"[Office Story] Grrrr...." Topic

Disclaimer: You know it. If you don't, then what you don't know won't hurt you…go back to sleep, your government will take care of you…

Okay…Have I said lately how much I am starting to question some of the sanity at my workplace?
Things have been going good, and now I am hitting the six month mark and the corporate weirdness is setting it.
And on Friday I got blindsided by it.

Allow me to explain…
I work in tech support for a large healthcare provider. I have over 50 THOUSAND clients, (offices, travelling, work at home, offshore in Jamaica, Argentina, AND The Phillippines…
On my side of the board, I simply handle ALL the tech support calls coming in from our workforce that are having probs with their pcs. With over 800 different pieces of software, and a dozen different UNIX mainframes, things can get pretty hairy.
Our performance is based upon this thing called an MFCR (which stands for "Modified First Calls Resolved"), that being said, it means that there is a formula that they use to see how many calls we take, plus the length/shortness of our talk times, plus the amount of tickets we send up to advance support, plus the amount of tickets we handle and can close ourselves. Now, if we spend too much time on the phone, we are dinged for it, (We are supposed to spend no more than 8 mins on the phone per call, but unfortunately due to the fact that 3/4 of our users in California are still running Windows 2000 on laptops with an Corportate Encryption Program that is NOT 2000 friendly, reality sets in, and things slow down.); We are also "dinged" if we have to send tickets up that we can't fix…(We are supposed to be able to fix the majority of things, but when we get issues like SQL database server errors,etc, we HAVE to send these up, and depending upon the issue we may or may not get dinged for it). If we missend the ticket, we get dinged and the ticket gets kicked back and we reinvent the wheel, and start all over again…And if we do something wrong, we get dinged…
Not to mention that depending on how you fix the problem and the types of calls you get may or may not affect your "Final score".
All of these wonderful ingredients are mixed, (more or less) into a program which each week spits out how well or bad we did…So on Monday if I take 90 calls and 75 of them are password resets or account locks…I may take 90 calls and fix all of them, but because password resets and account locks are NOT considered "break fix", I don't get credit for the 75..I get credit for the 15 which are then affected by any of the modifiers that I have listed…

So you can see where this is going…

Are you confused yet? Because we are…Now we go to find out on Friday that "depending on which proceedure" you use to close your ticket, THAT also "may or may not" count against you… And then essentially in a way of speaking, our jobs are at the mercy of "the score" at the end of the year…

So on Friday I wander in, and the trainer walks over to me and sits down right next to me…
The trainer, (I shall call him D) says: "You've plateued in your MFCR and we need to figure out why?"
Me: "huh?" Last two times the sheet came out, I've improved by almost 20 per cent…Now you tell me that I've plateued?"
So D has me take 2 calls, writes up a description of what I am doign wrong…then I have to go to a meeting…when I get back he tells me "Watch how I do this", and he takes 2 calls…(Password resets). Then he goes to lunch, he comes back and it's time for me to go to lunch, and then when I come back he takes 2 more calls and then he has to go to a meeting and that is it for the day.
So my training and evaluation was on 2 calls out of approx 8 that were made during a four hour period. I was basically told that everything I did was wrong.
Me: "So if I have been doing everything wrong for the last six months, ummm…why haven't you told me earlier?"

No answer on that one…

I did learn a couple of neat "tech tricks" from D, but overall I am angry…
I am angry because of the way this was handled. If I needed some type of corrective actions, or training or something, then they should have told me this privately and not popped in on me blindsiding me and saying loud enough for the rest of the team to see AND hear what was going on…
There was no tact in the way it was carried out.

I felt humiliated and ashamed of how I was treated and how it was performed. I feel like I let my superiors and my teamates down. And now due to this, I will always have that nagging doubt in my mind now, that they are "whispering bechind my back that I am not up to snuff"…

So tomorrow I am going to request a meeting with D and just tell him that although I am thankful of the effort that he gave, I do think that he could've handled this WAAAAAY better…because now I've got this self attached social work stigma hanging over my head….

And we are still at the mercy of our "numbers"…

Submitted Respectfully;
Murphy

Probably a good time to make sure your resume is current, too.

I have no idea what you just said, but my head is spinning.

With Murphy it's ALWAYS a good time to make sure his resume is current.

Wow. Glad I don't have a job, after reading THAT. Thanks, Murphy. And good luck!

Murphy, request a meeting with both D and your boss to discuss this. Your boss should have some idea what's going on as well. I would have thought that if there were any issues he would have heard about it first and should have let you know. Do it in writing and make sure to keep copies.

All sound advice, from what I read.

It sounds as though the "powers that be" can either cook the numbers any way they want or may not have the slightest idea what they're seeing, depending on how 'black box' the call management software is (I've worked in call centers of various sorts for most of my adult life). Most likely the management software was written with good intent but is too complex for what you're doing. Your company probably needs some sort of custom-written management software, but that would entail a humungous expense.

Where was the training by the trainer when you were initially hired?

This sounds like you were solving problems "by hook or by crook" based on your talent and experience (the reason you were hired) when there were set protocols already established, but nobody bothered to tell you.

Ahh, yes, I recall my time on the phones with a cow-box PC manufacturer, then later with a major KC law firm. Gotta love them metrics.

I think you're over-thinking it.
The probability is that all the others in your area got the same speach shortly after they were hired. Ask a couple of them.

Calling a meeting with the trainer AND the boss will just put you on the radar as a whiner. If you feel you must meet and talk about it, I'd suggest just having a talk with the trainer, alone.

Any time that rules are that complicated, it means it's been set up as a system to fire people w/o cause at any time.

There's no other reason for it.
-Kle.

I think the Tin Dictator nailed it. You have no idea if this a pretty common thing. Often times things we believe are incredibly important to ourselves turn out to be a flea on the backside of an elephant when placed in the correct perspective. You've only been there for six months. I would be taking a pretty large chill pill if you like the job. Quietly find out what the score is then escalate if you feel you must. Being an ex-manager I can almost promise you that this may not turn out as you expect.

Thanks,

John

Ouch. Sorry to hear about it Murphy. I hate that kind of treatment from my bosses.

Call centers love their metrics. Even when they don't really measure anything useful. I've been on the receiving end of that one too. As long as they apply to everyone, it all balances out.

I'm with John Leahy, just let it slide and move on. Surely, you've got more important issues out there to worry about than this.

"Call centers love their metrics."

The key is to understand how they arrive at their numbers. Sometimes you can game the system if you understand it fully.

Also, it sounds like you may be making a bigger deal out of this whole thing than you should. I'd simply tell him the next time you see him that those couple of tricks that he taught you really helped. It's much harder to discipline people that are really nice to you and willing to learn and take instruction. If you go in and lecture your boss, you will make an enemy.

I would say to give it a couple of days. If you are still really upset about it then ask to talk to D about it. Often times it is very difficult to keep our emotions out of it, especially if our pride has been hurt. If you still feel the same in a couple of days then that would be a good time to have the discussion.

I agree Murphy that it could have been handled better than what it was. The last thing you want to do though is have emotions running high when having that conversation with D or your boss.

My advice, for what its worth.

I'm just dying to say something doghouseable about a certain country's health care system….

I'll dig a hole and whisper into it instead…
--
Tim

If any nation has a healthcare system devoid of bureaucracy and stupid jobsworth managers, I've yet to find it….