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Work and such
Feb. 12th, 2017 10:07 pmIt's so often rough to have a job, or anything really, when the requirements are difficult to the point of impossibility. Working the back end of call center (no selling, just surveys), I am one of two or three others who have the onerous duty of making sure that the actual surveys we get fit the required quotas. Age, ethnicity, gender, area, political affiliation, and occasionally many others, all are numbers that we have to try and manipulate. I say try, because while the client may say we have to get 70 completes in one specific ethnicity, there is zero guarantee we will be able to.
Granted, the numbers that we get all have data associated with them. Most jobs are not randomly dialed at all. Culled from voter registration or sold from pretty much anywhere and everywhere, the vast majority of the numbers we work with are already associated with the required demographic information; meaning we have some granular amount of control. Too many females? we can dial more males, or even only males. Naturally, many numbers are not valid. Half the job of being on the phones is screening out all the answering machines, wrong numbers, disconnected numbers, fax lines, etc. It can take up to 100 numbers to get one complete. But we do have some amount of control.
Sadly, it's still a very organic job, since it's all about people. The people we're calling, the people manning the phones, how each is feeling at the moment of answering, etc. And damned if there isn't always one or two quota groups that WON'T COOPERATE. *headdesk* When a job of hundreds of surveys is closing up and the whole thing is screeching to a halt because you need 20 more of this age, or that ethnicity and, despite running through thousands of numbers and dwo dozen people on it, you have only acquired one in two hours...
Sometimes a job going wonky is my fault, not catching something quickly enough, or mishandling my resources, but just as often it's not. For doing nothing but manipulating numbers all day, my job is oddly organic and fluid in nature. It can be both rewarding and highly frustrating. I left work today, having managed to close up a job that, while not great, at least did okay, with anything wrong with it not my fault. I think I'm tired, because I feel kind of crappy about it. Not terribly so, but more so than is usual for me. I'm normally quite calm, even when shit hits the fan and blows every which way. I tend not to take much of it personally (even when I perhaps should), but today, when it really wasn't a huge deal and no one was upset about it, I am. Maybe I'm just contrary, as I am in so many situations.
Thanks goodness tomorrow is my day off though. I don't even normally work Sundays. They just needed some extra help today. I do wish it payed a little better, especially now that I have to look for a new place to live. My roommate is selling his house and I'm not likely to find such nice accommodations at the price he's been charging me. Making only a buck more than minimum wage (even Cali minimum wage) is perfectly livable when you only have to pay $200-250 a month for rent, but will be much less fun once I move elsewhere. It's been a nice break, living here though, that's for sure. I'll definitely miss having my own washer and dryer.
Apparently I had a lot to say.
Granted, the numbers that we get all have data associated with them. Most jobs are not randomly dialed at all. Culled from voter registration or sold from pretty much anywhere and everywhere, the vast majority of the numbers we work with are already associated with the required demographic information; meaning we have some granular amount of control. Too many females? we can dial more males, or even only males. Naturally, many numbers are not valid. Half the job of being on the phones is screening out all the answering machines, wrong numbers, disconnected numbers, fax lines, etc. It can take up to 100 numbers to get one complete. But we do have some amount of control.
Sadly, it's still a very organic job, since it's all about people. The people we're calling, the people manning the phones, how each is feeling at the moment of answering, etc. And damned if there isn't always one or two quota groups that WON'T COOPERATE. *headdesk* When a job of hundreds of surveys is closing up and the whole thing is screeching to a halt because you need 20 more of this age, or that ethnicity and, despite running through thousands of numbers and dwo dozen people on it, you have only acquired one in two hours...
Sometimes a job going wonky is my fault, not catching something quickly enough, or mishandling my resources, but just as often it's not. For doing nothing but manipulating numbers all day, my job is oddly organic and fluid in nature. It can be both rewarding and highly frustrating. I left work today, having managed to close up a job that, while not great, at least did okay, with anything wrong with it not my fault. I think I'm tired, because I feel kind of crappy about it. Not terribly so, but more so than is usual for me. I'm normally quite calm, even when shit hits the fan and blows every which way. I tend not to take much of it personally (even when I perhaps should), but today, when it really wasn't a huge deal and no one was upset about it, I am. Maybe I'm just contrary, as I am in so many situations.
Thanks goodness tomorrow is my day off though. I don't even normally work Sundays. They just needed some extra help today. I do wish it payed a little better, especially now that I have to look for a new place to live. My roommate is selling his house and I'm not likely to find such nice accommodations at the price he's been charging me. Making only a buck more than minimum wage (even Cali minimum wage) is perfectly livable when you only have to pay $200-250 a month for rent, but will be much less fun once I move elsewhere. It's been a nice break, living here though, that's for sure. I'll definitely miss having my own washer and dryer.
Apparently I had a lot to say.
