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So it was somewhere around a year ago when I was released from my last position.
I haven't been at my current job for a year as yet. I have a couple of months to go still.
So, I thought about doing a retrospective look at where I was to where I am now.
Old job: Customer Support Rep, Burk Technology, Littleton MA. December 2004 through August 2006
Description: Answering phones, troubleshooting problems with products dealing with remote control units for radio and TV broadcast transmitters.
Commute details: Worcester to Littleton - Rt 290, Rt 495, Rt 119; Anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes, depending upon traffic and stops along the way.
Daily routine: Answering phones and emails to do the above-mentioned duties.
Brief history of the job: Started off with three of us in the CS room -- Jeff, James, and myself. I trained up fairly quickly, but still asked quite a few questions of the other guys. I didn't have a background in broadcasting engineering, but I was brought on for my computer/technical/troubleshooting skills. After a while, Jeff left the group to become the web design/graphics guru/advertising guy, leaving it to James and me. At this point, we still had no real manager for CS. Toward the latter third of the year, we did get someone to watch over us (Patrick), but he also had control over the repair and shipping departments. He was also priming James to slide up to the role of CS manager. After Patrick left early 2006, James stepped up to the plate.
Where things started to go wrong: Having only two people in the CS department was a bad move, especially when it got extremely busy. I became the primary calltaker, and my call volume was heavy. As James was being groomed for the promotion, he spent less and less time on the phones, and was increasingly unavailable to assist me whenever I had a problem. When he was officially promoted, he was doing more of everything else in the world rather than helping out in the room. Mind you, we were "trying" to get more bodies in there to help out, but any candidate that the lower levels thought were decent were shot down by upper management. So not only was I getting burned out by being the only person on the phones, my open call volume skyrocketed from around 15-20 at most to nearly (if not over) 100, and I didn't have the time during the day to work on even 10% of the open calls. Nevertheless, I was catching heat for it. This was all coming to a head during the summer when Colleen was home alone with Marcus all day, and I knew she needed the break I could give her when I got home, so I would leave spot on 530pm when my shift was over. Sometimes I would stay until 600pm to try to work a few calls down (the phones closed at 500pm, mind you). I was asked to work later than that to help with the calls, but we were also told that we had to pretty much not do much overtime (if any at all, since there was a slight budget crunch at the time), so I think they were expecting me to work the extra time and not get paid for it. Screw that, I thought, so I just continued to leave around my shift's end, telling them that I had to be home to watch Marcus in the evening. James, in his kissass/brown-nosing/"I'm the manager, you're the peon, so you listen" manner "advised" me that he sacrificed time with his family to get where he was at the job, and that there were nights where he didn't see his family awake at all. I was about to tell him, "Well, that's your style, not mine, I need the balance between my work life and my personal life in order to keep me sane and stable, plus I'm damned near burned out at this job anyways as I'm the only one taking any damned calls around here." However, I held my tongue and just sort of fluffed it off after a couple of weeks at most. Another piece of this puzzle of aggravation was the fact that I had to go through James to get any sort of external support whatsoever -- if I needed something from the programmers, go through him; if I needed help from above my pay grade, go through him; if I wanted to breathe in or out, get his approval to do so. It was so aggravating and limiting, especially when he was in the building yet in meetings with whoever concerning whatever.
The end: So, sometime in August, I was called into the boss' plush office toward the end of a shift, and given the word that I was being made redundant, as they were now able to bring on two techs who had broadcasting experience, which I had lacked, and were willing to be phone techs. Okay, fine, I thought. I won't have to deal with this anymore. I was angry at first, since it was the lack of a paycheck, but the next morning when I woke up and was able to spend time with Marcus, I felt much better. I spent a lot of bonding time with him as I took care of him when Colleen went back to school. So there was an upside to it.
Current job: Data Support Analyst, OneCommunications, Marlborough MA
Description: Answering phones and emails, supporting business-related internet services (T1/DSL/email/webhosting/ftp hosting)
Commute details: Much shorter -- several routes include Rt 290 to backroads or 290/495/20, or even backroads through Shrewsbury to Rt 20.
Daily routine: Answering phones and emails to support the above services.
Brief history of the job: My friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paladyn, who was working here, helped me get my foot in the door and get the job. I liked it since day one. This was more of what my brain can wrap around and have it stick. hbabeu was also here as a senior tech, which was very cool. I also met rfleming here. The work atmosphere is very loose, we can ask the seniors for any assistance we need without getting clearance from anyone, and it's all good. I enjoy my days at work here much more than the old place.
Where things started to go wrong: Apart from losing a few people to other job opportunities (paladyn is on a military leave of absence, for example) and one person being out sick for pretty much two weeks straight and running, it's not too bad. Even when there's a major outage, it's been all good.
So that's where I've been and where I am. In retrospect, while the Burk experience was okay to start, I was not enjoying it. It was a real pain to drag my arse out of bed each morning to go there. But now, I like what I'm doing -- the money's better, the commute is shorter, my boss is great, the people I work with are as insane as I am, and it's not as hectic or confining.
Happiness is greater.
I haven't been at my current job for a year as yet. I have a couple of months to go still.
So, I thought about doing a retrospective look at where I was to where I am now.
Old job: Customer Support Rep, Burk Technology, Littleton MA. December 2004 through August 2006
Description: Answering phones, troubleshooting problems with products dealing with remote control units for radio and TV broadcast transmitters.
Commute details: Worcester to Littleton - Rt 290, Rt 495, Rt 119; Anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes, depending upon traffic and stops along the way.
Daily routine: Answering phones and emails to do the above-mentioned duties.
Brief history of the job: Started off with three of us in the CS room -- Jeff, James, and myself. I trained up fairly quickly, but still asked quite a few questions of the other guys. I didn't have a background in broadcasting engineering, but I was brought on for my computer/technical/troubleshooting skills. After a while, Jeff left the group to become the web design/graphics guru/advertising guy, leaving it to James and me. At this point, we still had no real manager for CS. Toward the latter third of the year, we did get someone to watch over us (Patrick), but he also had control over the repair and shipping departments. He was also priming James to slide up to the role of CS manager. After Patrick left early 2006, James stepped up to the plate.
Where things started to go wrong: Having only two people in the CS department was a bad move, especially when it got extremely busy. I became the primary calltaker, and my call volume was heavy. As James was being groomed for the promotion, he spent less and less time on the phones, and was increasingly unavailable to assist me whenever I had a problem. When he was officially promoted, he was doing more of everything else in the world rather than helping out in the room. Mind you, we were "trying" to get more bodies in there to help out, but any candidate that the lower levels thought were decent were shot down by upper management. So not only was I getting burned out by being the only person on the phones, my open call volume skyrocketed from around 15-20 at most to nearly (if not over) 100, and I didn't have the time during the day to work on even 10% of the open calls. Nevertheless, I was catching heat for it. This was all coming to a head during the summer when Colleen was home alone with Marcus all day, and I knew she needed the break I could give her when I got home, so I would leave spot on 530pm when my shift was over. Sometimes I would stay until 600pm to try to work a few calls down (the phones closed at 500pm, mind you). I was asked to work later than that to help with the calls, but we were also told that we had to pretty much not do much overtime (if any at all, since there was a slight budget crunch at the time), so I think they were expecting me to work the extra time and not get paid for it. Screw that, I thought, so I just continued to leave around my shift's end, telling them that I had to be home to watch Marcus in the evening. James, in his kissass/brown-nosing/"I'm the manager, you're the peon, so you listen" manner "advised" me that he sacrificed time with his family to get where he was at the job, and that there were nights where he didn't see his family awake at all. I was about to tell him, "Well, that's your style, not mine, I need the balance between my work life and my personal life in order to keep me sane and stable, plus I'm damned near burned out at this job anyways as I'm the only one taking any damned calls around here." However, I held my tongue and just sort of fluffed it off after a couple of weeks at most. Another piece of this puzzle of aggravation was the fact that I had to go through James to get any sort of external support whatsoever -- if I needed something from the programmers, go through him; if I needed help from above my pay grade, go through him; if I wanted to breathe in or out, get his approval to do so. It was so aggravating and limiting, especially when he was in the building yet in meetings with whoever concerning whatever.
The end: So, sometime in August, I was called into the boss' plush office toward the end of a shift, and given the word that I was being made redundant, as they were now able to bring on two techs who had broadcasting experience, which I had lacked, and were willing to be phone techs. Okay, fine, I thought. I won't have to deal with this anymore. I was angry at first, since it was the lack of a paycheck, but the next morning when I woke up and was able to spend time with Marcus, I felt much better. I spent a lot of bonding time with him as I took care of him when Colleen went back to school. So there was an upside to it.
Current job: Data Support Analyst, OneCommunications, Marlborough MA
Description: Answering phones and emails, supporting business-related internet services (T1/DSL/email/webhosting/ftp hosting)
Commute details: Much shorter -- several routes include Rt 290 to backroads or 290/495/20, or even backroads through Shrewsbury to Rt 20.
Daily routine: Answering phones and emails to support the above services.
Brief history of the job: My friend
paladyn, who was working here, helped me get my foot in the door and get the job. I liked it since day one. This was more of what my brain can wrap around and have it stick. hbabeu was also here as a senior tech, which was very cool. I also met rfleming here. The work atmosphere is very loose, we can ask the seniors for any assistance we need without getting clearance from anyone, and it's all good. I enjoy my days at work here much more than the old place.Where things started to go wrong: Apart from losing a few people to other job opportunities (
paladyn is on a military leave of absence, for example) and one person being out sick for pretty much two weeks straight and running, it's not too bad. Even when there's a major outage, it's been all good.So that's where I've been and where I am. In retrospect, while the Burk experience was okay to start, I was not enjoying it. It was a real pain to drag my arse out of bed each morning to go there. But now, I like what I'm doing -- the money's better, the commute is shorter, my boss is great, the people I work with are as insane as I am, and it's not as hectic or confining.
Happiness is greater.
