There were a few flakes of snow. Nothing was even sticking.
I decide to check the traffic map. Keep in mind it is only 2:30. “TRAFFIC” has not even started yet.
However:
WTF.
My buddy, with whom I used to work with at AT&T, sent me this article about how the CEO of AT&T is having a hard time finding quality employees in the United States. I left the below comment, but decided I would post it here as well since there are so many comments that mine will probably be lost in the bundle. Here is what I posted:
I’ll tell you what… I used to work there and so did MANY of my friends. No one is there anymore. Why? Several reasons:
1) They are unionized (call centers). It doesn’t matter if you perform well or not, it’s who has been there the longest. So, the guy who has worked in Customer Service for 6+ years and can’t get anywhere in life because he just doesn’t care and puts zero quality into his work gets promoted to a position that manages with the same quality, or put in policy and procedural type positions with, yup, you guess it, no quality. This causes management that can’t hold their employees accountable to provide great service, and policies that conflict and do nothing but anger customers. Not to mention, paying super high prices for it. For the cost of AT&T, I might as well go to a competitor for better service.
2) Employee benefits suck! It used to be a 80/20 split benefit package. Now they have cut the benefits to an “employee driven” plan where an individual has to pay somewhere between $1100 and $1500 out-of-pocket before any benefits (including prescriptions) kick in. If you have dependents, double that amount.
3) Paid time off. It’s a stressful position, having to deal with personalities that even some phsychiatrists will turn away. Yet, AT&T keeps cutting the amount of time off and lengthens the eligibility period just to take it off.
4) Compensation. It doesn’t matter where you go in the company. All promotions are capped at 5% increases. You could go from Call Service Representative to Call Center Director and only get 5%. At the $11 an hour they start you off with, you are going NO WHERE fast. This also loops back to point #1: If you perform like a superstar but someone else performs like a worthless bum, the superstar is penalized for it as annual raises are based solely on the “average”. So the superstar gets bumped down to 2.5% raises and the bum gets bumped up to 2.5%. Nice way to reward your employees. Superstars are penalized and bums are rewarded for being a worthless drain on the company.
5) So-called bonuses. These are based on company performance. Depending on your position, you can get a 5, 10, or 15% annual bonus (percentages based off your annual salary of jack). Much like compensation (point 4), there is no motivation to perform well because the majority of the company has already figured out that there is no rhyme, reason, or reward to being good at your job.
6) Management BLOWS. Starting from middle management all the way to the top, there is no quality into people management or project management. You should see some of the tools this company builds to “support their customers”.
7) Location, location, location. Many people have commented on the $30K annual salary being good in certain locations, but bad in others. Both are true. The problem? You have people making $30K in Lubbock, TX – great, this matches costs of living. In fact, people are able to buy decent houses there on this salary and still afford to live. Now, take a trip 1500 North East to Seattle, WA and these employees are paid the same $30K annually. Seattle cost of living is at least 5 times that of Lubbock. These employees (which I used to be one) were forced to have at least 1, but usually more, roommates in a dinky apartment because AT&T has absolutely no concept of cost of living.
While I’m on the topic of cost of living… AT&T does not EVER give increases in cost of living expenses. 5 more years and customer service at this company will be a minimum wage job. Tell me, who can really support themselves on minimum wage without being a dependent of someone else? Not many. The ones I have seen in this situation have frequently ended up on welfare or homeless.
Randall Stephenson – you wonder why you can only get decent people in a 3rd world country? Read the 8 reasons above and you have your answer.
I’m on my way home after work today and I decide to make a pit stop for a coffee. I was coming a different route, so I had to think of a coffee stand different then the one I normally go to.
So, I go through the Snohomish valley where there used to be a coffee stand, but apparently it was closed down and moved out.
So, instead of turning around and going the main route home, I just continue on the same road, planning to circle around the other way.
As I’m driving down the road, I look up in front of me and notice hundreds of birds perched on the powerlines. It was almost Alfred Hitchcock style… way too many birds to feel comfortable.
Please don’t crap on my car… please don’t crap on my car.
SPLAT…SPLAT.SPLAT….SPLAT..SPLAT..SPLAT… SPLAT.SPLAT….SPLAT..SPLAT..
Son of a biznatch! They crapped all over my car.
A bunch of them.
Damn near an entire line of bird crap from my headlight, over the hood, the roof, and finishing off at the trunk.
Oh ya, my sun roof was open too…
This is for all you gaming nerds out there… Answer me this:
How can there be more than one Final Fantasy?
It’s a sad day when you’re one escape from boredom on a rainy day goes kaput.
Yesterday, my Xbox 360 froze. I powered it off and back on… nothing. Except 3 red lights.
I called Xbox Support and found that my console is out of warranty for 2 months, but after several troubleshooting methods, we found that my specific issue has an extended warranty of 3 years.
So, now Microsoft is fixing it for me free of charge. Actually, they are paying me to fix it. They are covering the repair costs, shipping, and a year of Xbox Live Gold membership for the inconvenience.
Hm… interesting. There may be hope for Microsoft yet. That was hands down the best customer service I have ever experienced:
Amazing. All other Customer Service organizations could learn from this.
Especially other Customer Service organizations within Microsoft who are generally too stupid to even know how to turn on a computer.
Also, I had to post this IM conversation I had with my buddy from California… I thought it was funny and you should too. If you don’t think it’s funny, then go %$@& yourself.
Sarge says:
that’s a cool move by MSFT
I need to return mine too
it won’t read the disc except for like every 30 tries
Rooster says:
ya, it’s done
Sarge says:
but I CAN”T LIVE WITHOUT MY XBOX!!!!!! I’m torn
Rooster says:
it’s like sending a child away to military school: it sucks that you have to be away from something you love so much, but in the end, the result will be worth it
Sarge says:
LOL, well put my friend
Rooster says:
except the xbox won’t argue
Sarge says:
I’ve never had to smack it once
Funny stuff.
Don’t get me wrong… I love Dave Matthews Band. I can’t get enough of their music, but really, how many live albums do you need?
14 to-date, so far.
I wouldn’t peep a word about it except for the fact that they are pretty much all the same, except in a different order.
Maybe Dave is just trying to pay off the fine for dumping that waste over the bridge in Chicago still…
Oh well, I bought the new one anyway.
I saw this headline on Google today:
‘McCain-Romney’ Sounds Good to Romney
Hm… ya, it sure would sound good if you just got your butt whooped in the primaries and this is your only hope at standing in the oval office.
Douche.
OK, I’d like to preface this with the fact I am not referencing my wife, or my dead cat. Actually, I don’t have a dead cat. They are both alive and well.
Today I bought a book about relational database design for “mere mortals”.
I open the book and notice that it is dedicated to the author’s “wife, in loving memory of his cats, and anyone who has unsuccessfully attempted to create a relational database”.
All I know is that if someone dedicated a book like this to me, I’d be prone to punch them in the neck.
I was posed a question today: If you keep trying to prove Murphy’s law, will something go wrong?
What a conundrum that question presents:
If something goes wrong while attempting to prove Murphy’s Law, technically the law is proven, but how do you record the conclusive evidence when something went wrong? If something goes wrong in a study it means you do not have conclusive evidence… thus, the “law”, or more appropriately, the theory, cannot be proven.
Oh crap, I’ve gone cross-eyed.
I have this friend, whom I call “Donkey Punch”. Not for any particular reason… it was just the result of a South Park episode. Well, I’m not here to talk about that… So, Donkey Punch is what we might call an animal rights activist. I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, I fully support it. Animals, in my opinion, should have more rights than humans because they are here to simply survive whereas humans… ah, well I won’t go into that either…
Anyway…
A few weeks ago, Donkey Punch saw this picture I had displayed on my Windows Live Messenger:
She sent me a message that said “THAT’S SO MEAN!!!! TAKE THAT DOWN!!!”
So my response was: “What’s the matter? You love beaver so much you never want wood to hit it?”
Sometimes I crack myself up.
