An Ounce of Prevention..

I always believe in the adage, "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure". That's the reason why though I flounder on my personal life, I am a professional "dispute lover" when it comes to policies of the company. I don't know, maybe this is just borne by my being a frustrated executive or I was really born analytical (?).

Just this morning, I got a call from an Indian-American customer who was quite tech-savvy and very articulate. He said he was on the phone with a lady agent from Technical Support Department when all of a sudden he heard the Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) managing his expectation that calls are answered in the order that they are received. The customer was so upset he was furious talking to me and immediately asked if he's talking to an Advanced Tech Support Representative.....Out of my understanding that unscrupolous agent can transfer the call to another department or even put the customer back on queue if they find issues to be far-fetched from being resolved, and they know that they are being covered by their truant coaches, I answered the customer, "Yes you are."

Well there's no issue answering intricate questions from customer who are expecting they are talking to a 2nd level Rep as I have been handling the same technical questions for 2 years now but knowing that I am not a 2nd Level Support Rep and that I have to extend a lot of effort to make use of my soft skill to appease the customer is quite a headache.

Now another issue is that the QA Department is considering an enforcement of full disclosures during promotions and billing related customer service calls and imposition of a Non-Negotiable Behaviour rating for missing out a single disclosure doesn't seem to be rational. They should consider cleaning out the rotten system of barging of calls. Remember that in an 8 hour shift, a Technical Support Representative (TSR) receives an average of 45 calls. That means that in a 40 hrs weekly shift, an agent gets around 225 calls, only 10-15 of which are on e-Talk or recorded. With those recorded calls, only 2 are being rated by the Quality Assurance Specialists (QAS).


That means that while the adherent TSR's endure the churn of irate mis-informed customers, there are veteran agents who are messing up calls since they are covered by their coaches. Whew!!!!!

The Golden Rule..

Typhoon Peping's scare is in the air and I barely got sleep. Two hours of sleep is basically a big no-no for me. As I always put it with my customers, "Golden rule applies". Always treat your customer just like how you want to be treated.....

With that in mind, I thought of pouring in my sentiments regarding the incompetence of our company's HRD. Payroll issues always take time to roll. Disputes for this payperiod would be taken into consideration the next, next payperiod. Brace yourself....hope for the best, expect the worst. Payroll disputes always don't yield good results.....

It's quite a pain in the ass, so to speak (sorry for the slang) that while I am working with one of the top corporations in the country, internal control policies seem to be very mediocre. There's no check and balance, no visible audit trail. You have to wait you're impacted and you call their attention. Not only that, you have to go to the hierarchy of authorities and please arm yourself with a considerable amount of patience coz you'll be referred to one person-in-charge to another.....

Happy Birthday Dad Wherever You Are..

It's a couple of minutes before my dad's birthday. He could have been 67 years old if he's alive. But wherever he is, he must be so proud knowing he has done his job wonderfully as a father. He might not have been a good provider -- as he was financially constraint -- but if you're looking at the little things he have and has given up for the sake of his children, he's a TEN.

I just wonder why I didn't get to write stuff about my mom whom I love equally as I love my dad. Is it because my mom is still alive and my dad isn't. Or is it because I'm basically not that expressive -- call it coward -- not that much into showing my emotion. It could also be that my dad's birthday falls in the month of June, hence, the Father's Day Celebration. Whatever the reasons are/maybe, I just don't want it to appear that I don't love either of my parents. They are both special as my siblings are, or even my nieces and nephews. They are all blessings that I sometimes missed out on reaching out, maybe because they have petty differences on me, or I might have an expectation higher or lower than what they have on me.

I just wanna share some of the values I learned from my dad:

1. Love for Work. My dad's voice always echoes, "What your job is, defines what kind of person you are." Always be proud of what you're doing, if somebody asks you what your job is and you can't be proud of it, then stop doing it. Reason perhaps I always look up to people who are so focused and engrossed with what they are doing . People who are so proud of what they're doing they can keep it amidst severe pressure. Poor me, I have this tendency to stand up for myself if my immediate head is being so mean and is being unfair with his judgment, taking only the consideration that he is a superior and me being subordinate. Well. we all have our own specialties. Though they say, we can choose a job, yet, we can't choose our boss, I still say, "We can always choose the people we respect". Nevertheless, it's my dad's outlook towards his job that keeps me focused and rational in making judgment when it comes to work.
2. Honesty. My dad's principle is always blunt when it comes to found lost things. "Find a way to return it to the rightful owner". They badly need it. When I was a kid I would retort secretly, why do you have to return it when obviously you found it. It's a finder's keeper policy for me. Later on in life however, my family would be stuck in a situation which puts our reputation at stake. One time when my mom bought something from a bakery we used to deliver merchandise for and was told by the sales clerk that my mom did not pay for the stuff she bought when in fact she did and was not even given the change for the money she gave to the clerk. My mom was close to crying as she was not accustomed to that kind of situation. Worse, she did not have spare money to pay for it if compelled to. The store owner Mr. Mendoza asked the clerk what the commotion was all about. The clerk told him what it's all about. After Mr. Mendoza hearing that, he then apologized to my mom and told the clerk, he knows my dad and he said my dad is a man of honor and that he once made a point of returning the overpayment he (Mr. Mendoza) did to him. Oh! That's my dad!
3. Education. My first post: "The Men in My "Life", would tell everything how my dad values education. He wanted to provide us the kind of education he was once deprived. He was a doubly-employed, over-worked laborer who takes pride seeing his children parading onstage snagging the medals of recognition for a job well done for the year. He never was given a chance to pin any medal for his children though. it's our mom who always takes pride in donning the medal for us.
   
4. Peace-loving. If there's just a Nobel Peace Prize for low profile individuals, I could have nominated my dad for it. I would sometimes loathe him for his advocacy for peace. I still remember when I was a kid and I go home weeping after being bullied by my peers. Instead of backing me up and confront my oppressor, he would tell me not to engage in a fight physically as I was a weakling, instead, he encourages me to do good in other aspect like reading and studying which actually yields good results. When my peers found out I excel in academics, and they obviously flounder, they started to look up on me.
5. Community Respect. One thing I noticed with teenagers who seem to have gone astray is that their parents seem not to accord them the respect they deserve as children. That's the one thing I am very proud of my dad. If you've done something wrong, he never broadcasts it in public. He would ask me to go home and explain it, and if necessary hit you physically for doing a stupid thing but you'll never hear a word of reprimand while somebody from out of the family circle around.

Well, I how I wished we could have spent more time together dad. We could have sat down together and drank a bottle of beer together. You did not drink a bottle of beer before as you're not into it. But for the sake of starting a very good conversation we have to do that, I suppose you would. Happy Father's Day still.


Related Posts:

The Men in My Life...

Although my sexual orientation provided some altercation on my being a man, and may be viewed as beautiful instead of handsome, passionate than tough, emotional than fierce, a queen than a king, an actress than an actor, yet, there are still male roles in my life I can't deny portraying: a (kuya) brother and a son to name a few. Read more..

Djokovic Out, Roddick Getting Better

2009 French Open started Sunday, May 24 and I barely noticed it. I was shocked to hear from my tennis-afficionado customer that my idol Novak Djokovic is out of the competition as early as 3rd round. He was sent home by the 29th seed from Germany, Philipp Kohlschreiber in 3 sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

What seems to be negative having seen Djokovic out of the competition was somehow compensated by the fact that my all-time favorite Sixth-seed Andy Roddick is picking up with his performances and is most likely to face Federer in the next few rounds of the competition.

America Gets It Wrong: Kris Allen Wins 'Idol'

Hello, readers...I can't believe I'm actually typing these words--in capslock format, yet--but here goes...

KRIS ALLEN IS THE NEW AMERICAN IDOL.

Now, my regular readers know I am extremely crushed--CRUSHED!--by this news. I might have been rooting for Bo Bice in season 4 and Blake Lewis in season 6, but their respective defeats were much easier for me to take (and much more expected) than this shocking setback.

Adam Lambert was my unabashed early favorite the instant I saw a viral video of him glamming and hamming it up in a Hollywood rock band wearing vaccum-packed pleather pants and some sort of bizarre man-corset. Back then, I jadedly assumed he wouldn't even make the top 13, because his theatrical antics--along with those much-discussed Interweb JPEGs of him floating around--would likely alienate much of America. But soon it seemed like none of that "scandalous" stuff mattered much to the viewing public, and Adam subsequently kept getting voted through based on his TALENT.

I started to believe that there was a subtle cultural shift going on in this country. I mean, if a black, Democratic president could be elected in 2008, then surely a black-nail-polished, androgynous Idol could win in 2009, right? Yes he could!

Well, that did not happen. In perhaps the biggest upset in AmIdol history, the competition's darkest dark horse, the little contestant that could, the tortoise to Adam's hare--Kris Allen--took home the Idol title tonight.

But you know, maybe it wasn't such an "upset" after all. Maybe it was foolish of me to think that a copiously mascara'd, leather-sheathed, rock-operatic free spirit from Southern California could actually beat out a clean-cut, happily married church worship leader from Arkansas who kind of looks like Joey from Friends.

Then again...maybe Adam's defeat had NOTHING to do with any sort of liberal/conservative, guyliner/guy-next-door cultural divide after all. Maybe it was just all the over-the-top weekly hype surrounding Adam that created an unfortunate but inevitable backlash--especially the judges' blatant favoritism, which even I will admit was a bit much and would have bothered me a lot if I hadn't so wholeheartedly agreed with the judges or personally found Adam so uniquely deserving of such fawning. But perhaps Lambertmania turned off a lot of other voters, or made voters assume that Adam didn't "need" this victory as much as underdog Kris did.

Whatever the reason, I don't want Allen fans to think I have anything against Kris. I believe Kris is talented and authentic, and I'm glad he made it to the finale instead of any number of other contestants (like Danny Gokey, Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, Anoop Desai--but NOT Allison Iraheta, whom I adored). I think Kris was a worthy opponent for Adam. I just don't think he deserved to WIN.

I honestly think America (or, more specifically, America's Danny Gokey fans, who possibly defected to Kris's side after Gokey left and effectively bridged that million-vote gap between Adam and Kris) got it very wrong here.

I will just take solace in the fact that a) Adam Lambert will get a record deal anyway; b) not winning may allow Adam to have more creative control over his debut album, and thus he'll release more genuinely freak-flag-flying material; c) Adam won't have to release that insipid "No Boundaries" as his first single; and d) Adam will probably outsell Kris in the long run.

Feel free to post your comments about the season 8 winner now, and let me know if you think Adam was robbed or if the right singer prevailed tonight.

Source: Yahoo Blog: Read the Original Content...