Punch the Clock

Keep shaking the tree and something is bound to fall. Eventually.

My tree-shaking job search has landed me in a call center – where I am a tech support “agent” at a huge multinational concern. (That may or may not be me at right, on my first day on the job. I think it is, but can’t remember for sure.) I’ve gone from a tiny company in a modern office to a sprawling behemoth of a corporation – in reality, a dingy pressure cooker that, if nothing else, is at least much closer to home than my last gig.

The job is actually quite grueling, with a far greater learning curve than I anticipated. Each day for the last few weeks (as this is written) I have come home drained and shellshocked.

Admittedly, there have been moments where I’ve had the gratification of actually helping someone with some minor technical issue (all I’m trained for at this stage).

But there have been many more that, confounded by a question, I was unable to help a caller. Certain queries have left me totally perplexed. The stress rises, and afterward I am left with the sensation of having been pistol-whipped.

It’s better than no job at all.

I had about three days of training, followed by a few days of “shadowing” experienced techs. After that I was thrown to the wolves. At this stage only the simplest calls are supposed to be routed to me. But harder ones slip through. I think we’ve all button-pressed our way through a maze of phone prompts, finally selecting whatever option will get us to a human. On occasion, the human doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about.