Ten... nine... eight...

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

My philosophy on phone calls used to be that I would take a call right up to the last second of my shift, no matter what. After nine years, I've cracked - if a call turns up in the last sixty seconds, I'll bounce it to the next tech (overlapping shifts, they work much later). I've heard people talk of different lengths for this "twilight zone" - what's normal?

Comments

[das-prompt.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on how much "follow-up" time you get, as well as how long normal calls last. I've refused calls for the last ten minutes of my shift before.

[eddiddiums.livejournal.com]

I worked for a hospital help desk where calls could run quite long. My policy was to take myself off available 15minutes prior to the end of my shift. During that time I would monitor the call queue and if things got out of hand I would go back on and run the risk of going over. I was hourly and made OT for it, so it's not like I never got anything for my trouble.

[fnordx.livejournal.com]

anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes before my shift ends, depending upon the kind of day I'm having.

Normally, though, I try to take myself out of available around 10 minutes before my shift ends, and will only take a call if there's a call in queue. But then again, I do work graveyard...

[inahandbasket]

anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes before my shift ends, depending upon the kind of day I'm having.

ditto.

[vampireborg.livejournal.com]

I tend to set busy about ten minutes before and finish up any odds and ends of email or tickets I have to write. There's four others there besides me so it works out.

[dr-atheist.livejournal.com]

Nine years? Your "list" must match the doomsday book for size...

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Nine years in official tech positions. Another couple of years being "the guy who knows how to fix stuff" around the office. The only bright point is that I've never done techsupport for the general public, only corporate. If I had to T/S Joe Redneck eight hours a day, I think I would have cracked long ago.

And yes, as a kid my parents pimped me out to friends and neighbours who couldn't read the instructions that came with their latest gadget. But I think we've all been there.

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

Still doing it. Mother dearest bought a cordless phone today - and flatly refused to even read the manual, let alone actually use it to set up the phone... She demanded I do it, but conveniently for me I had to leave before there was enough charge in the batteries to be able to even switch the handset on...

I suppose she will leave it all for the next time I go over. But that's par for the course.

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

5-7 minutes, depending on how long I want to stay in wrap up/unavailable.

We can log out 5 minutes early without getting pointed (I'm a lowly tier 1 tech), so as soon as it's 11:55, I hit ctrl+u and log out. If it's close to time to leave, I'll just stay in wrap up until then.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

I log out 5 minutes before the end of my shift except when I'm scheduled to close the queue.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Directly proportional to how burnt you are.

[seattleotaku.livejournal.com]

Directly proportional to how clearly *HEADDESK* can be heard from upstairs. You know it's bad when you go to work with the "I'm not here to fix your computer" shirt. :)

And wait... What is this phenomenon called "lunch break"? That anything like this "sleep" I keep hearing about? ^_^

[princess-kessie.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

I must learn to work for better employers. When I worked inbound calls we were docked pay if we ever logged out before the end of shift. It was an unwritten rule that you stayed logged in, and available to take a call, regardless if there hadn't been a call for two hours and it was 6pm on Christmas Eve and *no-one* was gonna call now. And woe betide you if the phone rings just after you log out, and you pass it off to some other poor sap, or, worse still, let it ring. And like a good many of you out there, there's no such thing as claiming overtime for it, even if the call goes on for quite some time... *shudders* Never again.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

Official policy on my desk is techs may log out 7 minutes before the end of their shift. OT is always paid if calls caused one to go over 40 hours a week (one of the few times my desk is actually fair about the work being what it is). Nonetheless, most of us for practical reasons still tried to stretch this to around 10 minutes if at all practical, as a typical call would take at least 10-15 minutes to handle, and you never knew if that was going to be an hour long customer to deal with, and if it was, it usually wasn't because they had a real computer problem.

We knew to save things like personnel matters, payroll questions, going over audits, etc. - something else perfectly legit for the end of our shifts just so if a call ended up leaving us with like 10-15 minutes to go on our shift we'd have something business-related to do that wouldn't put us in the position of getting a call that was going to make us run over.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Half hour. I can't take it anymore, the idea of not getting home by 8.30am sickens me.

[katyism.livejournal.com]

We're required to take calls until the very last second. We can sometimes get away with punting it in the last 30 seconds or so. It's a good way to rack up overtime (if I get an easy call with a nice customer who likes to chat).

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Same here; we HAVE to stay available up until the last second, lest we be flogged. Our calls can go anywhere from three minutes to three hours.

A coworker of minewhose shift ends at 5 PM got a call at 4:59:57 the other day. Apparently he was on it for almost 2 hours.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

It only takes a couple of years of those before people start picking up the phone, saying "Hello? Hello? Anyone there?" and hanging up.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

Took me fewer than six months.

Case description: disconnected call
Case notes: User disconnected call prior to troubleshooting. Closing case.

[bard-mercutio.livejournal.com]

I have a great boss; there's no requirement either way. I take calls up until the last minute of my shift, then stay after to take care of any business (emails, callback, etc.) that I didn't get time of take care of while 'on the clock'. No overtime, but like I said -- great boss. He pays us for 44 hours a week while we're scheduled for 40, and there's regular bonuses for loyalty and doing a good job.

[sacredlyprofane.livejournal.com]

5 minutes for us, and we have a code to go into!

[duality.livejournal.com]

we all must remain on the phones until after our shifts end. it's not a 24 hr desk so we can't just let the next shift handle it. rather, the night shift can't. the day shift will find reasons to be unavailable and run out of hear like scalded dogs once their shift is up. we've had dayshift people actually tell the users "call back after 3:30pm" (when day shift ends). at the end of the night, all calls that are in the queue must be answered. this means that we have to all stay until the queue is cleared out. we are not allowed overtime for this.