Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
Posted on

Only 10 Days left

The final countdown begins.

As of Monday, only 10 more working days. Aug 8th is Last Day. I can’t help but think of Logan’s Run.

Logans run 4Most all of our life clocks are blinking red now. People are stressing themselves into to illness. Several of my colleagues have been experiencing symptoms that seem like heart attacks but when they’ve gone to the doctor nothing definitive is found.

It’s interesting that several of the executives look like they’re afraid they’re going to be beaten any minute. They obviously won’t, but the stress is wearing on them too. Their fear is obvious and only now do they seem to realize that their fates are intertwined & sealed just as ours are.

I’ve been through this kind of thing before. This is the first company that has handled layoffs so badly. 

Everyone seems to be looking forward to the end and honestly so am I. 

I know of several folks that have started trashing the cheap swag from company events. A couple of people have used employee awards for target practice. 

I’ve always hug onto company swag from other companies. This time however I’ve found a certain catharsis in tossing the items from this company. In thinking about it, the difference is that other companies valued me as an employee and I was proud of my work. This company although saying they value their employees, has demonstrated time after time that we are nothing, and not worthy of even a modicum of human kindness or compassion. We were nothing but components to be abused, punished, and beaten down.

How is it that so many employees paychecks will have over a month of vacation time paid out? That’s just one simple example. The way this happened is most vacation requests were routinely denied, and after a time employees stopped asking for time off.

After all why ask, or attempt to make plans of any kind when you know that your request will be denied? It’s easier to not let yourself hope, then you’re not hurt.

Same thing is true of promotions, or advancement within the company.  Why bother, when it is so blatantly obvious that you have no chance.

So with each item of cheap gaudy swag that I toss in the trash, I feel lighter and better about this ending.  I like that I’ll have nothing to remind me that I ever worked for these people. 

If I’m very lucky I won’t remember the mental pain this place caused and honesty if I don’t  remember  the people I’ve spoken to over the past 3 years it will be a blessing.

Not all of them were bad, some were very nice. But all of them had a common theme, that was “Give me something”. It’s draining and very depressing.

I won’t miss it.

I’m looking forward to not speaking to anybody for a time.

Then I’ll deal with the headhunters, and getting a new job.

Until then… I’m just counting down.

Posted on

The oddest things get me thinking…

In case you hadn’t noticed, Technical Support is often not technical and rarely supportive.

Buckle up Buttercup, It’s only going to get worse.

Companies are still outsourcing and as has been the subject of many jokes, often the person at the other end of the phone is barely proficient in English and not technical.

Case in point. Sxm logo

I needed to make a change to my SiriusXM plan. I figured, “No worries, I’ll head out to their handy website, spend 2 minutes and boom! I’ll be done.” 

WRONG!

I tried to log into their website but couldn’t. I know I had the right username and was 90% sure that I had the right password. (After all, I hadn’t changed that password in at least a couple of years.) I couldn’t log in, so I asked for a password reset.

Not a big deal, or so you’d think. I get the obligatory email, follow the link change the password (The website said I’d been successful) go back to the login page and still can’t login. I tried several times. Each time with the same result.

UGGGHHH, Now I have to call it in. I get on the phone and explain the situation to someone somewhere other than here No joy!

This person has me go back to the password reset page and request another password reset, I comply. Then this person transfers me to someone “more advanced” they have me request another password reset and again we go through the process. Again, the same result. Then there’s the inevitable, “Please hold…”

Then the second person comes back on the line and asks me yet again if I’m doing this from a computer. “Yes, I’m looking at your website on my laptop,” I reply. We’ve already confirmed this several times. The person keeps repeating everything I’ve said, over and over. Including my user name and we’re getting nowhere. Once again she sends me a password reset email and once again I tell her what I’m seeing on my screen. No error message on the login page, no indication that the password or username is wrong, just that I’m being looped back to the login page.

Now she wants to change my user name. “OH GOD!” I think, “REALLY???” 

I’m annoyed at having to deal with this at all. But I’m saved by the timer for my laundry going off. Forty Seven minutes have gotten by me and we’re no closer to solving the problem than when I began the call.

I tell the lady, I’m out of time and cannot continue to deal with this, then disconnect.

As I’m walking out to the laundry room, I’m thinking what do I actually listen to on SiriusXM? For that matter what do I listen to on the actual Radio? What do I watch on TV?

On Sirius, I primarily listen to Spa, I don’t listen to the news channels. I’m over all the Trump investigations and scandals. I don’t watch the news channels on TV. Hell, I don’t do anything other than skim Twitter and haven’t read the news on my computer, phone or iPad in months. 

I subscribe to Apple Music and could easily just listen to streaming music or podcasts while I’m driving somewhere.

This leads me to think that perhaps it’s time for me to disconnect from Sirius completely. There is nothing I can’t get from them, that I can’t get from Apple Music and it would be one less “Service” I have to manage or maintain.

I’m thinking that the next billing cycle will see me saying, “Bye Bye” to Satellite Radio.

I suspect that I’m not alone in this. 

When you consider all the usernames and passwords and “Helpful” websites that we have to keep track of, it begs the question, “Just who is working for whom?“

This is especially true if you are completely and utterly disinterested in what passes for “News” in this day and age.

I’m not disinterested in what’s happening around me. But I’m tired of the constant Spin. How about journalists getting back to being journalists and simply reporting what the hell actually happened.

Let me make up my own damn mind about it!

It’s funny how a little thing like a password reset can get you thinking.

Perhaps if the concepts of journalistic integrity actually had meaning, Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, and yes, Satellite radio would be in a lot better shape financially.

I guess it’s another example of unintended consequences in an overly connected world.

Posted on

First Sunday off in 3 years

I don’t know what to do with myself. 

I’m sitting here, after sleeping for 10 hours, having a cup of coffee and thinking, “What now?”

There are things I could be doing and perhaps even things I should be doing. The house is open, there’s light rain failing and aside from the incessant traffic noise all is quiet.

I should be planning to move my stuff out of the apartment. I should be looking for a new job. I should be working on my resume. I should be deciding what’s next. But all those things are somehow just not that important. 

There’s something about being off work on a “real” weekend day. I know it’s just cultural… the seventh day and all that, but somehow the day off seems different.

One thing I’m appreciative of, is that there’s no screaming leaf blowers as a wake up call. 

It’s a lazy kind of Sunday, even the birds are muted in their squabbling.

Later, I’ll mosey over to the hair cut place in a while and maybe take myself out to breakfast…

Or Not

Posted on

First wave…

The first wave layoff is complete.

Not much rumbling to report. Yet!

I think more and more people are figuring out that management will find a way to make sure that we don’t get the promised bonus. I suspected this would be the way it went.

They’re changing the rules as we’re playing the game. The latest changes are retroactive to the beginning of the year and have effectively made everyone left, technically not in “good standing”. They’ve also reduced our call time and time to finish our documentation, again. The games management plays… sigh

Many people have asked about it, all we’ve been told is that adjustments well be made…

Uhh, that’s already happened, and now management has showed their cards. There’s no reason to stay. Typical of this company, set un-achievable goals and then punish us for failing. A lot more people are looking for the door and several have said that they’re looking for ways to exit early.

I’m not sure if it’s possible to exit early and still get unemployment. But that’s been a thought. Once someone figures that out, I suspect there will be an exodus that would stun the Ancient Egyptians.

Naked by a pool is looking better and better. Maybe with a nice stiff drink that never runs out.

Well I’ll see, now that my head is clear for the follies of the week, I’m in the right mind set to do the research to find out what the options are.

Gotta have all the logic on-line to analyze legal doublespeak.

Wish me luck.

Posted on

Whew, It’s been a while… Lots happening not all is good.

Empty officeAbout 2 weeks after my last blog post, the company notified my department that we’re being laid off.

Well… SHIT!

I mean I’m ready to find something else to do, the current job is just too draining and leaves no time for creating social connections. I get out of work at 1:30 pm and am in bed by 7:30 to be at work by 5, what am I going to do? Where do I go to engage with other adults? 

They get pissy when we ask each other work related questions. They get downright snotty if we actually try to connect with each other in friendship or teamwork.

So while inconvenient, it’s a relief.

Then there comes the date of the layoff. A small group is in the first week of May. Mostly supervisors and leads. The second big wave is in August. (Happy Freakin Birthday!)

I plan on spending some time in Palm Springs naked by a pool afterward. 

The May date would have been better for me personally, since I wouldn’t have had to renew my lease on the apartment. Sigh, but it’s OK if I go month to month for 1 or 2 months. 

Now, here’s the real kicker. They’re asking some of the May and August groups to stay on longer. Shit! Please God don’t let them ask me that question.

Apparently, the geniuses behind this cluster fuck have realized that their offshore group isn’t going to be able to handle the job for quite some time. 

Yep, you read that right, they’re offshoring medical device support and sales. So let’s walk through this. The device isn’t terribly complicated, but not one person calling in describes any part of the device the same way. Often, they’ll describe an individual part differently in the same conversation. It’s tough for a native speaker of English to follow what most of the callers are complaining about. You can only imagine what it would be like for a non-native speaker. 

We’re (my group) is already seeing increased errors in reporting and flat out failures in sending replacements, or correctly diagnosing the problem. That is translating to longer calls and documentation times for us. 

A lot of the call is spent with the customer telling us how bad their previous call was, before they even get to telling us their problem. This translates to a direct threat to (my group) getting the promised retention bonus on our final day.

Why is this a threat? Because management is only looking at time on call, time in documentation, and getting to the next call. They’ve completely negated the aspects of providing customer support that educates, so that the customer is better able to address their own issue and come to the correct conclusion about fixing it.

The company hasn’t actually provided us with a contract or even an agreement that specifically says what they consider “acceptable” to get the bonus.  They’ve only said that we must be in “Good Standing” at the end. But that terminology is ambiguous and clearly subjective. Without an actual agreement signed by both parties, the employees are still serving at the whim of capricious management.

Given that there is considerable mistrust toward management already, you can see how the environment is becoming more stressful.

We’re facing the question; Do we do the job, the way it should be done and risk losing the retention bonus, after putting up with the bullshit until August, OR do we just slap-dash fix the immediate issues and not worry about actually correcting the mistakes? 

A lot of people are choosing another option. They’re just bailing out. This is creating a problem for management because they’re losing people at a faster rate than they anticipated and are beginning to see losses in critical areas.

It’s funny to see the architect of this cluster fuck shitting himself daily.

The sales side of this is even worse. Wrong addresses, wrong equipment, older customers not understanding what the offshore group is saying, etc. The single biggest complaint I hear is “I don’t like my medical information being handled by offshore resources.“

What are we supposed to say to that? “Suck it up buttercup, this is the way things are going?“

I suspect that the company is going to see a lot of customer loss, that should make the stockholders extremely happy. I’m glad I don’t own stock.

Medical device support shouldn’t be outsourced. The device should be supported by native speakers actually in the country that the caller resides in. 

This device isn’t a modem, where the corrective action is, “turn off the modem and turn it back on again.” This isn’t a panic alert button, it’s not a security service. It’s a device that is injected into the person and it’s a device that people base treatment decisions on. (At least that’s what the literature says.) Treatment mistakes, at best land a person in the hospital, worst case… The person dies.

That’s the thing that I think most of worry about. We want to make sure that the person on the other end of the phone knows where they stand and how the machine works. So they can make informed and safe decisions. That philosophy can’t easily be quantified by numerical call metrics.

However, MANAGEMENT KNOWS ALL…

Of course they haven’t been talking to customers for years so take that with a grain of salt!