Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Watch What You Say At Work

As a call center rep, you don't need me to tell you how important it is to watch what you say to customers - you have your Supervisor and Quality Assurance team to do that. What I'd like to tell you about though is how important it is to your job advancement opportunities to watch what you say to your co-workers and management.



Today CNN.com is taking a poll asking “Have you ever made a comment at work that damaged your career?" So far out of the 56,320 people who responded, 57% said NO and 43% said YES. I would tend to argue that the percentage of people responding NO includes people who just don’t realize that they have already said things that damaged their career.

When I was a call center director, I was amazed at some of the remarks that reps seriously made to me – and then a few weeks or a month later, really believe that I would still consider them for a call center leadership position. Here are some of the more memorable ones:
  • “I was partying all weekend – do you have any No Doze pills I can take so I’m not so sleepy when handling customer calls?”

  • “Where in the employee handbook does it say I can’t tell a customer that he sucks?”

  • “Sorry for not being here yesterday but I had another severe attack of depression. I’m on medication now, still disoriented but ready to take customer phone calls”.

  • “I’d leave this job if I could but I can’t pass the drug test at other companies I interview with”.

  • “Sorry I missed work yesterday, but I beat the sh... out of my ex-wife’s new boyfriend and I was in jail.”

  • “I don’t care if the company policy says we can’t use offensive words – this is the way I talk and I don’t give a f...!”

  • “But I only had the pornographic photos displayed on one side of my cubicle!”

This article has more things NOT to say at work.

If you are in a situation where you are meeting one-on-one with your supervisor, manager or anyone in call center management – THINK before you speak. I know this can be particularly challenging in a situation where you are being counseled on job performance. You’re first reaction is to go on the defensive and talk out of the heat of the moment. This will dig your career deeper into the hole. Most call center supervisors and managers expect the rep to get defensive when being counseled. Don’t let that happen to you – don’t make them have to manage you. Instead manage yourself and take control of the situation. Respond back with a respectful and positive statement. For example:

“I’m sorry that I’m not meeting job performance standards as I take my job and career seriously. I’m going to think about what you’ve counseled me on and do my best to improve my performance in that area. Along the way, I’d really appreciate your help in giving me periodic feedback so that I know for sure I am meeting your expectations”.

If you really have a hard time agreeing with what your Supervisor is counseling you on, then just insert these words before the second sentence: “Even though I don’t completely agree with your assessment of my performance…..”.

This type of statement will truly impress your supervisor (and maybe even make them feel a little bit guilty for putting you on disciplinary action). This type of statement demonstrates maturity, professionalism and teamwork (i.e. you are committed to meeting your company’s standards). However, for this statement to bring you long-lasting career benefits, you must follow-up a statement like this with your actions – otherwise you’ll be back in a counseling meeting with your Supervisor and that type of statement won’t sound credible again.

What you say will leave a lasting impression – make it a good one!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Change The Way You Think

Yes, I know you consider yourself a positive person. So did I until one week I took the time to write down my actual thoughts and responses during workplace interactions. I was shocked at how many negative and self-defeating thoughts I actually had. I wasn’t able to change those negative thoughts until I started to think about and write down what positive/constructive thoughts could replace the negative ones. Once I got into the practice of doing this I swear my stress and anxiety levels went down.

With all the negative customers that you have to deal with each day as a call center rep, it’s only natural for you to slip into negative, self defeating thoughts. Negative thinking is one of the primary sources of stress and anxiety and you already know that stress and anxiety can lead to all types of health issues.

There is all the hype about the book, ‘The Secret’. While it’s message is about the power of positive thinking, some of it is a little too far-fetched for me. Here's a more down-to-earth article about positive thinking published by the Mayo Clinic:

So do it…..I challenge you! Write down your actual thoughts and reactions for a week. Whenever you encounter a negative thought, then think about and write down what a more positive thought would be. At the very least it will give you something interesting to focus on in between the call after call after call after call….that you take each day. In the long run, it will make you more aware of your thought pattern - and awareness is knowledge- and knowledge leads to self-improvement.

Don't Be An Attendance Issue

Today CNN.com has a link to a Careerbuilder.com article about the “excuses” employees give for missing work.

Some of the excuses listed are quite hilarious. As a prior call center manager I’ve heard some even funnier ones. While the article tends to position these excuses as made-up, I bet many of them were actually true. On many occasions I was heard to remark “You just can’t make this stuff up!” when hearing the excuse a rep gave for being absence.

This leads me to one major piece of advice I want to share with call center reps: Don’t Be An Attendance Issue.

It’s a career killer no matter where you work. In a call center, no matter how high your call quality is, no matter how high the volume of calls you take – if you’re an attendance issue, most of that will become irrelevant.

It’s important to understand that call centers tend to manage the company’s attendance policy much more tightly than other departments because they are working with particularly challenging staffing models. Call center management has to ensure on a daily basis that there is enough staff to continually cover the customer phone calls and emails. They also have to figure into their staffing models allowances for reps' breaks, lunchs, shift changes, vacation days and sick days. This allowance is called “shrinkage” in most call center staffing models. If the attendance policy is not managed very tightly, this shrinkage percentage would grow higher requiring more staff be hired or leaving customer calls and email waiting for long periods. Call center management’s job would be much easier if there were no shrinkage allowance at all in the staffing model – but don’t worry, Human Resources is usually there to keep them honest as depicted in the following cartoon:

Try to avoid becoming an attendance issue by managing your allotted days off very carefully. Sure it’s not easy and it takes some effort – but it can be done. You should be using your allocated time-off for the following reasons only:
  • You are truly physically sick – this doesn’t mean just a headache, the sniffles, your period or you’re just plain too tired from partying too late the night before.


  • Your child is sick – if you are a parent you are doubly challenged to manage your allocated time off. You will need to step-up to the plate as a responsible adult and save many of your allocated days in anticipation that your child will be sick at some point during the year.


  • You have a true family emergency – if there are some ongoing health or personal issues going on in your family, then you need to save some of your allocated time off in anticipation of this.


  • You take a pre-planned personal day or a vacation – which all call center reps really need! Try to plan these days in advance – it will then help you more proactively plan & manage the rest of your days off throughout the year.

Again, I know it isn’t always easy to proactively manage your time off when you never know what life is going to throw at you. However, if you demonstrate to your boss that are trying to make an earnest effort to manage your attendance (and the rest of your job performance is good), then follow the advice CareerBuilder.com includes in the article:

If you're a strong employee and you're truthful about the time you need off, your employer is likely to give it to you." But if you get caught in a lie, you risk your reputation and possibly even your job.”

On an end note – but an important note, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF – STAY HEALTHY! Eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, get a good night’s sleep, and stop smoking. That alone will help to improve your daily energy and health – which is perhaps one of the biggest steps towards a good attendance record.

Feel free to comment and share any particular or unique challenges you have in managing your attendance record - or any tips you'd like to share about how you successfully manage your attendance.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Until Something Better Comes Along............

Most call center reps just passively ride out their time as a call center rep - just waiting for that dream job or something better to come along. Here's a music video that captures that sentiment.

I like this song – pretty catchy tune, I find myself singing along to it and reminds me of how I felt in my first years working in a call center. Only thing is, once the gal in the video shows up for her job in the call center, she'll probably be sent home in violation of dress code policies.

Yes, being a call center rep can be a pretty crummy job and you'd rather be a rock star, a fashion model, an overnight entrepreneurial success or CEO - but let's get real! No one is going to come knocking on your door and hand you that dream job on a silver platter. You can’t just sit there “until something better comes along”. Comes along from where? From who? You need to go out and get it. If you keep the big picture in mind and take the right approach to your call center rep job, you’ll be surprised at how many opportunities it can actually bring you - maybe even that dream job.

I’ll be posting further entries with tips on how to strategically use your call center rep job to move on to a better position - in just about any career field you want. In the meantime, enjoy the song.