News from the Great Beyond

Everything That's On My Mind... Newbies and Warm Fuzzies Edition

Right off the bat, let me laugh at my last post when I declared that I'd short circuit the procrastination cycle... while I did procrastinate less on the planning process for my weekly Word blog post, and with my melatonin regimen resumed got back to a normal sleep pattern, astute readers will probably note that I managed not to write my post here at all last week. 

Well, I can't just go cold turkey on the procrastination thing, right?

Anyway, as a result today I have a two-for-one special on links to my Word shared blog contributions:

First up is from Sunday, 2/12, in which I compare and contrast the parting of the Red Sea and the Garden of Gesthemane scene in Matthew.  Ummm... yeah, you'll have to read it to get the picture.  It looks something like this, though:

Click here for Day #43 - Grand Gestures and Silent Suffering

Second is today's post, in which I discuss the consecration of the priesthood in Exodus, how married couples end up ignoring one another, self-righteous religious folk, and Jesus' scandalous behavior in the book of Mark.  I also use the dreaded term "paradigm shift".

Click here for Day #50 - The Letter of the Law

As mentioned here, I've gotten rather involved in playing online mafia.  By that, I do not mean anything like Mafia Wars on Facebook.  This is more of a game of interpreting others' behavior, as well as plotting and manipulation, and I've found it to be thoroughy entertaining.  Here's a flash tutorial on the basic concept, for those who haven't heard of it.

I just finished my first full game a few days ago, and it turns out I've got something of a natural aptitude, which... strangely enough, worked against me.  I made it clear at the outset of the game that I was very new at it, so as to keep expectations low and keep me from feeling utterly self-conscious if I flubbed up or didn't measure up to the standards of the more experienced players.  However, I apparently did so well at my analysis of the other players' actions that they quickly became suspicious that someone was coaching me on what to say... and that would mean I was mafia, if I was able to communicate outside the game thread with someone else giving me suggestions.

It made me laugh, because it was so utterly untrue, at least in one way.  I actually was part of the mafia team, but my teammates provided me next to no help whatsoever.  Two of my three teammates were killed during the first two day phases, and on the third day, there was a sudden rush of people calling for me to be lynched, because they just couldn't believe I was this good at the game as a newbie.

Well, they were right to lynch me, it was just the wrong reason. ;)

This game was themed, and as it was based on something I was not horribly familiar with (the X-men movies), I felt like I was missing out on some of the more subtle hints people were dropping about their characters.  One of the players in that game is set to moderate his own game soon, which will be themed around the TV show Firefly, which I've also never watched.  Lucky for me Amazon Prime members can watch Firefly on streaming video for free.

Anyway, I'm next up to substitute into a game in progress that's a bit more advanced in its setup, and promises to strain my brain in mutiple ways before it's through.

Speaking of newbies and brain strain (look, Bob, a segue!)...  Friday was my last day on the phones for 6+ weeks as I have been tapped yet again as the Subject Matter Expert (read: assistant to the trainer) in our next new hire class.  I've been trying not to rub salt in the wounds of my overworked and stressed-out coworkers, but it's hard not to be a bit jubilant.  I had such a great time working with the new hire class last September. 

I'll be back to working Monday-Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm, which gives me time to get up at a decent hour and hit the gym before I get ready for work.  Technically I could have been doing that for the last several weeks as well, but after catching the creeping crud that was going around the office, I got out of the habit of forcing myself to get up at oh-dark-thirty to exercise.  One change in routine is sufficient for me to commit to another change in routine.  Plus my Kindle has been missing me lately -- with as many "to be read" paperbacks as I have sitting around the house, I refuse to let myself use the e-reader unless I'm traveling or at the gym.

My blog posts here, with the schedule change, are most likely to happen on Saturdays or Sundays for the next couple of months.  I'm still trying to get in at least one a week here, while sticking to my weekly schedule at the Word blog.  Additional creative writing will eventually be worked into the schedule as the muse strikes.

Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment if you will.  Comments give me the warm fuzzies, and we could all use a few more warm fuzzies in our lives.

Everything That's On My Mind... Stress and Sleep Edition

As mentioned last week, the grocery store run to restock on melatonin didn't actually happen.  Regretfully, as it turns out, because by the end of the week, the short supply of sleep apparently started to catch up with me in strange ways.

There's the usual "don't want to get up in the morning" thing, which is hard enough to overcome for me on the best days, and the whole desperate need of coffee to kickstart the brain, which goes along with not being a morning person anyway... but apparently by Saturday, while I wasn't feeling particularly tired or cranky, I was completely stressed out and didn't even realize it.

Saturday afternoon, lunch time.  I wandered by the technical coach on duty's desk on my way out the door to pick up lunch, and decided to ask her for some advice on an escalated issue (read: multiple supervisor calls over the past couple of weeks) that I'd gotten stuck with.  My supervisor overheard the conversation and decided to ask me to give her the basics so she could help clarify things somewhat, as it was partially due to an error on the part of one of our representatives and partially due to the customer's mistaken assumption, and the customer was expecting quite an expensive resolution.  At one point, about 20 minutes after I paused to ask for a quick bit of advice, I realized that I was almost out of time for lunch, and my supervisor, bless her heart, asked me why on earth I was sitting at her desk talking about work on my lunch break instead of taking the time for myself like I ought to.

And yeah, for no apparent reason, I got tears in my eyes, and realized that I was completely overwhelmed. 

It took me nearly 10 minutes to get back to some semblance of control, and then I was ordered to go get lunch and take my full 30 minutes, then send my supervisor the particulars so she could follow up on it, and let it go for pity's sake.  Apparently I am sometimes a little too conscientious for my own good.

Truthfully I was still a little shaky during my lunch break, but I got through the rest of the afternoon without incident and sent my boss an obsessively long e-mail with the details of said escalated issue, at which she half-jokingly chided me for telling her too much information.  She's very much a TL;DR person.

Got home Saturday night after work, and set out to write my Sunday column for the Word shared blog.  And realized the stress was still getting to me, because I had a complete mental block.  What I really needed was a good night's sleep, but I couldn't let myself procrastinate my way out of that commitment, so I pushed through until I got an idea, ran with it, and subsequently collapsed.

Yeah, I realize I forgot to link to the post on Sunday.  It's not my most inspired column yet, but for those who are curious, here it is:

Day # 36 - God of My Father

Sunday I really wanted to sleep in, but was committed to working the church nursery.  Two-plus hours with three toddlers later, I was thoroughly drained.  I had three choices:  1) a Sunday afternoon nap, which might just throw off my sleep schedule further... 2) Coffee, which would perk me up enough to accomplish a few things I wanted to do, but of which I was wary based on last weekend's zero-sleep debacle.... or 3) Iced tea with lunch, then try to wind down for bed at a decent hour. 

I'd tried to swing by the grocery store for that much-procrastinated restock on melatonin but the Super Bowl pre-party shopping was absolutely insane, so I decided on option 3, which didn't so much work as planned.  I felt like a zombie most of the afternoon, got nothing accomplished, perked up a little toward evening, tried to go to bed but couldn't shut off my brain enough to sleep well, and ended up calling in first thing Monday morning to reschedule my overtime hours to Tuesday.

Yesterday I finally said "enough is enough" and went to the store to restock on melatonin, as well as a few other things I needed.  Yeah, I've got enough to last me over a year now.  I know some friends and family who've tried it and didn't really think it did much for them, but apparently I can't do without it right now.  I popped one of those babies last night 'round 8:30 PM, and by 9:30 I was sound asleep.

And woke up at 2:20 AM feeling extremely refreshed.  Too good for being the middle-of-the-damn-night, to be honest, and I knew I'd be miserable without more sleep by the time I needed to be at work at 7, so I tossed and turned a while and managed to drop off again...  AND... overslept, missing my rescheduled overtime shift.  Err, whoops!

Meh.  I'm sure to get hassled a bit for not doing my overtime two weeks in a row, but after my emotional stress-ball scene on Saturday, I think my supervisor will probably be inclined to cut me some slack. 

Today, I'm feeling good.  I feel really rested for the first time in a couple of weeks.  I'm short-circuiting the procrastination cycle on the shared blog by doing my reading today and starting the idea-drafting process.  And I'm going to enjoy this last off-day before my 40 hour work week starts again tomorrow.

Everything That's On My Mind... Obsessions and Questions Edition

Greetings, my fine friends of indubitably discriminating taste.  You are, after all, here to read my blog, and that makes you smarter than the average bear.  Or something...  Well, maybe not.  But thanks for dropping by nonetheless!

Just random things on my mind today, whilst I sit on my afternoon off and do nothing of consequence.  In my defense, I can't do much, I have a kitty sleeping across my left arm.  I do so hate to move the kitty when he's being sweet.

I have mentioned before that I tend to go through phases with my hobbies -- cycles, if you will.  I've just been through a major reading kick, but I've spent less time reading books the last week or two, and more time on my two current time wasters of choice:  Sudoku, and Mafia games.

Other recent time sinks - watching the entire run of Arrested Development on Amazon Instant Video (decided to join Amazon Prime as a trial for now)... and Season 1 of Downton Abbey.  Yes, I missed Arrested Development when it was on the air.   I'm all caught up now.  And Downton Abbey is definitely worth checking out if you haven't, I heard super things about the show, and it lives up to every one of them.  If you can find a way to watch it, I very much recommend it.

I'm also trying to get back to reading more of the blogs that I used to read on a daily basis, but I've lost the habit of checking RSS feeds since Bloglines changed hands and I lost track of my login info.

Recent semi-obsession:  Pinterest. Very useful for keeping track of recipes you want to try, DIY suggestions, craft projects, decorating ideas, etc... with a social network side benefit to allow you to stalk your friends. 

I've been staying up too late the last couple of weeks or so, and not sleeping enough except on my off days... After about 3 years of taking melatonin regularly I ran out of my current supply and decided to see how well I got along without it.  Yeah, not as well as I'd hoped.  I was up all night on Sunday (i.e. after 5 AM Monday), which may be due to drinking half a pot of coffee after lunch, but even without excessive caffeine I've been less able to wind down and call it a night, and decidedly less rested in the morning.  I had to cut my overtime hours on Monday because of the whole zero sleep thing.  I foresee a grocery store run coming up this evening to restock.

Ah, the difficulties of adjusting to a morning person's schedule when you're a definite night person. 

Speaking of things I don't get (see this link for how this connects the dots in my brain), it never ceases to baffle me when people are talking on their cell phone in the restroom at work.  Sure, bring your phone with you and check your voice mail, or text someone if you like.  Nobody else in the bathroom really wants to be forced to listen to your conversation echoing loudly off the tile.  And the person on the other end of the phone doesn't want to hear the toilet flushes and other miscellaneous sounds of restroom usage.  Muting the phone when you're performing your own functions doesn't prevent sound carrying through from everyone else who has the misfortune of being in the room while you're chatting away.  Sheesh.  /end rant

Other things on my mind... Currently in the beginning stages of planning a baby shower for early June with one of my friends (who qualifies as a little sister).  I have web resources and some nebulous ideas swirling about.  Anyone have suggestions on favorite baby shower activities?

I've been tapped as the helper again for our next new hire class starting February 20, so I'll be back to working Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 pm for several weeks.  I had such a great time working with our September class, and while I'll miss my 3-day weekends, the later start time does allow me to sleep an extra hour and still go to the gym, which habit has again fallen by the wayside since I got sick a few weeks ago.  Will have to buy myself a couple of new Kindle books as a bribe to keep me going, as I made a rule that while my paperback to-be-read pile is still towering, I won't let myself use the e-reader at home.  When I have something on the Kindle I'm really interested in, I tend to get on that treadmill much more regularly.  ;)

And, since I've rambled about as much as I can for now, welcome to my new blog theme.  I'm already milling around ideas for the next one.  Feedback always appreciated!

Everything That's On My Mind... Hot Tea and Honey Edition

As the great Charlie Peacock once sang, "Oh, I've got to say everything that's on my mind / I cannot keep it bottled up inside of me..."

I'm sitting here with a mug of chai laced with honey, fighting the inevitable case of winter bronchitis.  A ten hour day of sitting near sick coworkers, and voila!  The cough is developing.  Mucinex and Theraflu got me through last winter, and I suspect I may need to make a restocking run over the weekend.

Weekend.  Normally, this is Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for me, working my 4/10's shift.  Alas, right now is our busiest time of year, and mandatory overtime is in effect to the tune of 5 hours a week.  As I cannot fathom the thought of voluntarily working over 10 hours in a day (tried it once, and eleven was just. too. much.), this means one of my normally brain-dead refuse-to-leave-the-house days is marred by a trip to the office to put in something resembling an effort to be friendly and helpful.  Bah humbug.  This coming week, I'll be working 8 hours on the official company holiday Monday, then 10 hours Wednesday, 6 hours Thursday, 10 hours Friday and Saturday. 

Oh wait, that only adds up to 44.  I'm missing an overtime hour.

OH WELL!

Work is... work. There are days that, no matter what my friend and coworker believes, I struggle to make it sound like I enjoy the job.  I was a theatre minor in college, you know.  I do have a bit of a talent for acting. 

Then there are days when I actually do kind of like it -- believe it or not, these are not always the easy days where everyone is nice.  Sometimes the really difficult calls are an opportunity to prove just how awesome you really are.  I wear my Superman t-shirt, and leap tall customer service hurdles in a single bound.

Take this past Wednesday for instance.

One thing I've learned working for a mail order pharmacy is that insurance plans that require mail order for maintenance medications tend to make people angry.  Mail order required plan, plus a procrastinating customer, stir in a little attitude and sense of entitlement (and a nagging wife in the background who must add her two cents), and you've got a recipe for a difficult call.

Add in a fresh-out-of-training customer service rep's oversight, a doctor's office who does not respond promptly to pharmacy requests, a past due balance for an order the customer denies ever receiving from five months ago (despite UPS package tracking showing it was signed for), and life-or-death liver transplant meds, and you've just enabled EXPERT MODE.

One split order, two mail order overrides, a courtesy credit for the allegedly lost package, a coaching request e-mail for the newbie, and a heck of a lot of apologies later, I handed off the reasonably mollified caller to our specialty pharmacy to deal with an order they were trying to finish up, took a deep breath, and with a huge grin announced to my coworkers around me, "I WIN."

You've gotta take your victories where you can find them.

I've found myself searching for those little victories quite a lot lately, especially where writing is concerned.  After my last posts here on NftGB and on the Word shared blog, I spent an enormous chunk of the day on Sunday and Monday obsessively checking site stats and waiting for comments.

In between refreshes on my Typepad and WordPress dashboards, I did a little playing around with graphics for forum signatures on one of the sites I frequent, and after uploading a couple of new sig prospects for people to review, I spent an inordinate amount of time watching for replies and staring at the "times viewed" counter. It was really quite pathetic.

So I came up with a new banner and color scheme for this site, yet again, and am trying to force myself to wait until February to enable it, just on principle.

Now that she's blogging, I wonder if my mom is experiencing this deep and abiding need for feedback.  I'll say one thing, her second-ever post was a doozy!  She appears to have slipped right into the conversational voice of a good blogger and storyteller.  And what a story.

When my dad was diagnosed with his brain tumor, I was 1500 miles away, and deeply embroiled in the hectic preparations for my wedding that was coming up in six weeks.  I heard and saw only bits and pieces of what he and Mom were going through, and comprehended even less.  It's hard to really fathom that kind of suffering and grief until you've walked through your own... but even if you haven't, Mom's post will inspire you.  Give it a read, see for yourself.

Musings... on Writing Discipline

Oh hi, it's me again... remember, the one who promised back in August that I'd be posting more often?  Yeah, we can see how well that worked.  Promises, promises, eh?

I will say that despite not posting about it, I did work on transcribing more of my poetry to the blog site - I finished all the more recent poetry collection (although I still have to work on getting the songs typed up, and finish the original, older collection while I'm at it).  And then... life happened.

I had a wedding to attend in early September, with bridesmaid duties... and right before I left, I was presented with a can't-miss opportunity at work to assist with our next new hire training class and coordinate their on-the-job training.  This caused my work schedule to shift for 7 weeks, starting the day after I returned from my week long bridesmaid-vacation, and suddenly I no longer had my 3-day weekends to designate a spare day for creativity.  And once I'm out of the habit, it's deadly hard to get me back into it, so going back to my usual work schedule in November, nothing got written.  Discipline has never been my strong suit, apparently.

I have, however, been reading a lot about writing - especially Twitter updates and blog posts from one of my favorite authors, James Scott Bell.  And reading about writing makes me want to write more, I just need something to force me to get started, and keep going.

Enter my mom's church, and their 2012 theme, "Do the Word".  As part of their "Bible-in-a-year" reading plan, there will be daily devotionals on their new church blog, and yours truly has been designated as one of the 7 regular blog contributors.   In fact, I will be writing every Sunday.  Hey wait a minute, New Year's Day is a Sunday this year... You mean I'll be the first one up?  No pressure there, folks!

As a side note, my mom will be one of the featured bloggers as well.  She would never describe herself as such, but my mother is a scholar - I expect some fantastic insights from her, especially regarding the Old Testament readings.

In any event, I'll link to the weekly "Do the Word" posts here as well as on Facebook.  Having a regular audience depending on me for the church blog will keep me accountable to write at least that on a weekly basis, and I refuse to promise too much for additional writing (especially coinsidering how busy work is likely to get after the new year), but once I'm in the groove, you may see more.

Sung to the tune of "What Have I Done to Deserve This"

Subtitled "I don't know who peed in your Cheerios this morning, lady, but it wasn't me"...

Today's Customer Service Nightmare brought to you by the Pet Shop Boys - goooo 80's flashback!

Now that this is firmly implanted in your brain, let me tell you about ANGRY WOMAN, who spoke to me this afternoon for a mercifully brief, albeit excruciating, time.

In the course of a phone call to place a refill order, I am required to ask an average of 10-12 questions. Some of them, if the customer has played nice with the phone system, I am able to skip.  Some questions are a result of the way I choose to go about placing an order, but most are required for verification purposes, either to comply with HIPAA privacy laws, or for our own procedures to make sure we've got the correct address, phone number, and credit card info for our customers.

ANGRY WOMAN did not want to answer questions.  ANGRY WOMAN wanted me to do things in her way, in her time frame, and was already apparently in a snit when I answered her call.

First question:  "Can I have your name please?"  Normally this elicits the customer's first and last name - other reps phrase it as "Can I have your first and last name please?", which I suppose could cut down on the additional questions later... but then, when I have someone calling from another department within the company, or from a pharmacy or a doctor's office, I don't always need their full name.    ANGRY WOMAN gave me her first name, and then very curtly stated she wanted a refill order.  I could already tell that she was going to be difficult.

Second question:  "Can I have your ID number please?"   ANGRY WOMAN rattled off the 9 digit ID so quickly I was barely able to follow it - thankfully, I managed to get it right the first time so as to save myself from being berated at this point.  That came later.

Third and fourth questions: "And your last name and date of birth, please?"  These are things I have to verify for privacy purposes.  Most people are understanding about this.  ANGRY WOMAN does not care about HIPAA and her internal pressure is clearly building.

The Customer is Always Right...

... even when he's clearly lying through his teeth.

Ahh, customer service... the job where on a daily basis you walk a fine line between doing your stated job purpose (serving the customer) and acting in the best interest of your employer.

My final call of the day today was from a gentleman who was very confident in his rightness as the consumer, very matter of fact, and very infuriating in his conviction that I could do nothing to change the outcome that he was aiming for.

At the outset of the call he made it clear that he was in the car on his cell phone - he travels "all the time" - and he was "far too busy" to deal with these petty matters like following up on orders he placed and never paid for.    He was looking at a statement we'd sent him for a past due balance.  He informed me that he never received the order in question.  I pulled up his order history and was immediately dumbstruck.

The order (for diabetic test strips) was placed on May 27th.  This was his first, and only, order with us.  The code on the order in our system indicated that it was originated by a call to us asking us to contact his doctor's office for his prescription.  The order was shipped on June 2nd by first class mail.  The amount due on the order was $130.00.  And the customer insisted that he never received the order.

Since the order was from almost 5 months ago, I expected there would have been a history of at least a handful of phone calls logged from him asking about order status, or responding to previously mailed statements (which would have been sent once per month since the order was shipped).

Nope.  This man called us once on May 27th, and has not bothered to contact us again until today, when he decided to deal with the letter we sent him threatening to send him to collections for the past due balance on his account.

You are your own worst enemy.

Hubby-head and I used to be fans of what's known as the Darwin Awards, commemorating people who contribute to Darwin's theory of natural selection by removing themselves from the gene pool in a particularly stupid way.

I'm beginning to think that there needs to be a similar type of award for people who create their own customer service nightmare.

I won't deny that there are boneheaded moves and legitimate errors made on the part of my company's employees now and then - we're all human, and MOP#1 (we're #1, yay!) is not immune from human error, or even computer glitches.   Often when people call in with a particularly sticky problem it is our fault, as they dearly love to point out.  And I've already talked about the fun that can result when one's doctor makes an error...  But sometimes, people, you really can't blame us.  

This past week, my candidate for the title of Customer Service Enemy #1 was a gentleman who apparently has never heard what happens when you assume.

Are you serious, lady?

I'm getting myself adjusted to my actual work schedule here at MOP#1 (we're #1, yay!), so I haven't had a lot to say in the last week or two...  I'm working four 10 hour days - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 6 AM to 4:30 PM and Saturday from 9 AM to 7:30 PM.  Yes, that's 6 AM.  As in, in the morning.   As in, the bane of my existence. 

And yes, as I confirmed to my boss the other day, I did pick this work schedule.  I like 4-10s, and I couldn't work on Sundays, so this was my best alternative over the Sunday-Weds late shift and the Monday-Friday with rotating Saturdays. 

Having worked it for 3 weeks, I have to say the Monday-Friday shift isn't bad.  I'd probably actually pick that shift if I had to pick all over again, because it gave me time to work out every day before work, as opposed to stumbling out of bed at 4:45 AM and rushing to get ready, pack a lunch, and leave the house by 5:30 at the latest to be at my desk and ready to talk on the phone at 6.

But, as Adam Again used to sing, "It is what it is (what it is)".  (That's a great song, btw.  Watch that video.)  And for better or worse, I'm getting adjusted to early mornings, albeit reluctantly.  This is why I'm writing a blog post before 6 AM on a Saturday, and why I tend to be utterly exhausted and ready to go to bed around 9 PM most nights.  On off days, I find myself staying up until 10.  Whee.   For an avowed night person, you must understand how much I hate this.  Normally I'd be feeling rather alive and alert in the evening hours, and it thoroughly sucks to be yawning at 8:00.  Just sayin'.

In any event, there haven't been a lot of customer stories that stuck with me enough to compel me to write lately, at least until the last couple of days.  Today's stories involve Ms. I'mNotCrazy and Ms. VeryInformedConsumer.

MY doctor would NEVER do THAT!

My family's not big on doctor visits - once I got past the mystifying illnesses of my younger childhood, I can't recall my mom even dragging me to a yearly checkup.  Unless we're actually feeling poorly for an extended period of time, or in severe pain, mostly we just take advantage of home remedies, common sense and prayer, and wait and see if it goes away.

I've certainly been healthy enough to avoid taking anything we in the mail order pharmacy business refer to as "maintenance medications".  The only time in my teenage or adult life I have been taking any prescription medication longer than a few days or weeks was the first two years I was married, when we decided on hormonal birth control pills as our solution to giving ourselves some time to get adjusted to married life and recover from the financial impact of the post-9/11 job situation.  Come to think of it, at the time I believe I got those through mail order, 3 months at a time.

So I haven't had a lot of personal experience with doctors and ongoing prescriptions and the like.  I've only been on the phones at MOP#1 (we're #1, yay!) for a month now, and already I'm accumulating baffling stories of doctor-patient interaction.  I'm sure the customer service reps who have been doing this job for a year or more could come up with some real doozies.