This is goodbye for now

As many of you may have noticed I have not been on in quite some time. This is due to

1. Computer problems. I very much need a new computer. The novelty of seeing a blue screen of death every day and of posts taking 3 or more hours to post after the publish button has been pushed wore off long ago.

2. Money problems. So my boss thinks it's fare to threaten to fire me when I as for a raise of more than $10.50 per hour which is the same amount I was earning in 2000. Anyone with a brain can tell you that's not enough to live on. They promised us a $2 raise next month 6 months ago. And keeps getting pushed to 'next month'. It's so bad water cooler talk mainly consists of what plasma and blood banks will pay the most.

3. Stress. So I've gained 30 pounds in 1 year and the funny thing is I can't afford to eat a lot - or maybe I can't afford to eat healthy. In any case I put it to stress. I moved to this job to try and get out of the stress of working with 4 customers at a time wanting individual instantaneous concurrent attention for four different problems while attempting to make them believe they were the only customer I was assisting all work day long to a job I hoped would be less stressful. It was at first ... and then my one job turned into three jobs. As a call center worker that means I went from the extremely heavy work load of answering 4 chats on the same line at once with back to back customers all day long, to the modernly heavy load of answering one line through out the day to the extremely heavy load of answering 3 lines with back to back customers all day long. For those of you who are thinking - oh good that means a pay raise... uh no.

On top of all of this they have suddenly started to micromanage us (eg -theat 15 minute break better not be even one second over or under, absolutely no food at the desks, liquid in airtight containers only, and so forth) and they decided to go down to having people answer only one line. No this doesn't mean I'm no longer having to answer 3 lines at once. It means the new people around me are answering only one line and claiming it's the easiest job they've ever had while I have to answer back to back calls all day long knowing that they are getting paid the same wage as myself to do a third of the work I am doing. At least the three lines don't ring all at once.

They do their very best to force it into a fast paced work environment - I don't know about any of you but I hate working in a fast paced environment, especially at the speed they want us to go. Personally I would rather be able to say I accomplished one very well done task than I did a half ass job on ten tasks. Sadly call center corporations have yet to figure out that in the long run quality always gets more customers than quantity.

If you have ever heard that call centers are the sweatshops of the 21st century; believe it. The next time you are speaking to a customer service agent on the phone thinking that it's horrible that they aren't treating you line a king or a queen consider that they get treated like vermin all day long and are expected to be happy about it. If you've ever seen those pictures on line of what a call center looks like - add in 3x as many computers and remove the windows and you will start to get closer to the truth but you won't quite be there. Think the person on the other end is getting a great commission for selling to you? Think again most call centers either offer no commission at all or require an impossible 80% conversion rate before the agent is allowed to collect a commission. Think that commission is a nice 25%? Try again. Most likely they are lucky to get 5% and more likely closer to 0.50%. Think you'll find this in public reports or that the agent will tell it to you? Think again. This is often considered the most confidential of company information and the agent would be fired if they told you.

Trust me if most people saw how call center workers are often treated there would be an outcry of rage against how very closely the corporations running them straddle the line on nearly committing human rights violations. Trust me if they didn't have the threat of jail time hanging over their heads they would cross it. They do not see their workers as assets as other businesses do but as expendable expenses. They demand much from them and offer very little in return. They are a perfect example of why Americans do not take vacations - when your supposedly paid vacation gets you a much lower wage than usual and your usual wage is already low you can't afford that vacation. When you go on vacation knowing you have a high chance of coming back to find you have no job anymore. Call center workers don't dream about what they will do with their nest egg one day - they dream about one day making enough to start a nest egg. Add to this that the average american worker is estimated by economists to be 4x more productive than they were in the mid 1900's - no I don't mean their job is 4x easier because new equipment lets them shovel those 16 tons of #9 coal with ease - I mean their bosses like to save money by forgoing the labor saving equipment and demand 64 tons in the same time - is it any wonder that most of america is disgruntled?

There are a few good ones out there that treat their workers like human beings. My current job used to be one of them. Then they fired the old project planner and hired a new one who turned it into the other kind. Metaphorically speaking they want us to run at full gallop while drawing multiple carts but only providing enough feed to be digested into fuel enough for a slow walk and one very small cart. And they wonder why project lead, supervisors, managers and workers alike have been leaving in droves. Like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

The company say's this is all fair. I really cannot see how. They say they cannot afford to give us a raise. They gave raises to all the other projects when they said they would. and their CEO just got a very nice raise. They say we are the ones who can stop the negatively on the call floor that has begun to build up. They know they negatively is actually civil unrest which comes from unequal work load among the agents and the unfair wages and that only they can change that..

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Wow it felt good to get that out.

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The short of it is that until I can start earning a lot from blogging I need to also have a bread and butter job. Now with the way my current job has been going down hill it is time for me to vote with my feet and find another job. As the writing is on the wall that this job won't be around for long I need to spend 100% of my time on finding that new job. All I ask is a job that pays a fair wage and doesn't work me so hard I end up sleeping 14 hours a day.

And I need to save every penny I can pinch in the hopes of being able to replace my failing computer.

What this means is I have to stop blogging for a while - both to save time and money. I hope not for more than a few months.

Until then I have to cancel my service with WA. But know that I miss and will continue to miss you all and that my number one goal is to be able to come back to blogging again.

Until we meet again.

Rebecca Anne