I was babying my work. Trying to make it last. I enjoyed my job. Oh, what is it? Some of you know. I am a listener. I'm the person who actually evaluates a call when you hear that voice on the telephone say, "This call may be monitored for training and compliance purposes." Yes, there are people who actually listen to your interactions with a credit card company, an insurance agent, a billing department.
I listened and evaluated for health insurance. So do my comrades. We have heard just about everything. We've pondered over such things as why an agent doesn't know that Los Angeles is in southern California. We've shook our heads at people not being able to say, "I'm sorry," when they hear that a caller's spouse has died. We've gotten livid when a caller has been transferred back into a queue without notice.
I wanted these last few recordings being evaluated to last. In a few days, I won't have a team to encourage and coach.
That all really hit home today for some reason. We were talking about next week's food gathering...we're going out to lunch before R goes to Opening Day and then takes off to find the Jersey Devil. Bam! R has five working days left. I have four after her. I began to break down, tears threatened to spill, but I swallowed it back. I don't want to add anything to the trauma that CA is going through.
The sixty days that seemed forever is racing headlong toward the finish line and we're losing people along the way. RM, CA, SD and KM will be all that is left of the Quality Analysts when the final day for walking out of the building arrives.
Despite the despair and anger and other negative emotions the lay off has brought about, we are realizing something about working for a big corporation - there is a lot of lip service to supposed company core values from those a mere two levels and higher than us.
We, the Q, are different. We saw the hypocrisy and have decided to do and be better.. It's about what we, I, stand for. We want to work for, or have companies that truly value their employees; we want a real culture that values and elevates its people.
That is what I am striving for in my business. That is what others are looking for as they seek a new employer. Sure there will be hiccups and errors along the way. No one is perfect, no company is either.
The old way of doing business is not the best way anymore. The best way is to have a company that truly seeks relationships with its employees and customers. It is a business that gives back to the community in a gigantic way, that can ask itself, and answer, "What is the purpose that drives and inspires this business? Why should this business exist?"
Businesses that focus solely on financial gain are missing the boat. Are they giving back in meaningful ways? Are they being ethical in the use of natural resources and using vendors that are also mitigating their carbon footprint? Are they changing their communities by employing people from challenged communities whether it is economic, educational, or intellectual?
Our big business said they couldn't compete in the area market. Why? Money wasn't an issue. The business grew over 20%, the head honchos all made hundreds of millions of dollars for their personal wages, revenues increased in the billions. The area market? Two dollars an hour more to be on par with other call centers in the area.
No, rather than the 192 people we officially had on November 28th after the first month of open enrollment was nearly finished, of all those people, a handful were allowed the opportunity to work from home - those people working for a prescription company, and less than two dozen from a medicare call center. Approximately 125 people received notice their services were no longer needed.
We've changed the core values from Compassion, Relationships, Integrity, Innovation and Performance to something far more meaningful.
Thank you R for this: I Can Rest In Peace.
We all can.