Women Are Capable

Image: www.lisajohnsonfitness.com

This is a bit of a rant, brought in part by an interaction I had at work as well as the current climate of our country and world.

Women Are Capable! We can work, we can lead, we can do more than be mothers. We can be mothers and work or stay at home. Every woman is different and NONE of us are lesser than men. No matter how many men think we are lesser.

I work in IT, which has been a man dominated field. But I'm good with computers and I'm good at my job. I never thought of myself as extremely techy until I started working in IT, but from the people I've had to help over the years, I am very good with most things techy.

Doesn't stop people from telling me I don't know what I'm doing. Usually older men who sometimes call me 'honey' and 'sweetie'. Usually these fellows don't know what they are doing, as in the case I had today.

This dude totally was mansplaining me the entire call as well as talking down to me. I had to tell him to do something about five times before he would listen to me and do what I told him to do. In the end, I couldn't help him because of his lack of computer knowledge. Didn't stop him from thinking that he knew it all.

It's 2017 for goodness sakes! Women are strong and capable. Please, treat us like we deserve to be treated, as human beings at least.

Time Outs for Adults

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Time outs are a great go to for parents who need to discipline their young children. Emily is a pretty good kid, but sometimes she just needs a time out to calm down when she gets upset or in trouble.

Honestly, I stop myself and take time outs myself when I'm getting really frustrated. Just take a minute, a breath and calm down.

Sadly, I'm beginning to wish that I could put my customers in time out. Make them sit in a time out chair and just chill for five minutes. I work in tech support you see, and most of the people I deal with know little to nothing about computers.

Common courtesy is sadly not so common these days. Since I'm just a faceless voice on the phone, some people think it's ok to verbally abuse me. Luckily, if it gets too bad I can hang up on them. Thankfully that doesn't happen too much.

What does happen all do often are the people who will troubleshoot but it will take twice as long as the person complains bitterly about how much the internet sucks, how much I suck, how they shouldn't have to troubleshoot. It goes on and on.

These people need time outs. You are wasting your time if you are so angry at the situation that you complain and rant the whole time you are on the phone with a tech. Take a time out, get a cookie and a juice box and just calm down.

Work Rivals

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I binge watched Parks and Recreation last month, actually twice because it's a great show. Several of the episodes showed how the Parks and Rec department had a blood feud rivalry with the library. This makes me think about my own work rivalry.

I work from home but I still have coworkers. I'm on a team and we communicate via several chat rooms. We mostly talk about work stuff and there is a common dislike for customer service.

Customer service handles all account changes, billing as well as setting up new accounts. In tech support, we just troubleshoot issues once the service has been set up.

For some reason, customer service seems to be extremely lazy. I'm sure they aren't all like that but we get a lot of customers who have been seriously screwed over by our customer service department. I got screamed at by a guy today who should have been sent a new modem but customer service was too careless to do their jobs correctly.

It drives me crazy and I know my coworkers feel the same way. We try to do our jobs as well as we can, but we can't make account changes or get service turned on.

So while I work here, customer service will be my library. My coworkers will bond by complaining about their poor work.

Do you have a work rival?

Skills I Use Learned in College

I was in college for seven years. It was mostly be being wishy washy what I wanted to with my life. I spent one year as music major. I quit that one because I realized that I wasn't not great at music so my only option would be to become a teacher. I knew I did not want to be a teacher.

For three years I was a computer science major. I wasn't great at that either. Computer science was a lot more math than I had anticipated. I struggled and struggled. But I did get a C in Calculus II, which was impressive to me. I don't have a good brain for numbers in advanced forms.

I finally gave up on that and switched to Broadcasting. I loved Broadcasting so much and I was pretty good at it. The writing, doing news on screen, video editing. It was a ton of fun and I wish I had realized that many years earlier.

My last start in Broadcasting and my dying mom who wanted to see me graduate meant that I had to hurry up and finish my degree. So I didn't get to explore it as fully as I would have liked and I didn't get a chance to even try for an internship.

But there are two things that I use on a regular basis that I learned in college. Kind of sad for seven years of college especially since they are kind of random.

Even though I left music as a major beyond after my first year, I stayed in the women's choir as long as my schedule would allow it. I love to sing and it was such a fun class to be able to take. One of the things I learned in there was to memorized the music as you go. We never used our music in performances so this was a must.

These days, I am a part the women's choir at church. Though because of my health issues, I'm sadly taking some time off from that. But I have noticed that as we practice, I am still in the habit of memorizing the music and the words as we go along. Kind of a funny skill to have but I still have it.

The other comes from my days as a Broadcasting major. One of the first classes I took was an intro class and one of the first things we learned was the 'broadcast voice." Even tone but pleasant but also firm and clear. This is a skill I use nearly every day at work. Keeping my voice even and pleasant is very important while dealing with hordes of unhappy customers.

I use a few other skills I'm sure but these two are the ones I use most. College was an interesting experience and I had a lot of fun. Someday maybe I'll use more the skills I gained!

A Thank You To Those Working Tomorrow

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Happy Holidays! Whatever holiday you celebrate, if any!

Tomorrow is Christmas Day and a lot of people have it off from work, even if they don't celebrate Christmas, lots of people have the day off. I'm lucky and I also have the day off though I had to work today and I'll be working on Friday.

But there are lots of people who have to work tomorrow. My company is open to provide tech support - from what I hear it will be a lot of asking for wireless information for new stuff.

Some restaurants / fast food joints will be open as well as gas stations for those traveling.

Hospital, police and fire departments don't close either. They will be there to help people in need, even saving lives. 

There are probably other places open, which means people do work. I'm thankful for those who do work. I'm especially thankful to those who volunteer at my company so I don't have work.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Perks of Working from Home

My workspace

You may or may not know that I work from home doing tech support. I've done this since August 2012. I work tech support and it's like any other call center job. But working from home has a lot of perks.

This first one isn't really a work from home perk but it's a perk. My boss is great and understanding. My coworkers are funny and help the day go on. And yes, I have coworkers. I'm on a team and we can talk in a chat room. We have one room for business stuff and another where we can talk about anything - and we do when it's not busy.

One of the biggest work from home perks for me, is I can work in my pj's. And I do. With all my health issues being comfortable while I work is really great. I can also work in the dark and there are no bright fluorescent lights. This really helps a lot with my migraines.

After my seizures happened last month,  I was told that I wouldn't be able to drive for three months. If I worked outside the home, I'd be screwed since Todd works 2nd shift. But since I work from home, it's business as usual. I did ease myself back in, thank again to a great boss, but I've been back full time for a couple of weeks now.

Working home works great for me. It seems like more and more people are going that route as well. As someone who has chronic pain, it really helps me be able to be comfortable, be able to crash into bed after my shift if needed but still make a living to help my family.

How To Deal With No Internet

Enjoy time away from the internet

I know it sucks not being connected to the internet. It has become such a part of our lives, but having no internet is going to happen sometimes.

While your first instinct is to scream at the person who answers the phone at your ISP (which may be me), think about all the things you can do while you are forced to be unplugged.

You can read a book, or work on a project around your house. If you have cable or Dish, you can watch tv. You could go to the park, go to the movies, spend time with  your family.

And if you really, really need to get online, take your laptop someplace where there is free wifi or visit a friend's house. If you don't have any friends, it might be a good time to make one.

No internet is not the end of the world, and this is coming from someone who uses the internet to make a living.

Just something to think about over this long holiday weekend - if your internet goes out, it might be a while before someone can fix it. So please refrain from yelling at your ISP and consider it a nice break from the internet

Perks of Working From Home

I work from home doing tech support. Even though I sit in my home office, usually in pjs, it’s very similar to the other call center jobs that I’ve worked. I have co-workers that I talk to over a chat program and I have a set schedule.

My boss is very flexible about moving my schedule around if need be. If I get sick during the week, I just work on my day off. If I want the weekend off, I work longer hours during the week. Yesterday was Emily’s preschool Sharing Feast and I got to work a shorter shift to attend.

It was so cute to see her with her friends during the short program beforehand. And we got to eat lunch with some of her friends and their parents, which was nice as well. If I was working another job, it would be harder to take off without using vacation time.

There are some downsides from working from home. But as I watch it snow outside my window, I’m glad that I don’t have a commute and that I can be there for Emily’s school programs. 

Please Don't Scream

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I've worked in customer support type jobs for years and had to deal with angry people. I've been in that position myself where I’m upset with company and it’s no fun. I do wish people could keep their composure and not scream.

Customer service isn't for the faint of heart. Most of the time you are dealing with people who are pissed for some reason. One of my first customer service jobs was for a company who took people’s pictures and made them into throws. These were very popular around Christmas time as presents.

There was a deadline to get your order in to get it before Christmas, but some people ordered after or an issue happened that caused their throw not to arrive by December 24^th. One time, it was because of a massive storm that shut down a whole town including the mail service. People were still really upset.

I found working that job that I had a knack for dealing with the issues, calming people down and not getting upset for being cussed out. One girl that started at the same time had a lot of issues with being upset when a customer got angry and yelled. She only lasted a couple of weeks before she quit.

Even though I’m in tech support now, it’s still pretty similar. I try to help the customer the best that I can with their internet issues. Like with customer service, the customers can get very angry as well as start screaming and cussing.

I understand that people get upset but I dislike it when they take it out on me. It still doesn't bother me too badly but I just find it rude. I’m a living, breathing person who doesn't need to be screamed at no matter how upset a customer is. It also tends to give me a migraine. One customer kept getting shriller and shriller as she screamed. My head ached badly after that call.

One time, I was on the other end of the call. I was getting packet loss on my line which was causing my internet to be all goofy. I called my ISP and I got a tech that obviously didn't care about doing anything to help me. It made me angry, but I was pretty calm and just demanded a supervisor.  The supervisor was much more helpful and was able to resolve my issue.

If you get angry and feel the need to scream at a customer service rep or tech support, please refrain from screaming. I know that it can be frustrating but the person on the other end is just that – a person.

The Ups and Downs When Working From Home

My Home Office

Last year, I reentered the work force after 3 years of getting my 2^nd degree. I did temp work for a while but I was always on the outlook for a full time job. I got laid off from my temp job and I managed to find a tech support job that I can do from home.

Working from home is great especially that means we don’t have to have a sitter for Emily. I usually work from 7 am to 1:30 pm, which works out very well because my husband works 2^nd shift and leaves for work at 2 pm.

I've worked from home for almost a year now. There are a lot of advantages to working from home, but some disadvantages too.

Because I have chronic pain issues, working from home is much more comfortable than working in an office. I can turn off all the lights in my office, wear comfortable clothes and adjust the temperature so it is perfect for me. I also only have to walk a few steps to get to my bedroom and am able to take naps because I have no commute time.

Also because of no commute, I spend a lot less on gas money and extra food. When I working outside of the home, I’d spend a lot of money on fast food and it would add up fast. I also save money on child care since Emily is very good about being quiet even on the days that Todd has to go to class.

I’m lucky because my job is a regular job. I get a paycheck with taxes taken out, which is pretty rare for work from home jobs. I make a decent hourly wage and I make extra for any sales that I make. Even though my hourly wage is $3 less than what I was making with the temp job because I have fewer expenses.

 Because I work a tech support job that’s open 24/7/365, I have to work Saturdays every week. Working 6 days a week, even though I only work 6 ½ hours a day can be draining. I do get the occasional weekend off but that means working a lot of extra hours throughout the week.

Since I’m home all the time, I get a little stir crazy. I don’t have a lot of local friends so I end up going to the store a couple times a week just to get out of the house. The stir craziness and my chronic pain issues do make my anxiety and depression worse some days.

The job I work isn't the best job. There are a lot of angry people and a lot of stupid people who end up calling in to get tech support. I can handle most issues and I do have supervisors that I talk to via a chat program if I run into problems. Some days are better than others, but that’s pretty standard with any job.

For now, the advantages of working from home outweigh the disadvantages. It works out really well now that Emily is small. When she’s a little older, I might want to work outside of my house but for now I’m happy with the situation I’m in now.