Day Twenty

I now know why this job is only five hours a day. Because any more than that and you start to go crazy. I should really have learnt from past jobs ‘Whenever anyone asks you if you want to do overtime... You say NOOO!!!’ Granted, it was my own fault. Money. It’s always about money. At twenty-five hours a week I’m not exactly raking it in. I’m comfortable, I’m not struggling, but not like I’m able to put away much for a rainy day. It’s doubtful I could even afford a nice umbrella...ella ella ella... So the only option is to bite the cheese (no!) and take some overtime.

Now, this job in general is fine. In fact, it is one of the few jobs where I have actually enjoyed what I do. This is surprising, when I think about it. I suppose now is the time to explain the job. I work in a call centre for what could technically be dubbed a ‘Housing Association’. We provide cheap housing for people who need it. The department I am in is, well, General Enquiries is too broad a term to use, but I guess it’s the best I can do. I take calls that change every minute, mostly they are to do with repairs that people need doing, but then we have neighbourhood issues, problems with rent, problems with tenancy agreement, enquiries about sales and so on and so forth. Most are simple run-of-the-mill things that you handle in an almost robotic-type way ‘Hello. Yes. Goodbye.’ Some...? Well, not so run-of-the-mill.
The biggest problem I have is the consistency of the calls. We have three people call in about a boiler that is broken, we can offer the same solution to all three and I guarantee the reaction will be different. One will be delighted that it will be fixed in twenty-four hours, one will be horrified by this and one will be delighted, but be horrified at the fact they will have to stay in for the twenty-four hour appointment. I mean, I understand to some extent that when you are cold twenty-four hours can sound like a long time, but the fact is we could say ‘Yeah, we’ll get to you next week’. Or we could say ‘If you want any better you will have to pay!’ We don’t. We offer the solution and if they don’t like it we are in some sort of eerie stalemate. I often wonder what I would do if told no hot water and heating for twenty-four hours. Would I bitch and moan? No. I’d go put the kettle on, make myself a hot water bottle and a cup of tea and grab another jumper out of the wardrobe. I’d deal with it. Oh and by twenty-four hours I mean we could turn up in five minutes or we could turn up on hour ten, twenty and so on. This means you have to stay in. The number of times I have to take calls from people who ‘Just popped out’ and have missed the engineer and now want us to send someone else out! When I tell them I can’t and that you had your chance and that you now had to pay the charge for the missed appointment, the appointment you called up for, bitching and moaning that you needed it done NOWWWWW!!!!!!! And by now, they don’t mean in an hour or in twelve or twenty hours, they mean they want us to be at the door when the phone goes down. If this happened to me, would I start shouting down the phone about how ‘I pay my rent’ (Sidenote: Despite everyone saying this, it is ironic how many scream this down the phone who are sometimes three or four hundred pounds in arrears!) and how ‘This isn’t good enough!’ No! Would I ask to speak to the Managing Director at 9.30pm on a Sunday? Yes, I have taken this call. Can you imagine asking that kind of thing? I felt like asking them whether they wanted me to put them through to The Queen while I was at it!
I get a lot of calls like this. People who you are told in training, you should just let them get it off their chest, but after a while you wonder exactly why they are calling you in the first place? Some are utterly baffled when you tell them they have to pay to have the window they broke replaced and when you tell them how much it will cost for us to fix it for them hit the roof! People who leave their Christmas presents under the boiler and then when the boiler bursts and destroys them all expects us to pay for the damage! It’s a mad situation and really sometimes it’s difficult to go from one call to next as you choke back the urge to tell someone ‘Stop whining and deal with it! Where’s your Goddamn backbone?’ or just to slam the phone down on them.
Some I sympathise with, I do. They have babies or they are elderly or have some illness that requires hot water or heating or whatever. I try and help them, I do. But sometimes, it’s almost like the more you try and help, the more they throw it back in your face. You get people who say ‘I need heating’, so you spring to action with a twenty-four hour appointment to which they volley back at you with a ‘oh but I’m going out tonight’. Well, if you want your hot water and heating for your kids, then you’ll have to stay in. They will again just bitch and moan about how ‘You wouldn’t like this would you?’ And all I can do is bite my tongue and resist saying ‘No, I wouldn’t, but I would stay in if it actually meant anything to me to have the heating! I mean at least meet me halfway here!’
Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe! Breathe!
After all of this, I just hope the overtime actually makes it all worthwhile... I sure hope so.
We shall see!