31 July 2009
28 July 2009
230 NIGHTS @ THE CALL CENTER - 2
Click HERE to read from the beginning.
Team Leader Nancy.. A young lady in her mid twenties. With huge smile on her face all the time. Thus there begun new chapter of introductions all over again. I just hated this part, where we have to ask names,natives. Huh....But I loved when others asked me all these.. .My team had one of the cutest girl, her name was Monica, Everyone in the office had an eye on her.Did I mention earlier that, there were few faces which I used to watch during training days, well this face mite be the one.lol
Alrite, so days with new team were just going on. Initially we were not allowed to take any calls. Floor supervisors were giving us training on how to be professionals on the call, how to handle customers, how to solve certain issue. Well all these were pretty much useful to us as the trainer really sucked during training days. They never gave us proper training. Who the hell made them as Trainers, must be some part of politics within the company responsible for these useless people to get into these posts. No wonder why they played politics in final evaluations, Politics was running in their blood.
Well, Few of the Floor supervisor were really good at training us with basic necessity of call handling procedures and few just tried to flirt around with the young ladies in the team.As the days passed by, I started getting friendly with most of the team members and the Team leader Nancy...She was the best. We all liked her very much in a short period of time. Her character and the way she interacted with evryone, no wonder why most of them liked her.
Based on the good show in the training provided by floor supervisors and the team leader, few from my team including me was chosen to start taking calls. I was really nervous when I first took the call. I am not used to these American Accent. How am I gonna understand what they are saying and what will happen if i am not able to handle the customer well. All these thoughts was making me feel dizzy. But there was no looking back. I had the confidence that, if i collect some courage and handle few calls, i can then manage well. In my first few calls, some experienced representatives sat beside me to walk me through certain call handling procedures and that really helped to gain the confidence.
After few days call handling, i was being somewhat comfortable and I was having a good impression within my team. I loved it. My happiness did not stay longer, when one night, my team leader approached me and said that, One of the customer had sent a survey on my name and her remark was that, She was not happy with me and I did not resolve her Issue. I was getting depressed. Tension could be seen through me. But Nancy patted me on my back and told that, that paricular call was handled well by me(she had recorderd the call and listened to it), Customer was not satisfied due to some other reason. Nancy talked to me for nearly half hour consoling me and telling me that I was the best and I could do well in coming days. Her words were so encouraging and I promised her that I will gfive my best shot in each and every call and would not let her and the team down.
Very soon all of my team members began taking calls and sitting in a bay we all enjoyed a lot along with Nancy. We would play pranks with each other, Go for short breaks all together. It was really fun all throughout. The entire 15 members of the team were like a single gang out there and there were other teams too in the floor and there used to be cat-dog race between different teams taking team performance on account.
There was a team Leader named Nathan and his team was equally good like us. Our team and his team used to sit next to each other and used to have a cold war all the time based on the performance.We had to agree to the fact that Nathan's team had some good performers because of which some weeks they topped the Team stats and some weeks we managed to get above them. All in all there were many teams competing with each other, but beating Nathan's Team gave us more satisfaction.
On the other hand, The guys who were moved to the premanent posts were having tough time out there as their team Leader screwed them all the time(As told by some of my old training friends). That was really pleasing to hear after what has happened at the end of the training.
After a month we came to know that, most of the guys from temporary posts will be kicked out based on the performance and only few will be made permanent. And till date what we have seen over here. We were pretty much sure that, no performance will be the factor. Just wish you were a girl, you would make it in there.Lolzz..After this news , everyone felt the heat and tension could be seen on every faces. I was also nervous though my performance never went down. But here anything can happen. I could also feel that My team was getting the heat in a pretty different way. I could see a line being drawn in between the team. Untill now, there was no groupism within our Team which we were very proud of, but after this news everything changed. There was no team spirit. Everyone just had only one thought. Just make it to the top so that Managers can never ignore you while preparing the final list.
All enjoyment was dried out. But the group in which I was a part, we still had a great time with each other.We wanted to live every moment of our days in the company. We had a slogan within us and that was "BUSINESS ROCKS". This slogan just added flavour to our bondings. Well if you ask what does that slogan Mean.. Well Just forget It.. :P
We could see that, other part of my team were trying to impress Team Leaders and other Supervisors to the max so that they be considered during final listing. Well not to blame them, They have seen the politics happen at the end of the training days and they are just trying to survive here. But we did not try anything. We just performed to our level and waited things to happen in its own way. During those days Our team also planned a one night trip to some tourist place. Had a great time. There were very emotional moments during this trip. We had to talk on each others character. All in all it was a hell of a trip and it would be remebered by each and everyone of us forver, though there was indifferences between each other during these days.
After the trip, within few days, shorlisting of candidates begun and few of the team mates were kicked out in no time. Actually this was not only with my team..every team was going through this phase. Few days later I was called into a meeting. When I moved into the meeting room, I could see some of the process managers and many other like me in the room. Once everyone who were asked to come for meeting had arrived, the meeting begun.It was said in the meeting that those who are present in the meeting will be made permanent from next month. I was surprised. A bit happy for my own selection, but sad a lot because this selection means, the rest of my best buddies will be kicked out.
Very soon the news was out. It was also said that one more shortlisting will be done to move some more into the permanent position. Most of my best buddies had to meet the HR's on the same day and they were told to submit their ID cards. That day was supposed to be the last day with my team as from the next day, new team will be made for those who were made permanent. We could see the sadness in the face of most of the guys. My team had some of the best technical representatives. My stats were good. So my chances were high to move into permanent position. But apart from me there was a girl from my team who too was moved into permanent position. That even shocked my team leader.
She was no were near to the level of professionalism and performance showed by some of the other representatives.No questions were asked. We knew some bad politics went unnoticed behind the scene. Nothing could be done. Had to accept it and move on. When the next shortlisting was done, my other best buddy named Abhay got through it. I was really happy knowing this. I have someone with me from the old buddy list. The thrill to work was gone after the resignation of all other best buddies of mine.
But somewere I expected that much more BPO sutras are still left to be explored, and I did explore it in the rest of my journey in this field.
The Three Months With A New Team
Departed from the training team with whome i was living wonderful days of my life, it was pretty tough for me to accept that I have to be in a new team of nearly 15 members. All the faces were new. Few faces were the one which I used to watch during the traing days :P, so they did not seems to be that new though they seemed to be strangers in all aspects.Team Leader Nancy.. A young lady in her mid twenties. With huge smile on her face all the time. Thus there begun new chapter of introductions all over again. I just hated this part, where we have to ask names,natives. Huh....But I loved when others asked me all these.. .My team had one of the cutest girl, her name was Monica, Everyone in the office had an eye on her.Did I mention earlier that, there were few faces which I used to watch during training days, well this face mite be the one.lol
Alrite, so days with new team were just going on. Initially we were not allowed to take any calls. Floor supervisors were giving us training on how to be professionals on the call, how to handle customers, how to solve certain issue. Well all these were pretty much useful to us as the trainer really sucked during training days. They never gave us proper training. Who the hell made them as Trainers, must be some part of politics within the company responsible for these useless people to get into these posts. No wonder why they played politics in final evaluations, Politics was running in their blood.
Well, Few of the Floor supervisor were really good at training us with basic necessity of call handling procedures and few just tried to flirt around with the young ladies in the team.As the days passed by, I started getting friendly with most of the team members and the Team leader Nancy...She was the best. We all liked her very much in a short period of time. Her character and the way she interacted with evryone, no wonder why most of them liked her.
Based on the good show in the training provided by floor supervisors and the team leader, few from my team including me was chosen to start taking calls. I was really nervous when I first took the call. I am not used to these American Accent. How am I gonna understand what they are saying and what will happen if i am not able to handle the customer well. All these thoughts was making me feel dizzy. But there was no looking back. I had the confidence that, if i collect some courage and handle few calls, i can then manage well. In my first few calls, some experienced representatives sat beside me to walk me through certain call handling procedures and that really helped to gain the confidence.
After few days call handling, i was being somewhat comfortable and I was having a good impression within my team. I loved it. My happiness did not stay longer, when one night, my team leader approached me and said that, One of the customer had sent a survey on my name and her remark was that, She was not happy with me and I did not resolve her Issue. I was getting depressed. Tension could be seen through me. But Nancy patted me on my back and told that, that paricular call was handled well by me(she had recorderd the call and listened to it), Customer was not satisfied due to some other reason. Nancy talked to me for nearly half hour consoling me and telling me that I was the best and I could do well in coming days. Her words were so encouraging and I promised her that I will gfive my best shot in each and every call and would not let her and the team down.
Very soon all of my team members began taking calls and sitting in a bay we all enjoyed a lot along with Nancy. We would play pranks with each other, Go for short breaks all together. It was really fun all throughout. The entire 15 members of the team were like a single gang out there and there were other teams too in the floor and there used to be cat-dog race between different teams taking team performance on account.
There was a team Leader named Nathan and his team was equally good like us. Our team and his team used to sit next to each other and used to have a cold war all the time based on the performance.We had to agree to the fact that Nathan's team had some good performers because of which some weeks they topped the Team stats and some weeks we managed to get above them. All in all there were many teams competing with each other, but beating Nathan's Team gave us more satisfaction.
On the other hand, The guys who were moved to the premanent posts were having tough time out there as their team Leader screwed them all the time(As told by some of my old training friends). That was really pleasing to hear after what has happened at the end of the training.
After a month we came to know that, most of the guys from temporary posts will be kicked out based on the performance and only few will be made permanent. And till date what we have seen over here. We were pretty much sure that, no performance will be the factor. Just wish you were a girl, you would make it in there.Lolzz..After this news , everyone felt the heat and tension could be seen on every faces. I was also nervous though my performance never went down. But here anything can happen. I could also feel that My team was getting the heat in a pretty different way. I could see a line being drawn in between the team. Untill now, there was no groupism within our Team which we were very proud of, but after this news everything changed. There was no team spirit. Everyone just had only one thought. Just make it to the top so that Managers can never ignore you while preparing the final list.
All enjoyment was dried out. But the group in which I was a part, we still had a great time with each other.We wanted to live every moment of our days in the company. We had a slogan within us and that was "BUSINESS ROCKS". This slogan just added flavour to our bondings. Well if you ask what does that slogan Mean.. Well Just forget It.. :P
We could see that, other part of my team were trying to impress Team Leaders and other Supervisors to the max so that they be considered during final listing. Well not to blame them, They have seen the politics happen at the end of the training days and they are just trying to survive here. But we did not try anything. We just performed to our level and waited things to happen in its own way. During those days Our team also planned a one night trip to some tourist place. Had a great time. There were very emotional moments during this trip. We had to talk on each others character. All in all it was a hell of a trip and it would be remebered by each and everyone of us forver, though there was indifferences between each other during these days.
After the trip, within few days, shorlisting of candidates begun and few of the team mates were kicked out in no time. Actually this was not only with my team..every team was going through this phase. Few days later I was called into a meeting. When I moved into the meeting room, I could see some of the process managers and many other like me in the room. Once everyone who were asked to come for meeting had arrived, the meeting begun.It was said in the meeting that those who are present in the meeting will be made permanent from next month. I was surprised. A bit happy for my own selection, but sad a lot because this selection means, the rest of my best buddies will be kicked out.
Very soon the news was out. It was also said that one more shortlisting will be done to move some more into the permanent position. Most of my best buddies had to meet the HR's on the same day and they were told to submit their ID cards. That day was supposed to be the last day with my team as from the next day, new team will be made for those who were made permanent. We could see the sadness in the face of most of the guys. My team had some of the best technical representatives. My stats were good. So my chances were high to move into permanent position. But apart from me there was a girl from my team who too was moved into permanent position. That even shocked my team leader.
She was no were near to the level of professionalism and performance showed by some of the other representatives.No questions were asked. We knew some bad politics went unnoticed behind the scene. Nothing could be done. Had to accept it and move on. When the next shortlisting was done, my other best buddy named Abhay got through it. I was really happy knowing this. I have someone with me from the old buddy list. The thrill to work was gone after the resignation of all other best buddies of mine.
But somewere I expected that much more BPO sutras are still left to be explored, and I did explore it in the rest of my journey in this field.
The Last Three Months With Yet Another Team
Check back to Read what happens with Me in this new team....(Will Be Continued...)
26 July 2009
230 NIGHTS @ THE CALL CENTER - 1
Well actually i was planning to write down something here since a long time. But the life after graduation. OMG.. Its driving me nuts.
Anyways am here back with something to share with you all.
Okay. You must be thinking What the "F" is the title of this post all about. Well, those who knows me well must have guessed it right what am I gonna share with you all.
Infact most of you might have read the novel from Chetan Bhagat titled "One night @ the Call Center". Well I am not gonna bore you with any of my stories here.Lol
Here I want to share with you all some precious moments of my life, actually 230 days of my life at the city of garden, Bangalore.
I was here in search of a job. Well when I say about the job, I remember about the three Job offers which I had received when I was doing my graduations, but none of the three MNC dared to take a peek into the lifes of these graduated freshers.
Anyways, let me not divert from the fact that I am here to share something about those 230 nights. Okay, Now that you have read so far, and had a good look into the title of this post, I needn't mention what was the job I finally landed into.
Those who are getting bored by the stuff over here, Please just get the hell out of here.Just Kidding. Its your time.Why should I be bothered of your time.Wohaaaah... Okay back to track.
I was really exited about this job, Though this was not the right kind of job I must be doing.Anyways job is a job untill they pay me for what I am doing. Well, The first day was pretty cool. My training team was great. trainer too was great. I was loving this place.Did I mention that i was a graduate fresher.Well okay, I am a graduate fresher and this was my first professional exposure. So I was just enjoying pretty much in all ways.
Days of training were going incredibly great,Why shouldnt it be. The Client to which we are supposed to work after the one month of training was a huge name in the market.
We had few tests based on the training. Some were exceptionally good that they topped the tests in all means.
Did I mention that this company is a call center. yea.. the final test which we trainees had to undergo was MOCK CALLs, where we trainees had to attend the calls of some other trainers and the calls would be monitered by some other trainers and finally all these trainers would evaluate each trainee based on his performance.. few of my team members were having a charming faces as they had done exceptionally well..and few had dull faces, for the reason that you must have guessed it right.My face expressions were pretty much fifty fifty kind of.Lol. And these dull faces were of those charming girls who were supposed to be always charming being the fact that they are always charming. Hahaha..
But surprise surprise.... The Dull faces turns out to be charming and few charming faces turns out to be dull. You know why.. haha...the results are out and it seems like the great trainers liked the charming faces of girls so much that performances were not looked into but the charmness and the butteryness of few others were the basis of test evaluations.
This was the begining of so called politics in a professional world. We had to accept it. We have to move on. Well the one with the charming faces and buttery character were straightly moved into the respective positions and made permanent employees. And the rest of them were put into a temporary positions for three months.What about me? I am not a girl with the charm and ya...i dont have buttery soapy words flowing out of me for my trainers, so I am in the Temporary post.
Click HERE to read the second part.
Anyways am here back with something to share with you all.
Okay. You must be thinking What the "F" is the title of this post all about. Well, those who knows me well must have guessed it right what am I gonna share with you all.
Infact most of you might have read the novel from Chetan Bhagat titled "One night @ the Call Center". Well I am not gonna bore you with any of my stories here.Lol
Here I want to share with you all some precious moments of my life, actually 230 days of my life at the city of garden, Bangalore.
I was here in search of a job. Well when I say about the job, I remember about the three Job offers which I had received when I was doing my graduations, but none of the three MNC dared to take a peek into the lifes of these graduated freshers.
Anyways, let me not divert from the fact that I am here to share something about those 230 nights. Okay, Now that you have read so far, and had a good look into the title of this post, I needn't mention what was the job I finally landed into.
Those who are getting bored by the stuff over here, Please just get the hell out of here.Just Kidding. Its your time.Why should I be bothered of your time.Wohaaaah... Okay back to track.
One Month Of Training:
I was really exited about this job, Though this was not the right kind of job I must be doing.Anyways job is a job untill they pay me for what I am doing. Well, The first day was pretty cool. My training team was great. trainer too was great. I was loving this place.Did I mention that i was a graduate fresher.Well okay, I am a graduate fresher and this was my first professional exposure. So I was just enjoying pretty much in all ways.
Days of training were going incredibly great,Why shouldnt it be. The Client to which we are supposed to work after the one month of training was a huge name in the market.
We had few tests based on the training. Some were exceptionally good that they topped the tests in all means.
Did I mention that this company is a call center. yea.. the final test which we trainees had to undergo was MOCK CALLs, where we trainees had to attend the calls of some other trainers and the calls would be monitered by some other trainers and finally all these trainers would evaluate each trainee based on his performance.. few of my team members were having a charming faces as they had done exceptionally well..and few had dull faces, for the reason that you must have guessed it right.My face expressions were pretty much fifty fifty kind of.Lol. And these dull faces were of those charming girls who were supposed to be always charming being the fact that they are always charming. Hahaha..
But surprise surprise.... The Dull faces turns out to be charming and few charming faces turns out to be dull. You know why.. haha...the results are out and it seems like the great trainers liked the charming faces of girls so much that performances were not looked into but the charmness and the butteryness of few others were the basis of test evaluations.
This was the begining of so called politics in a professional world. We had to accept it. We have to move on. Well the one with the charming faces and buttery character were straightly moved into the respective positions and made permanent employees. And the rest of them were put into a temporary positions for three months.What about me? I am not a girl with the charm and ya...i dont have buttery soapy words flowing out of me for my trainers, so I am in the Temporary post.
The Three Months With A New Team
Click HERE to read the second part.
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