After the week I’ve had, I can’t figure out why I’m still awake at 2:00 AM, shoving Fiber One toaster pastry things into my face, drinking Diet Coke and hoping my typing doesn’t wake Amy. This old Apple keyboard is plenty loud, so that’s likely going to happen any minute now.
Let’s rewind a little, shall we?
Last time I posted something, I had gotten a haircut in preparation for a job interview. I’d never interviewed for a promotion anywhere. It usually just happened that I’d get a new title or more money or additional responsibility.
I’d determined a few months back that I was sick and tired of answering phones for a living. I don’t mind helping people, as I seem to have developed a quixotic nature over the last fifteen or so years. The feeling that people wanted my assistance and asked me to solve their problems was amazing. Actually solving their problem felt even better.
Technical support seemed like a natural fit for me. I’d spent much of my life figuring out my own PC issues, something that became a lot easier after the World Wide Web became easy to access. Once I got to college, classmates and flat-mates alike sought me out to look at their printers, or their network connections, or the ugly viruses they’d acquire after looking at porn in Internet Explorer. Initially, it was because I’d show up before ResNet Support did, but soon I developed a reputation.
People I’d never met would come to me, and it was quite the rush. Looking back, I should have parlayed this into bedding women, but geeks were not en vogue yet. If I looked like a pop star, I may have stood a better chance.
After leaving school, I found that people would actually pay me to do this type of thing. Fix computers, not sleep with women (oh, if only!) that is. A technical placement company got me contract work with IBM Global Services. I moved into a smaller desk at RailEurope about a year on. Six months later, I got tired of driving an hour each way to work, and slid into a job at Time Warner Cable.
Each job was about the same. I’d answer the phone, isolate an issue, and fix it. That may have entailed getting someone else to fix it. Or actually getting up and going somewhere so wiggle a cable or figure out why the crap Internet Explorer gave up on rendering pages. Each time I made slightly more money.
Amy entered my life as I was getting tired of hearing overpaid whiners in Manhattan complain about when techs were coming or that their cable internet service was too frigging slow. No offense to my friends in Manhattan. I don’t think any of your are whiney and overpaid. Usually just one or the other.
I used my newfound love as an opportunity to get the hell out of dodge. I loaded up the Neon and moved to Texas. I was hoping to fall into a support gig at Texas State, which was down the road from our apartment in San Marcos. This did not happen. I magically got hired by Apple to do iPhone support. I was again taking calls, fixing issues, and eventually hating my life. Yes, that’s possible even at Apple. Expecting call from iLawyers in 3, 2, 1 . .
I picked up at my current job supporting Rodale Publishing for Unisys Technical Services. I later starting taking calls for Texas Workforce Commission and Fox Feature Entertainment. As it was elsewhere, people would ask me questions and keep me in the loop on stuff that was happening. I was a golden god, ruling tech support with lightning bolts and plagues of frogs.
The email came in December. A UTS position was opening up. Typically, all the good jobs were only on the Unisys side, for which phone agents rarely, if at all, were eligible. This was a technical lead gig, under the umbrella of UTS. I jumped on it right away. Had my resume in a week before they were due.
The holidays came and went. In early January they scheduled my interview. They did so three times. Eventually I sat in a room with three men, one of whom had wet hands. I was grilled on Windows 2000 networking, which isn’t my forte any longer. It was 9 years ago, when Windows 2000 was relevant. Rather than WAGging, I answered honestly. This won them over. They also like the fact that I turned my rage against other agents that couldn’t do their jobs in the will to do mine better.
A few weeks later, I’m told I have the position. This was after nerve-wracking days sitting in my cube, answering phones, processing email, and being miserable after a Mac Mini refresh wasn’t announced. My emotions were destroying me. This wasn’t good, as we’d hit the two year anniversary of Amy and I meeting in person. This should have been a very happy occasion. Instead, i was walking on eggshells.
So I’m invited to a conference room. The Aftehours Support Manager tells me I’ve got the job, that I’m giving OS X training for Afterhours agents the following week, Rodale training the week after that, and that I’d still be taking calls in my current queues until I could be backfilled.
It took a while before this all sunk in. I was going to be a lead, the person who coaches agents, answers their questions and generally leads them to be better agents. I’d only be answering calls during crunch times. They’d pay out my performance incentive (this is how they avoid giving me a raise, but this works just as well) and I’d only have to submit to working Saturday through Wednesday.
After my first drink and some form of cheese bread at the Brazilian restaurant Amy took me to that night, the realization finally knocked me over. Well, maybe the mojito knocked me over. Either way, I’d finally taken the first step towards bettering my work career. Or so I’d thought.
This past week, I spent time after in the afternoon shadowing agents taking Unilever calls, as they’d be my charges Monday through Wednesday. They’re a good group of people with some heavy, heavy expectations placed upon them. I think I’ll grow to really like these cats, so long as they keep trying.
Tuesday, we learned that an ice storm was coming to Austin. Coming from the Northeast, ice storms have never bothered me. In Texas, it’s the Apocalypse, similar to how North Carolina treated them when I was in college. They offer overtime for us to sleep in the office that night in case the roads got really bad.
The prospect of driving in an ice storm does not scare me. Doing so with other Austin drivers does. I also like money, to paraphrase Frito Pendejo. I took Unisys up on this.
I get back to the office at midnight, only to find that a Rodale resolver had dropped a dozen issues back on us, some mishandled, others requiring followup. Not knowing if my counterpart Kevin would be coming in the next morning, I knew they had to be dealt with that moment.
Around 1:30 AM, I was done. I fell asleep about 45 minutes later. I heard voices around six AM, bellowing about Detroit Public Schools. I tried to sleep through it. My alarm went off at seven. I crawled out from under my desk, saw that Kevin made it there and that everything was fine. I got dressed in the bathroom and slept for another hour.
That night, I gave some damn fine OS X training. I gave it twice, then went home to sleep. For five hours. I then did it again the next day, minus the early wake up at work. In fact, I overslept, but nobody gave a rats ass. They knew what I was up to, and they were working to get someone to take the calls I normally took.
This may not happen anytime soon, sadly. Another client in the group I’m about to leave wants to dedicate 70% of our agents to their calls. This would leave about three people to take the other five queues. I may be stuck taking calls for the foreseeable future, at least until new people can be hired. With our stock price still under a dollar, this may take time.
At the very least, Amy and I finally got to celebrate our anniversary before the horrible week began. We had a fine time at McCormick and Schmick’s, eating fish that isn’t caught in sustainable fashions and enjoying getting dressed up for dinner in a fancy downtown joint. It was wonderful night on the town, and is probably the only reason why I haven’t completely lost my shit.
It’s been a roller-coaster of a week, of a month, of a post-collegiate life. I’ve set every twist, turn, loop, roll, hill and dip into motion myself, and it’s high time I waved at myself manning the controls from my other posts in the front and rear cars.
Wow, what a terrible analogy.
So, here’s to long nights, better jobs, stupid clients and the road ahead. Here’s to Amy and I, two years on and getting stronger each day. Here’s to everyone who has hated what they do for a paycheck, and an extra drink for those who have done something about it.
Speaking of Amy, as I tend to often, I have a sinking feeling she’s getting worried. She’s likely out cold, but I’ve been out here for a while now. At least an hour. And it’s coming up on three AM. I should sleep.
I leave you all (you few, maybe?) and retire to bed. After another Diet Coke and some knockoff Benadryl. Enjoy the rambling, friends.
