Morphine or LessPhine

I am kinda tired of the constant pain. I know what most of it comes from...my lower back...it is not happy with having to sit in that chair at work for 8 hours a day...sometimes longer. It is not happy so it moves the nerve pain up my back, into my arms...and down the back of my legs. I know I will figure out a solution sooner or later. I stretch but I need to find the right exercise to make it all feel better. Tonight my son is doing a comedy routine at a local comedy club. It is open mic night. He did a routine for talent show at his college last winter and got second place. His classmates and friends have been pushing him to try this. He did his routine for me and some of it really made me laugh, some of it was mildly amusing. He went to his girlfriend's today before he took off for the club. He told me not long before he had to be at the club that he was REALLY nervous. I am envisioning back to his teen years when he used to have panic attacks and collapse. He has come SO FAR since then. He is out there, goes places, speaks in front of rooms full of people, has done radio spots...but I am worried that tonight might be his waterloo. I give him props for trying to broaden his horizons. I haven't heard anything from him as to how it went. Kinda bothers me. I mastered a new skill today. I put new screen into some screens from my sunroom. The dogs had shredded some of them. I bought some dog proof screening...which seems to be a bit thicker than regular screening so it was much more difficult to get the rubber gasket back in. It really hurt my already painful hands. But...I did it. And it looks nice. Tomorrow is back to the phones...

Type Cast

I answer the phone at work and hear, at least 5 times, if not more, customers telling me other CSR's in my department that they have talked with 'that were just mean', 'have no business being in customer service'. I am an analyzer. And because of my analyzing of human nature, thought processes, influences, etc, I tend to give lots of leeway. Because of all of that I try to see things from both sides and be understanding. Here is the problem with customer service: as a CSR, we listen to people of all types (self centered, in denial, frustrated, desperate) call in and are angry, yelling, wanting an instant solution to their problems...just one thing. Because of ppl and family problems that I have been in contact with over the years, I can recognize a lot of things and types. I listen. I also recognize that a lot of the people I work with are doing just that...working. I have had some of them tell me "It's just a job...a paycheck". We have a time limit to which we have to adhere inorder to not only keep our job but to get extra pay at the end of the month. That bonus at the end of the month will make my car payment. I meet that goal only because of the instant call back system. Some ppl call in and do not want to wait for us so they choose to have us call them back. By the time the system sends up a call back and get them on the phone, we get answering machines/voice mail. I leave a msg to let them know we called back, and hang up. It helps drive down my average call handle time. Therefore, at the end of the month, I'm good. I get my bonus and pay for my car. I need those short call backs to level out all the time I spend on the phone with the customers that choose to wait. A lot of my fellow workers try to keep ALL their calls under 3 minutes. I am not focused on the timer, but the customer. I listen to them until their string runs out, then use a calming tone to talk to them. While they are talking I 'hear' what the problem really is. If there really is nothing more I can do for them, I help them to accept that 'it is what it is' and it will change and get better. I also know that some of my fellow workers are burned out and their tone on the phone makes them sound 'mean' and uncaring. Some of them are all cared out. I just bury the angst deeper. I put one foot in front of the other with my focus on that light at the end of the tunnel. This world is nothing but a test.

Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk