In December of 1999, Mr. N announced that News Monitoring Services was going to switch to a new monitoring software after the beginning of the new year. I didn't like the direction this was going and seriously contemplated going back to apply at NDC. When Mr. N yelled at me for not recording something after he had posted a notice on our intranet (which did not appear on my computer), I walked out the door and drove straight to NDC. They were in the middle of another job fair. There were about 30 people applying for jobs. I filled out the application and took the spelling test. When they announced the results, I was the only one who scored 100%. There were 10 people who didn't score the desired minimum of 80%, so they had to leave. I passed the typing test with 50 wpm. The minimal requirement was 20 wpm. There were about 5 people who didn't pass that. I always wondered what those people thought when they didn't pass. Did they get mad at themselves for not trying harder in school, or did they blame NDC for being too picky about who they hired?
I got called back for an interview. I was told that the job paid about $8 an hour. (That was $2.50 an hour less than I was currently making.) If I worked an early morning shift that started before 5am, I would get a $1 an hour differential The interviewer said there was also a bonus program for hitting certain performance goals. If I qualified for the bonus, I would get an extra $100 a month. And there was an additional bonus if you ranked among the top 10% of the agents, another $50 a month. And if you were the #1 productive agent for the month, you got a $500 bonus. This made the job more desirable.
They called me back to let me know they wanted to hire me. The woman I talked to said they had a shift working 4:30am to 1pm and I would get Fridays and Saturdays off. THAT SOUNDED GREAT! Then she said, "Wait, that shift's already filled up. I have a shift from 3:30am to 12pm with Wednesday and Thursday off. How about that?" That was a less desirable shift, but since it meant getting the extra $1 an hour, I took it.
I was told that my training would begin on Tuesday, January 4th, 2000. I would train for four hours a day for four days. At the end of the training, I would have to pass a test. If I passed, I would go through an evaluation on site before officially starting my shift. I felt good about starting the new year with a new job.
There were about 15 people in my training class. The instructor was a rather attractive woman a couple of years younger than me and made learning everything fun. The interesting part was when she had us each take live phone calls from actual callers who wanted to send out messages. Everyone who did this appeared to grasp the concept of what to do. She instructed us very well.
The training took place at the newer location on Balboa Ave. The call center was large and there was plenty of space for all the cubicles. They also had a nice lunch room with a ping-pong table. There were food trucks that came by on a regular basis. This looked like a really nice atmosphere in which to work.
After completing the class and passing the test, I was given a time to show up on Saturday to go through the final evaluation and the name of the person I was supposed to work with. This would be a four-hour session. I had to complete this in order to start working. If I didn't go through this, I would have to wait a few days for my next opportunity for onsite training. I wouldn't be able to start earning money until this final step was completed.
I showed up the next morning at NDC's original Chesapeake Drive location. (The Balboa Ave. call center was only open Monday through Friday.) I was completely unprepared for what I was about to see. It was all these cubicles in cramped spaces. With everyone talking at the same time, it was also very noisy. The lunch room was significantly smaller and just as cramped as the call center. Even worse was that it also had a ping-pong table that took up a lot of space. It was as if the agents who worked there complained that the new call center had a ping-pong table, so those in charge brought one over and stuck it there just to make them happy. If my friends were forced to work at this location, I suddenly understood their discontent.
After getting over the shock of the egregious bait and switch that had been pulled, I tried to find a supervisor to locate the woman I was supposed to complete my onsite training with. There was a woman at what appeared to be a supervisor station. (There were several such stations scattered throughout the call center among the cubicles.) She said she would try to locate the trainer. After about 15 minutes, she came back and said she didn't know where the agent was. However, she knew of another person who should be able to do the training with me.
She took me over to this man and asked if he could do the training. He seemed hesitant at first, but agreed to go ahead and do it. (As it turned out, my trainer called in sick. The man had a training scheduled for that afternoon, but I showed up 45 minutes after he started his shift. If he did two trainings, that would put him into overtime and NDC did not think much of overtime.) He started my training.
He had me take a few live calls and run through a few drills. He gave me a few tips on things I could improve. He said he was impressed with my performance and predicted that I would be making bonus during my first month of eligibility. He then took me over to the supervisor to report I had passed. The supervisor told me to show up for my first shift on Monday. I said I thought I would start Sunday, the next day. She said they don't start people on Sunday. That meant one less day I was going to be earning money. I wasn't too pleased about that. (We also found out that the person the trainer was supposed to work with that afternoon didn't pass the class, so he didn't have to worry about overtime or having to rush the training. If he had declined to train me, I would have had no way of making money for at least a couple of days.)
While I dreaded the idea that I had just committed to working here, it was definitely going to be better than going back to work for Mr. N.
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