I always agonize over subject lines. It's crazy difficult to go back and look for something you once wrote if they're all blank.
Been starting to get burned out at work again. I was right on the verge of seriously looking for a new job prior to Christmas time, but then we got this new system in, and all that faded away while I had the joys of learning something new. Figuring something out seems to make me really come alive at times, and this was definitely a great time. Boss actually took the time to let some of us sit down and just figure everything out. We had to, as while the company bought the thing, no one bothered to learn or teach the damn thing. They would just foist it off on one center, then a second, and really never even passed on half the things they did learn. Hell, I figured out how to do things in the first week that no one from the centers who'd had it for months did.
Honestly, being given the time to explore absolutely made a huge difference. Gave us the chance to tinker and figure out what we could and couldn't do. And when we run into problems, I still go exploring for better solutions. Sadly, now the honeymoon period has ended. Especially as what we can do has slammed into the wall of bureaucracy. The little fiefdom that is tech has started throwing walls into our path, going so far as to telling us that one of the most important, pivotal controls we can use to actually do our job is not allowed. All they would say, and tech is a group of the most terse, laconic people I've ever met, was that someone screwed something up once. Once. It didn't matter that I took the time to understand how to do it, that it's a basic and very simple process you only have to do once, or that it even has a wizard that does it all for you, noooooo. Thankfully my complaining about the stupidity of it reached receptive ears with my boss, and he's been pushing back to allow us some limited return of these controls, but damn.
I'm just really starting to chafe horribly under the numerous retarded restrictions of my job. Not to mention the stress of having too many jobs going at once, too much to do, too little control, too much responsibility without any of the authority that is supposed to accompany it, and so much endless bullshit that is ass-covering and needless bureaucracy. Blech, I hate corporate America. Every aspect of my company from the top down seems to be about blame shifting. Our company lets all of these client companies make insane, unreasonable, sometimes literally impossible jobs, and then the rest of us spend our days desperately attempting to make the bullshit happen, and getting in trouble when we can't. You ever try treating people like simple numbers to be manipulated en-mass? Good effing luck. And yet, somehow, every day we are unreasonably pressured, from the guys on the phones trying to get completed surveys, to the floor managers and supervisors trying to juggle people and completes, to QA trying to keep people from having a personality, to we in the back room trying to squeeze blood from the stones we are provided, to our boss who has to protect us from the higher ups who always want to fire everyone at the drop of a hat. Makes me want to spit.
I have, many times, spent hours after my jobs have finished for the day, simply writing up the same damn reports, explaining why the bullshit job we were given is not our fault for being bullshit. Oh sure, you gave us 50k numbers to call, but a quarter were bad (disconnected, wrong, fax, what have you), young people never answer their phones, certain states contain a lot of very dickish people, maybe there was a game on, and every quota that closes takes another chunk. Yeah, of those 50k, by the end of the day, we may only have like 100 to get those last few completes, and that's usually in the groups that are impossible to get. Couldn't get enough young hispanic males in this one area? Well now we're running out of time and it's all we can dial. Oh, and when our numbers take a dive, because trying hard things is hard, we then have to worry about how much money we're making. I don't swear a lot, but this job is definitely bringing it out of me frequently of late. And then when it's all over, and you start sighing with relief and wanting a drink even though you don't drink, then come the hour or so of daily reports. One everyone has to do, with ever increasing requirements, and then an additional one for every. single. job. that didn't do well. And they never do well. The harder your day, the longer the reports.
And we can never just say, hey, this job is exactly as bad as every single day prior, for the same exact reasons, and I refuse to rub more salt into these wounds any more. Nope. Those reports for poor results get seen by the clients and their intermediaries, and we can't ever effing tell them the truth, because they're bloody snowflakes who can't handle us telling them that their survey is garbage. Or, hey, maybe we just had a bad day where most folks in the center weren't feeling it and couldn't knock it out. Good luck not getting written up for saying we weren't magically awesome today. I have had so many reports when the real reason we did terribly was because the client gave us a garbage survey: opinionated, slanted, highly partisan, trying to force opinions, poorly written, long as shit, and usually frustrating. I think the most I've gotten away with is saying that the survey was problematic and was hindering some people from completing surveys. Even that got my boss to have to call me up and demand to know what I meant because they would have to explain in the daily company call that there might actually be something wrong. It's like, seriously?! The higher ups absolutely need to know this shit! How are we ever going to fix anything if they think all problems are our fault?
End rant...for now.
Been starting to get burned out at work again. I was right on the verge of seriously looking for a new job prior to Christmas time, but then we got this new system in, and all that faded away while I had the joys of learning something new. Figuring something out seems to make me really come alive at times, and this was definitely a great time. Boss actually took the time to let some of us sit down and just figure everything out. We had to, as while the company bought the thing, no one bothered to learn or teach the damn thing. They would just foist it off on one center, then a second, and really never even passed on half the things they did learn. Hell, I figured out how to do things in the first week that no one from the centers who'd had it for months did.
Honestly, being given the time to explore absolutely made a huge difference. Gave us the chance to tinker and figure out what we could and couldn't do. And when we run into problems, I still go exploring for better solutions. Sadly, now the honeymoon period has ended. Especially as what we can do has slammed into the wall of bureaucracy. The little fiefdom that is tech has started throwing walls into our path, going so far as to telling us that one of the most important, pivotal controls we can use to actually do our job is not allowed. All they would say, and tech is a group of the most terse, laconic people I've ever met, was that someone screwed something up once. Once. It didn't matter that I took the time to understand how to do it, that it's a basic and very simple process you only have to do once, or that it even has a wizard that does it all for you, noooooo. Thankfully my complaining about the stupidity of it reached receptive ears with my boss, and he's been pushing back to allow us some limited return of these controls, but damn.
I'm just really starting to chafe horribly under the numerous retarded restrictions of my job. Not to mention the stress of having too many jobs going at once, too much to do, too little control, too much responsibility without any of the authority that is supposed to accompany it, and so much endless bullshit that is ass-covering and needless bureaucracy. Blech, I hate corporate America. Every aspect of my company from the top down seems to be about blame shifting. Our company lets all of these client companies make insane, unreasonable, sometimes literally impossible jobs, and then the rest of us spend our days desperately attempting to make the bullshit happen, and getting in trouble when we can't. You ever try treating people like simple numbers to be manipulated en-mass? Good effing luck. And yet, somehow, every day we are unreasonably pressured, from the guys on the phones trying to get completed surveys, to the floor managers and supervisors trying to juggle people and completes, to QA trying to keep people from having a personality, to we in the back room trying to squeeze blood from the stones we are provided, to our boss who has to protect us from the higher ups who always want to fire everyone at the drop of a hat. Makes me want to spit.
I have, many times, spent hours after my jobs have finished for the day, simply writing up the same damn reports, explaining why the bullshit job we were given is not our fault for being bullshit. Oh sure, you gave us 50k numbers to call, but a quarter were bad (disconnected, wrong, fax, what have you), young people never answer their phones, certain states contain a lot of very dickish people, maybe there was a game on, and every quota that closes takes another chunk. Yeah, of those 50k, by the end of the day, we may only have like 100 to get those last few completes, and that's usually in the groups that are impossible to get. Couldn't get enough young hispanic males in this one area? Well now we're running out of time and it's all we can dial. Oh, and when our numbers take a dive, because trying hard things is hard, we then have to worry about how much money we're making. I don't swear a lot, but this job is definitely bringing it out of me frequently of late. And then when it's all over, and you start sighing with relief and wanting a drink even though you don't drink, then come the hour or so of daily reports. One everyone has to do, with ever increasing requirements, and then an additional one for every. single. job. that didn't do well. And they never do well. The harder your day, the longer the reports.
And we can never just say, hey, this job is exactly as bad as every single day prior, for the same exact reasons, and I refuse to rub more salt into these wounds any more. Nope. Those reports for poor results get seen by the clients and their intermediaries, and we can't ever effing tell them the truth, because they're bloody snowflakes who can't handle us telling them that their survey is garbage. Or, hey, maybe we just had a bad day where most folks in the center weren't feeling it and couldn't knock it out. Good luck not getting written up for saying we weren't magically awesome today. I have had so many reports when the real reason we did terribly was because the client gave us a garbage survey: opinionated, slanted, highly partisan, trying to force opinions, poorly written, long as shit, and usually frustrating. I think the most I've gotten away with is saying that the survey was problematic and was hindering some people from completing surveys. Even that got my boss to have to call me up and demand to know what I meant because they would have to explain in the daily company call that there might actually be something wrong. It's like, seriously?! The higher ups absolutely need to know this shit! How are we ever going to fix anything if they think all problems are our fault?
End rant...for now.