Amanda CAARSON

It’s Monday morning, and I’ve got a real headache. I’ve also got a very rare summer cold, or something. Either way, my nose is all stopped up, and I’ll be blowing it all day. Yay for me. All of this on top of the calls.

Read the rest of this and more at Customerservant.com

Looks like there’s actually been some progress made.
I’ve got the site up and running, and most of the bugs are fixed, (at least the ones I created), so the site’s operational now.
I’ll be posting links to the most recent entries below.

Susan, if you’re interested in learning Hebrew in Braille, The Jewish Braille Institute is a good place to start. You
have to sign up with them, but they have a ten-volume Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, as well as a twenty-volume Hebrew-English/Ehglish-Hebrew dictionary.
If I had the room, I’d get it myself.
Amanda J. Rush
http://www.customerservant.com

Thanks to Mongwen, my site is up, fixed, and it actually works.
So take a look, (it’s been updated with more entries), and let me know what you think.
customerservant.com.

I’ve finally finished posting this week’s updates, as well as some from the last couple of weeks.
One of the good things about the CMS I’m using is that it allows me to backdate entries.
The most recent entries list includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Final Approach
Legal But Illegal Break
Where Is It 5:00?
Trainer John
Flapjacks With Your Documents
This Week On "As The Claim Processes"
Since I've Got Time To Burn …
It's Like The Hourglass, But Worse
Wooden Holocaust
Stop And Smell The Mail Order

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and, since there’s a break in the chaos, I figure I’ll take advantage of it.
I’ve had this weekend off, and spent yesterday doing pretty much nothing.
There’s been some drama going on with the transportation situation.
I’ve started taking the PATS (Pitt Area Transit System) service to work because Andrew has early classes, and his mom doesn’t want that much wear and tear on the vehicle.
Well, apparently, they have their own time scale, we’ll call it PATS Standard Time, otherwise known as PST.
If I were into conspiracy theories, I’d blame this on those out in Lost Angeles and beyond, (PST is also Pacific Standard Time, and since the two systems both employ the same acronym, they just have to be similar, grin). I’ll leave that one alone for now, so Joy and Don you get a break.
Anyway, I schedule a 07:30 pick-up, since I start working at 08:30, and that gives them plenty of time, in case they’re running late.
Apparently 07:30 their time is 06:56 my time, which puts me in the position of having to get up no later than 05:00 in order to get ready for work, and that doesn’t leave any time for clearing my brain of the sleep-induced fog by administering caffeine orally.
The problem I run into is that if I schedule the pick-up any later, they have me to work late, which is not a good thing for either the attendance record or the paycheck.
I’ve changed residences, which is a very good thing.
My new place is very nice, and I’m doing my best to make it as homelike as possible.
I’ve acquired a nice bed, (it would be queen-sized if not for the fact that it’s missing about two inches on either side), a washer and drier, a recliner that’s nice-sized, and an end table.
My computer desk is a card table, and I have a folding chair to go with.
I also got a microwave, and a coffee pot, and a tea pot, and a crock pot, thanks to my mom.
That’s where the bed, recliner and end table came from as well.
I’m very happy with the place.
It’s just me, all by myself.
I can leave the crap at work.
Well, and on the PATS van.
Speaking of PATS, can someone please explain to me how the hell you can manage to sing, shout, dance and drive all at the same time?
Almost all of the PATS drivers are gospel freaks, and they love to make a public display of their religion, for all the world to see and hear, and I get treated to daily “praise” sessions.
Weird.
The Medicare project came back to Convergys, and we lost AT&T, as well as gained CustomerService.
They’re going to have all of us trained by the end of the summer to be taking Pharmacy Helpdesk calls as well as Customer Service calls.
More work, no more pay.
I’ve decided after some thought to turn customerservant.com into my personal blog.
I’ll most likely turn it into a syndicated account over here, because I can generate an RSS feed, and it gives me more freedom as far as what’s displayed, and it also gives you guys the ability to rate entries.
The CMS I have is really simple, and really neat.
I don’t know if I’ll update both journals, but once I get it syndicated, you all can add that to your friends pages, and/or go directly to the site, and add your comments there.
Also, I’m running into the problem of needing to put all the blogs I watch into one place, so there will be a page with links to all your journals, as well as the ones I watch from other sites.
This will also be x-posted to Customerservant.com , so if you want to comment, you can leave it there.
That’ll be it for now, but I’ll try to keep you up to date more often.
Everybody take care.

Can somebody please tell me why the ghetto music has to bump and thump on pretty much 24 hours a day?
Not only do they have to blare it on their own radios, they have to blare it on the TV, or, more accurately, by putting CD’s in the play station.
And why do they have to speak their “ebonics”, or, to be less politically correct, why is it that they have to be extremely ignorant, and trashy, and keep their constant messes, and be stuck in my hair?
Apparently today, I should count myself blessed.
They only have one radio blaring.
Yesterday, it was the TV blaring, all day.
I can’t wait until I move.
I hope it happens soon.
I applied at one apartment complex, and have been given the run-around, and denied by them.
I went yesterday to look at more apartmenst, and found a nice one, whose application process doesn’t seem to difficult, and actually seems promising.
I really hope something works out soon.
My sleep schedule is all out of whack because of all this, and there’s very little to no peace and quiet.
The only time that happens is when the roommates aren’t here.
Obfiously, the roommates refuse to be considerate, and the apartment complex refuses to do anything in my favor.
Hell, when Andrew found one of their bowls and a lighter in the livingroom, and we called the office to let them know, all the managet did was to come down here, and tell them to hide their weed next time.
This whole thing is fucked up, and I’ll be glad when this episode’s over.

I would really appreciate it if all of you would take up a collection, and purchase some weapons of mass destruction, so I can use them on the apartment.
The roommates are really getting on my nerves.
They’re blaring their music as usual, I haven’t been paid for the bills, the whole place smells like stale pot and cigars, , the apartment complex refuses to do anything about it, and I don’t want to have to deal with all this along with what I have to deal with at work.
Maybe some nuclear weapons, or just some grenades, yes, grenades would work nicely, and a launcher.
I hate fucking ghetto music, and ghetto people, and just plain trashy people, and their messes, and the havoc they reak.
On a lighter note, I’ll be posting some entries from yesterday, which will be dated for yesterday, in a little while.

This is in response to something posted in Ray’s
journal, concerning the Terri Scheiavo case. I said I
wasn’t going to get in to this, but here goes anyway.
I’m not going to give my oppinion on this, because,
quite frankly, all the oppinions have been punted back
and forth like a stale hamentashen
for the last however long, and it’s really getting
annoying. I mean, I hate to come off callous, but
really! I’m beginning to think that, if Americans,
of every persuasion, right or left, don’t have some
major media event at least once a year, then they start
to go through withdrawal, and so someone has
to create one before they have to take the measure of
setting up a hotline to deal with the crisis. If I have
to go to work one more time, and walk into
the break room to get some caffeine, and hear Pat
Robertson screaming about how this is judicial murder,
I’m going to murder someone. I think whoever’s
responsible for drumming up the media storm has acted
very immodestly to say the least, and I have to agree
with Ray’s question: Why does this case merit
so much attention when this kind of thing happens all
the time?

I’ve figured out how to get the hand-held client to work, and it’s great.
It looks easier to backdate from this client than it does from the client on the PC.
I think the coolest part is that I can manually enter the time and date in.
That’s what makes backdating so much easier.
I should be posing more often thanks to this.
Happy reading.

We’ve been abandoned again!
Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!
Not Again!
I just looked at Jimmy Buffett’s current tour schedule
for 2005, and there are no North Carolina stops.
And here I was, willing to do whatever it took to make
sure that both myself and Ray went to that concert:
Lie,, steal, fake severe illness, fake a death
certificate of a close relative if necessary, anything.
But no, the Almighty Parrot-head abandons us again.
You’d think he would have learned after the last time.
I’m so crushed.
It would have made working at Convergys meaningfull.
It would have meant that I don’t work in vain.
I would have worked as much overtime as needed to go to
that damned concert.
Now what am I supposed to do?

Today seems to be going very well, despite the rain and general gloom outside. We’re barely getting any calls, because the training class for the new customer service project has been brought out on the floor to help. Forty-eight people makes a huge difference. I’m hungry. I think I’ll get a snickers bar on my break, along with a soda.

Here are some problems philosophers never seem to ponder, but probably should.
What exactly is the purpose of Human Resources, if not to screw up life for the people they manage to turn in to resources?
I looked at my pay check this morning.
Granted, it should have been missing about ten hours, due to an absence I took because I was sick, (which I got written up for), and a tardy I took because my transportation slept in one morning.
So I was expecting that hit.
But it’s missing nine extra hours, which means that my stupidvisor forgot to key in some hours.
there has to be another way to do this.
I can’t keep relying on my stupidvisor to do this kind of thing, because he’s incompetant, irresponsible, stupid, ignorant, and a whole host of other things.
It’s great that they have this wonderful time keeping technology, but they refuse to work around it.
I’ve brought up the possibility of my keeping a time card on paper, which gets the “no, we’re sorry, can’t do that” response.
It’s like, it’s either their way or the highway.
Checking with my superior to make sure my pay check will be accurate isn’t supposed to be part of this job description.
Is it too much to ask for things like this, which shouldn’t require a whole lot of ingenuity, to just go right, you know, that state where I don’t have to babysit my superiors, who will end up getting paid like they’ve actually done the work, while I get to be part of a continuum that shouldn’t even exist, but does because it’s all about the bottom line, so they force cue to make the numbers look like they’re supposed to?
For those who don’t know, the powers that be have decided that 100 percent service level, which means that all calls are being handled promptly, and there are none waiting in cue, (in other words, all the customers are being taken care of, and nobody’s having to wait, and we’re on top of it), is a bad thing.
Service level, according to the powers that be, should be no higher than 85 percent.
So, what happens in order to keep it there?
People get sent home, (VGH, or voluntary go home), in order to force a cue.
Why, you ask?
Because, we must do all we can, no matter what or who gets to take the brunt, as long as it’s not us, to make a profit.
And they wonder why we get angry.
Two weeks ago, they staffed 12 people.
12!
And what was the cue like?
Murderous.
And all in the name of making a profit.
Sick, completely sick.
And the only consolation we get is “Well, that’s the nature of the business.”
And this came from our local, politically informed liberal.
Go figure.