One can dream.
May. 13th, 2005 03:07 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jahbulon.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
techrecovery(if this is off-topic, sue me)
I'm having a really crappy time at work.
We've just released a new product with a new network infrastructure and a wholly new tracking system. We didn't receive training in the product or the tracking system until 9am on the day of launch (even then it was not even close to a majority of staff, let alone all the relevant and required data). This means we had customers calling who were subscribed to products we weren't familiar with, with issues we couldn't diagnose and no way of tracking the calls or finding the correct account information. Once we muddled our way through the tracking system and reached the relevant data, we didn't know what that meant for the customer's account or state of provisioning on their phone line.
Basically, SNAFU. But so FU that SN is gonna have to undergo radical changes - ie I'm desperately looking for another job. I mention this only to give some background to the fuming misanthropic rage I currently find myself in.
Do you think, and bear with me here, that we could sue or receive compensation for the emotional and social problems that Internet Help Desk hath wrought upon our innocent souls?
I didn't know when I started this job that these people would hate me, though I have never spoken to them. I didn't realise that the people with problems would actually fight ME, the person trying to help them. I thought I could help people with my superior knowledge of technical issues. I was innocent and naive, I didn't think I could change the world but I thought maybe I could help a few people, a little at a time. I wanted to do good things.
Instead I have become the destroying angel, coming soon to a clock-tower near you. I have little respect for humans because every day I am shown first-hand just how stupid, obtuse, difficult and self-defeating these worms can be. I have social problems because I cannot be asked "How's work?" or "What do you do?" without being reminded of my entire existence at work, which is one long exasperating event - thus dominating the conversation with angst until I finally peter out and excuse myself.
This job is not healthy. I think this is demonstrable in a court of law. I live in Australia, we're not so litigious as you Americans.. Do you think someone over there could get away with it? Please try, I need a precedent.
I'm having a really crappy time at work.
We've just released a new product with a new network infrastructure and a wholly new tracking system. We didn't receive training in the product or the tracking system until 9am on the day of launch (even then it was not even close to a majority of staff, let alone all the relevant and required data). This means we had customers calling who were subscribed to products we weren't familiar with, with issues we couldn't diagnose and no way of tracking the calls or finding the correct account information. Once we muddled our way through the tracking system and reached the relevant data, we didn't know what that meant for the customer's account or state of provisioning on their phone line.
Basically, SNAFU. But so FU that SN is gonna have to undergo radical changes - ie I'm desperately looking for another job. I mention this only to give some background to the fuming misanthropic rage I currently find myself in.
Do you think, and bear with me here, that we could sue or receive compensation for the emotional and social problems that Internet Help Desk hath wrought upon our innocent souls?
I didn't know when I started this job that these people would hate me, though I have never spoken to them. I didn't realise that the people with problems would actually fight ME, the person trying to help them. I thought I could help people with my superior knowledge of technical issues. I was innocent and naive, I didn't think I could change the world but I thought maybe I could help a few people, a little at a time. I wanted to do good things.
Instead I have become the destroying angel, coming soon to a clock-tower near you. I have little respect for humans because every day I am shown first-hand just how stupid, obtuse, difficult and self-defeating these worms can be. I have social problems because I cannot be asked "How's work?" or "What do you do?" without being reminded of my entire existence at work, which is one long exasperating event - thus dominating the conversation with angst until I finally peter out and excuse myself.
This job is not healthy. I think this is demonstrable in a court of law. I live in Australia, we're not so litigious as you Americans.. Do you think someone over there could get away with it? Please try, I need a precedent.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 05:42 pm (UTC)It's pretty hard, really, because the things the you like doing are often stress relief from the job.
Advice I've also heard was " if you don't like the job that you doing, find another job, because you are ruining the experience for those you deal with."
However, this does not really apply for Help desk positions, namly because a lot of people who call are blithering idiots.
One last thing - They probably don't hate you personally, they hate the software they are dealing with, the computer they work with, and/or the company you work for. put that in perspective, and go with the flow. Don't let it get to you.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 05:57 pm (UTC)Misanthropic angst may be "what you get for working for the public", but if so, I want some fuckin money to compensate.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 05:59 pm (UTC)Until then, I'm gonna take whatever job pays me the most. You can't seriously expect me to find meaning in a desk job, can you? I've realised that unless I go into business for myself I'll always be a cog. I'm fine with that. Just that I'd appreciate a little grease now and then, you know? And if not now and then, or at all, for years - then fuck it I want a big dollop of grease, right now.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:01 pm (UTC)I think I'm on to something here... Frivolous lawsuit here I come!!
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Date: 2005-05-12 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:08 pm (UTC)But thanks for the offer..
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Date: 2005-05-12 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:14 pm (UTC)we have lawyers taking cases about people trying to get back at fast food places cause after eating there most of their lives they are now *gasp* FAT!!
there are 4 lawyers for every crackpot...
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:43 pm (UTC)Yes, pun intended.
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Date: 2005-05-12 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 06:45 pm (UTC)We could call it Licking Latina Lovelies with twist.
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Date: 2005-05-12 07:03 pm (UTC)See, I think you have a defeatist attitude :)
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Date: 2005-05-12 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 07:27 pm (UTC)The point is that this is not a regular customer service job. We do suffer at the mouths of users.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 07:56 pm (UTC)The details of the situation I described are wholly irrelevant. I am not talking cause and effect, I am talking about a long, slow sucking of the soul, something gradual and something that was not part of the job description. That latter fact alone is basis for a lawsuit.
Damages occurred because a situation that I was allowed to enter was not portrayed accurately by person. This started as a joke but your attitude shits me. I'm gonna look for a lawyer willing to work Pro bono and I'll be laughing, laughing from in between the thighs of a lovely Latin American beauty, while sipping my Pina Colada.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 08:25 pm (UTC)Yes, I knew about the phones. No, I didn't know about the mental anguish.
Fairly simple.
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Date: 2005-05-12 08:28 pm (UTC)At that point you have the option to leave your job and hope that someone somewhere will one day restore your faith in humanity while you look for a different way to pay for your food, or, possibly, hire a good lawyer and demand compensation for the destruction of your good natured personality.
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Date: 2005-05-12 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 09:01 pm (UTC)In this era of popular conservatism and corpoism? Heh. We're all just grease for the machine.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-12 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 01:41 am (UTC)There are ways to deal with the stress, although many of them aren't terribly mentally healthy. My own method is to directly control my level of empathy with callers, keeping it artificially low at the beginning of each call and being prepared to switch off entirely. Only if I get the rare call from a well-known and tolerable staff member can I allow myself to start caring.
No, it's not terribly good for remembering how to be a human being when I get off the phones. If I take personality tests during work hours I tend to peg the sociopath-ometer, and it's too easy to carry this over into personal time. People are saying I should be in management.
(BEWARE! BEWARE!)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 03:41 am (UTC)Sure it is: you get a living wage, paid vacations, a medical plan, your career is not a synonyn for "failure," and whatever you may think of your bosses, they are statistically likely to be far easier to work for.
I don't mean to make light of your pain, I used to work tech support. But I've also worked retail, and of the two, I found retail even more will-to-live-sucking. Of course, that could just be my particular bosses. But the customers were just as bad, and you couldn't "accidentally" hang up on them.
Is stress leave an option where you live? Some time off to recover, or think about career options might be just the thing for you.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 06:42 am (UTC)Usually they push the products out, and expect the helpdesk to "wing it" 'till they write support procedures.
Welcome to corporate America tech support. Please drive through.
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Date: 2005-05-13 12:13 pm (UTC)I tend to keep my empathy low, except for those callers who I either know personally or those that I have forged phone friendships with.
I've been supporting the same product for 7 years, and supported a couple of different things the years before.
But yeah, I remember the days of being the "assistant computer specialist" beacuse I was the only who understood the difference between a server and a terminal.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 02:01 pm (UTC)Ugh.
Paid Vacations? Nuh-uh. Welcome to the age of the temp worker - why bother paying people for holidays, sick days, and permanancy when you can fuck them over and over on a temporary contract? Medical plans? Bugger that!
And I'm no slouch - the fact is, there's just very very few companies who want to fork out permanancy when they know they can always get people to work temp. Scary thing is, at 26, I'm a rarity for having held a permanent job in the past.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 02:05 pm (UTC)Workplace Stress would be your best best to whack them for - and they're not helping for shoving you a few handfuls of training when rolling out a system. If possible, get medical evidence you're stressed and need a holiday. Tell workplace you are taking said holiday. With proof.
They refuse and BAM, their arse is yours :D
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 04:57 pm (UTC)But to be fair, I still think it's better than retail (which I did while I was laid off).
Suggestion
Date: 2005-05-13 06:14 pm (UTC)2) After 13 years of doing support, everything from 9600 baud dialup connections (Midwest Internet, Glass City Internet) to support an OC3 fiber ring for the "texas triangle" as well as the CO for a now defunct telecom(Allegiance Telecom). I feel that I can say with some authority that the "higher" up you get in support, the richer the idiots get. That's it, not smarter, just richer.
3) The job with ALGX drove me into a self destructive spiral that pushed me towards substance abuse for 2 straight years. 2 years of my life that I have almost no recollection of at all due short term and long term memory loss. I feel dumber now, less intelligent, and know that it is from what I did to myself during those two years. The only way I ended up pulling out of it was by starting every day chanting "I work for life I don't live for work"
What would be quite possible over here is to seek help for a drug problem caused by mental anguish. Most Health Insurance providers cover that and although I am not 100% sure it is the case I believe it is actually illegal for a company to fire you if you admit that you have a problem and are attempting to seek treatment for said problem. There are exceptions to that of course. If you work in a support role that is governed by federal regulations then the company is bound to follow those. But even the federal govt won't fire someone in a law enforcement position for seeking treatment for a drug problem. They just move that employee into a position where the substance abuse and potential mental impairment do not endanger others. IE take their gun away.
I work for live, I don't live for work
I work for live, I don't live for work
I work for live, I don't live for work
I work for live, I don't live for work
I work for live, I don't live for work
I work for live, I don't live for work
I work for live, I don't live for work
no subject
Date: 2005-05-13 07:30 pm (UTC)