Where I work, we’re allowed to surf the 'net between calls. We aren’t supposed to surf while on the phone with a customer, of course, and I never do.
However, our phone system puts the phone in a state called ‘Wrap’ after a call ends, during which you are to finish up taking notes on the call and enter the closure codes into the phone. This counts as time on the call.
I’ve never had problems getting out of Wrap, until I moved to my new desk. For some reason I keep missing the key to exit on my new phone, or it’s not registering, and I’m not notice it until too late. I have been warned twice for going to non-work related sites while in Wrap, as it is treated the same as surfing the 'net while talking to the customer. I was told that the third time it happens I could be let go.
I thought I had been extra careful not to do this, and so I was caught completely by surprise when my boss just showed me a recording of me spending over a minute in wrap, most of it reading a thread on SDMB.
He seemed almost apologetic for having to report this, and I told him I understood that he had to do his job. What stinks is I am probably one of the most conscientious employees when it comes to following procedure correctly and taking care of customers. I would NEVER waste a customer’s time while surfing the 'net, and the only reason I have had this happen is because of this new phone and my carelessness.
I’m not sure why this is in the pit, I’m not so much angry as afraid.
I’ll probably find out tomorrow if I still have a job.
I know about wrap time, ATT, ACT, ACW, compliance, adherence, RTA, QA, and more acronyms than you can shake a stick at without somebody asking you why you have a stick in your hand and are shaking it, which is a rare occurrence, since you have a stick in your hand.
Today I was: not supposed to be there, supposed to be there at noon, supposed to be there around 4:00, and not scheduled to work.
I’ve seen good people fired for nothing, I’ve seen dead wood kept on forever, and you need to find somebody who can straighten your boss out if your boss is going to let a minute of wrap kill your career.
Most bosses don’t have enough good reps. Their bonuses come from your performance. Make him fix it so he can keep you.
I hope things work out for you, but I think you were careless to make the mistake a third time after two official warnings. (It does undermine your reputation.)
Maybe you should cease posting from work for a while - hopefully that will be noticed.
I expect nothing will come out of it -in fact, he probably hasn’t even reported it. He’s probably just putting on a show to increase your loyalty to him. If he “saves” your job (as he will claim) you will be more intent on being productive and you will defend him when rumors go around.
Badtz, you need to go on the offensive. This cannot be happening to a conscientious employee who consistently presses the EXIT key. Since it’s associated with your move and your new phone, you need to BITCH about it – complain, harrass the IT or maintenance or whatever deprtment is responsible for the phones, and make sure that your complaints get copied to HR. You are NOT careless – you are SUPPOSED to be able to rely on your phone to operate properly. To lose your job because your employer supplies shoddy equipment is ludicrous; you need to fight back.
You might try checking the logs (if you have access; maybe ask your boss to check if you don’t) and see if your wrap times have increased significantly since you moved, as that might bolster your argument that there’s some malfunction causing you to not always exit wrap properly.
Badtz is leaving us hanging as to the outcome of the Great Internet Caper.
Anal-obsessive IT assistant managers have been waiting to watch their superiors make an example out of internet abusers. Not since the landmark Tetris investigations of the late 1980’s have so many been held accountable for wasting so much time.
I’ve an anecdote to share, about my last ‘real’ job. Network Administrator/R&D prospector/64-bit Intel Itanium porter/Break-glass-for-programmer - I was playing with some sexy tech stuff, yet not billing the big bucks. My boss Joe asked me to document the Administration stuffs. When I presented it to him, I noted a slowdown in the companies business, and inquired if I should look for another job. That was a Tuesday. He was straightforward, and told me Friday was my last day. Not only that - five others (of 24) would be gone, too. Fuckin’ eh - so I’m not only Dead-Man-Walking, but am in league with the friggin’ Reaper who continues to trust me with Administrator access. I could have Neanderfucked the system. I wouldn’t - I didn’t; Trust is a bitch.
I’ve a better (shorter) anecdote. When Windows 2000 Server Beta was available, and the company got some sexy Dell servers, I worked late out of sheer geek-inquisitiveness, or just that I wanted to test the network from computers I controlled. One night I was testing out the DNS service. I surf to straightdope.com - and our DNS server cache’s the addy, so if I try from another computer - the lookup is much quicker. Yet, at like 7PM, porn sites were showing up in the lookups. “That wasn’t me!” I said to no one, and cleared the cache. Bada-bing - there’s more. From the inside. From a senior partner’s office.
I was absolutely not going to be the internet cop. I certainly could have been, and were the company bigger, I could have grown fat on chips, grown a long beard and been un-fire-able. Muahaha!
ahem
/risks some bad advice
Badtz - best wishes on your future endeavours, yet what you’re doing isn’t your career.
Yeah, I got my update right before my shift ended today. I get to keep my job. Apparently I was wrong about having been talked to twice before about this, it was only once.
Badtz– I manage a call-center, and even though you’re an old hand, a couple o’ words of advice?
Demand (nicely but firmly) a new phone. IT/Telephony will grumble and say that it’s user error, but screw’em. Point out to your boss that this was never a problem at your old station. Something changed, when you changed your seat.
Document, document, document. : Write down what happened and the times you’ve talked to your boss/IT about a new phone. E-mail it to yourself (assuming you have an e-mail account) so it’s date and time stamped. That way, if it happens again and you while you’re waiting for a replacement phone, you can demonstrate that you’re trying to resolve the situation.
While you’re in Wrap, does that mean another call can’t be routed to you? If so, I can understand the prohibition. While it’s not your attention, there are people who would abuse this. And what you did, intentional or not, is identical to someone who is deliberately abusing the system–meaning, at a certain point, management has to draw the line or managing the staff becomes chaotic (“Hey, Bill is a lazy bastard, but me, it was just a mistake”). If being in Wrap doesn’t keep the next call from getting to you, I’m not sure why this is a big deal.
When you say, “I keep missing the key to exit on my new phone,” what does that mean? Do you believe you are hitting the key, but the system doesn’t? Is there some status flag on your computer screen or your phone, or some “beep” in your headset, that tells you when you’re out of Wrap? Can you use that to confirm?
