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It actually isn't due to the economy at all, Locke. It is because our call center is poorly managed. Every year at this time we lose a bunch of people (our main work force is college students). We lost 33 people last month, out of about 120 or so. It is a huge hit. They are quitting because they are going home for the summer, or because they are graduating, or what have you. The point is, this happens every year, and they know about it. It is because of their incompetence that they didn't plan ahead and deal with it.
Our client is also one tough, tough monkey. We're always getting fined because our incompetent management signed a ridiculous contract that lets them fine us for everything, and our contractual obligations are so unbelievably high it is ridiculous. We actually perform better than our client (we're outsourced) and we still get fined all the time because our stats aren't perfect.
The point is, we're always right on the cusp of losing money. We have poor direction, poor leadership, and poor communication, all saddled with a really poor client. As a part of help desk, I do everything, and I mean, everything. I take escalated sup calls, I give agents advice, I use company software to monitor, reset, and alter setups for cable boxes and modems. I am a point of contact with the client to disseminate information to our center. We monitor and correct incomplete or incorrect work orders put in by our employees, and run databases and tracking tools to identify trends and repeat offenders and get them trained to do their job correctly. Basically, if it needs doing, my department gets it done.
Ironically enough, there are only six people in my department. We've not had a supervisor in over a year, because another supervisor quit and they pulled ours to cover their hole, since they didn't want to spend the money to hire a new sup. We continually have more and more work dumped on us, because we're the only group in the center that can actually make shit happen. We're damn effective, and most of the agents in the call center love us, because we help them out, we give them good advice and information, and we save their asses on nasty calls.
Yes, I do all of this for a measly $8.76 an hour. Just two months ago I was making only $8.50 an hour. And now they are disbanding us. They are going to give our entire workload to the remaining supervisors on the floor. These guys are already over worked, half are as incompetent as our management, but since they are corporate climbers they are hired because they kiss a lot of booty, and the poor sups barely make any more than I do. If I get just a couple hours of OT a week, I'm making more than they are. And they are salaried, so they get hosed anyway.
The point is, we're damn essential to the operation of our center. Things are going to go to shit without us. And it is all becuase upper management thinks we're not productive because we don't generate additional revenue, even though we save thousands of dollars in fines each month, well above what we actually take out in paychecks.
They just need more people on the phone because they can't keep people employed here. And upper management has never liked us because we can't bill the client per minute of calls we do actually take. So they are permanently disbanding our help desk.
Ironically enough, this may actually be caused by Bush's growing economy, because our college students are finding it easier to get hired on at other places out of state, thereby leaving us with fewer potential employees.
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Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
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