One-up on the boss!

[lordstorm.livejournal.com]

It's all well and good having to deal with stupid customers who don't know the difference between left- and right-clicking, but when you're in a callcentre and your manager is an ex-techie, it's a different sort of feeling to (validly!) point out where he went wrong....and get away with it!

For some reason, for the last month or so we've kept three seperate timezones in our callcentre: Australian Eastern Standard Time (EST), which most techies have automatically set their watches/chronometers to/around; Callcentre Reference Time (CRT), usually a minute or two behind EST depending on the person who set the clock in the kitchen last; and the PABX Stated Time (PST), the time our phones display which is anywhere from a few seconds to at least five minutes behind EST. Lately, the PABX has slipped further and further behind, clocking in this evening at roughly 8min behind the actual (EST) time. Starting this evening (my usual shift is 1730-0100 EST) was noted that we were 5min late by the clock, but 3min early by the PABX. To avoid this issue from happening again, the callcentre manager had PST altered to 'catch-up'.

Scenario: my ISP helpdesk, 0050 hours EST this morning.

Manager states: "Look at the phones, boys" (yes, it's a sexist state of affairs, the girls in the place turned down an invitiation to such a late shift), "I've had the time fixed!" *smug look*

Note: manager always looks smug when he proves a point, he likes being right. That's just the way he is, he's a good guy still.

Phone states: Mon 19 Apr 04 12:50

Something goes click in my head, and after twenty seconds' pause, I say into the following silence, "Er, look at the date: the time might be right, but it's actually Tuesday."

The look on my manager's face was priceless! He then broke into the biggest embarrassed grin I've ever seen, retreats to his pod, and throws the closest thing at hand (aerosol can top) at me six pods down.

Four minutes later, I see on my phone:
Tue 20 Apr 04 12:54

I shout out, "Thankyou!" to my manager, who - still with a red face - politely tells me to "Go to hell!"

However, six minutes later, right on the end of my shift, I then note the phone says:
Tue 20 Apr 04 13:00

"Um, the PABX isn't fixed yet, it's now 12 hours ahead!" I helpfully point out to the manager. Slightly more annoyed, he got on the phone and had it changed again, now saying:
Mon 19 Apr 04 00:59

"No, it's Tuesday!" I hear him exclaim seconds later. The PABX reflects this seconds later:
Tue 19 Apr 04 01:01

"How does that look, LordStorm? Is the time exactly right now?" my manager now asks, hands on hips with with an annoyed, yet amused, smirk on his face. By this time, virtually everyone has overhead our humourous argument and is discretely keeping an eye on their phones. I made a big show of carefully scrutinizing my watch and then comparing it to the phone display, and announcing with mock-pomp, yes, the time was perfect and I indeed found it pleasing.

However, I waited until his back was turned to point out, "Um, but the date is Tuesday 20th, not Tuesday 19th."

Amid the following laughter, I gathered my job might have just disappeared. *chuckle*

It's not often one gets to one-up the boss....especially not twice. ;)

Just. Follow. My. Instructions.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

This is a bundle of rants, all lumped into one nice tight package of venom.
( And normally I'm a nice person. )

( When you work in a call-centre, this is what you like. )