calls that need it the least (as those reports are the fastest to write), and takes the fewest number of breaks. It’s a system that emphasizes quantity over quality.
Dear BF-Blog,
I have decided to address my latest correspondence directly to you because, as we both know, other than one or two travellers and a few spambots this really is just about you and me isn’t it? Yes, I have been callous lately and pretended you weren’t there, always telling myself that I would get to you soon and allaying my guilt by saying how much you would understand. But as with any relationship left unattended things really haven’t been moving forward lately have they?
For that I’m sorry. I have little offer by way of explanation. Only a few excuses and some self-interest. Regardless, I wanted you to know that I am still here, and still thinking of you everyday. I know there are still things to be explored in this relationship and discoveries to be made. I’m sure there is some fear in there that contributes to keeping me away so often.
But it’s a new year and, nearly, a new month – and while I sit and wait for a perfect plan for our relationship, life moves forward and ideas once fresh now stagnate. I don’t know why we have to learn the same lessons over and over again but it seems the one I am bound to repeat is that a game can’t be learned sitting in the stands and thinking about it. You have to get on the field and play. So it is with us. If I sit and wait until I am complete and ready for you, I will never learn what can only be learned through our collaboration. The readiness is all.
So, I will try to rid myself again of any irrational expectations and plans, and let come what may, with faith that whatever outcome there may be, it is one that will be complete in the way that it should.
Yours Always,
Ian
