To Graduates and Their Parents

Two fresh graduates left us recently after working in ATCEN for three days. They said the reason for this was that their parents complained about the long working hours here. The parents said they should look for a jobs that work normal working hours like 9.00am -5.00pm.

This is my message to the parents and more so the graduates:

Times have changed, we no longer work the so called “normal” hours from 9.00am-5.00pm. We are now working in a globalised economy and the world does not stop just because we do. This 9am-5pm working hour thing is total nonsense. If every Malaysian works 9.00am-5.00pm, then let’s forget all the 24 hour conveniences we enjoy. Forget using the 7-Eleven, the Mamak, the petrol station, the shopping Mall and the Cinema. As a matter a fact let’s just stop everything after 6pm, go home and watch ... oh I forgot there is no TV. Why? Who is working in the TV station; nobody. Welcome to the world of 9am-5pm.

To the fresh graduates, welcome to the real world. Schools and Universities are illusions of the real world. Why? Work stops after 5.00pm for them.

In the office, it never stops. The larger the organization, the longer the organization works. Many organizations today work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year and it will continue to do so.

Are there individuals who work fixed hours these days, of course there are. They are usually the production line worker or the clerical staffs. So degree graduates, if that is what you want in your life, go for those jobs and the easy life and please don’t complain about the salary, you made the choice.

Oh I forgot, there is also a plus point if you take up such jobs. Overtime (OT) is usually one of the perks that you get. However if you want to be an Executive, forget the concept of OT immediately. The fact that I hear many degree graduates demanding for this is disgraceful. Ask your Managers if they get OT.

Additionally graduates, before you start citing from the Employment Act 1965, kindly read it from page to page. Why? You need to understand the realities of working life and that is a fantastic place to start.

Welcome to 24, 7 and 365.

A Language Change

After conducting countless interviews and trainings with Malaysian fresh graduates, I have come to a grave conclusion. There is something really wrong with the English of our graduates today. The majority of them cannot speak or express themselves in English. If they can’t do any of this, how are they to get a job in this globalized environment?

The three major languages spoken in the world are Mandarin, Spanish and English, in that order. However English is the lingua-franca of Business, Science and Technology industry.

As a proud Malaysian we can scream and shout as much as we want on the importance of Bahasa Malaysia for the purpose of cultural and nationalistic identity but look at the statistics, we are only a population of 25 million. The world has a population of 6.6B people, so that is a world population ratio of less than 0.004% speaking Bahasa Malaysia. Insignificant.

According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008, we are the 21st most competitive nation in the world. Based on the quality of English that I am hearing and seeing, I sincerely hope that we can maintain our level of competitiveness in the years to come.

As a Malaysian, I truly understand the uniqueness of Malaysia. I love this country but I also realize the need to be practical. We need to ensure more Malaysians pick up good English fast, we are building the next generation, the old is gone. Malaysia can no longer be a big fish in a small pond. We need to be a small fish in a BIG POND. Only by being in the big pond can we grow to become a bigger fish. Change WE MUST.

REJOICE! Musings of Life in a Contact Center

“…Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealously. The shadow of greed, that is.” Yoda – Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Today marks the 2 year anniversary of when I first donned the headset and resigned myself to a life as a contact center agent. It’s been an eventful 2 years, I’ve seen countless agents, close friends, move on; some to other contact centers, others just unable to take the charade of “pretending” to be polite to even the most demeaning of customers anymore. Me, it’s my 730th day of the same arduous routine; day in, day out.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been days where this can be the most rewarding job. The times where you are actually able to help and callers are sincerely thankful can give you the most exhilarating emotional experience. Times like these, you smile for real while on the phone and the headset feels like a lopsided halo making you feel like someone’s guardian angel. But those times are rare…

The reality of it is, this is a thankless job.

Sure, I’m paid well and I don’t really do much except sound “great” to countless strangers whom I imagine are my best of friends in order to meet my quality monitoring scores. Truth of it is I’m bored out of my brain! My TL and OM are great people and I wouldn’t dream of leaving them but the other contact center is offering more money and less calls. So, why am I still here?

They say the contact center agent’s lifespan in a contact center is 2 years and I am beginning to believe that statistic but I find myself hard pressed to make the decision to leave. Why do I stay? Here are 20 reasons (although some hard to believe):

1. I’m paid well – for what I do anyway

2. Although inbound call volume is high, it’s not that difficult to handle all of them besides, the Jusco vouchers I get every month pays for my groceries.

3. I love the people – you don’t just leave people who’ve been through tears and laughter with you for so long.

4. I love my cubicle

5. I don’t have to take work home – when I log out, there’s really no thinking about cases or calls.

6. I get to dress casual when I go to work.

7. I get plenty of time with my TL who does a great job with the coaching sessions where I’m the focus of his attention.

8. I have great fixed working hours – as much as I am tracked for all the time I spend after I log in, I also get to leave on the dot. Everything is measured in seconds you see and I’m conditioned to watch the time constantly.

9. It actually feels very good to give good service and customers’ are happy.

10. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge.

11. I love the contests that are held monthly.

12. I’m dating someone here.

13. The break room is great with all the biscuits and drinks I can consume.

14. I love watching the TLs and OMs stress out when calls are queued.

15. I love the people – I think I’ve said this but Hey! I do!

16. There’s no feeling better than when I walk out of the contact center after my shift.

17. I’m not pressured to climb the organizational ladder – it’s comfortable where I am.

18. I get to surf the net all day when there are no calls

19. I have so much power - I determine how much a customer gets helped… OR
NOTT!

20. Best of all, JOB SECURITY - I can go to any contact center out there when I
leave this one!

So, there is a bright side of things for those of you who feel you are left in the rut by your friends who have left to join the ‘Dark Side.’

What’s Wrong with our Fresh Graduates

Malaysian unemployment rate has gone up to 3.6% from 3% the previous quarter. This is despite job vacancies going higher. However I don’t think many fresh graduates know this.

Graduates are still asking for the world when they graduate just because they have a degree. A degree does not mean anything today. It just tells the world that the person has an education.

I dare honestly say that a majority (near 95%) do not even have 50% of the knowledge and skills to do their work. I remembered once during an interview asking a simple accounting double entry question to a graduate that any SPM level student would be able to answer. She said “Wow, I have not done double entry in a long time, let me think.” 2 minutes later after struggling a few times the answer was still wrong. This came from a local fresh graduate with a B.A in Accounting with a 3.2 GPA.

Let’s not even talk about the attitude of most of these individuals. Many of them are bad to say the least. Turning up late for interviews, promising but not meaning what they say, badly dressed and coming to an interview as if we owe them a job.

Fresh graduates, I am not your father or your mother or your grandparents. As an individual that you will be working for, I am the BOSS. I am not here to hear your stories in University and in School and to listen to how good you are in a project. That happen in school and university. Show me some real result then we will talk pay, no result, no performance what money.

My advice is stop being choosy, fussy and do stop crying to the world that it is unfair. It is unfair and get used to it. It has never been fair and never will. Focus now on getting knowledge and experience. Serve your time, get your experience and reap the rewards later.

Most important find out what you should know but do not. However some of you unfortunately, do not even care or worse still know what I am talking about.

INSTITUTIONALIZED - Musings of Life in a Contact Center

“...these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, it gets so you depend on 'em. That's ‘institutionalized’.”
– Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman) – The Shawshank Redemption

The quote above made me think about contact centers and how agents can sometimes feel. At some point in their ‘in or outbound call’ career, contact center agents lament that they feel like an inmate in a prison; able to move only as far as the ‘chain’ (read headset cord) allows them. Serving a sentence that seems like its never-ending.

So, here you have a life that feels like you are going nowhere and performing tasks that seem inconsequential to the greater purpose of existence as we know it. Allow me to present what I feel are the …………. (make drum roll sound):

TOP 10 REASONS CONTACT CENTER AGENTS FEEL LIKE THEY ARE IN PRISON!
1. You come and go as you are told
2. You need permission to go relieve yourself
3. You are under constant guard by the TL’s
4. Your activities are under COMPLETE observation by the ACD
5. You share ‘horror stories’ of customers during meal times
6. You are sent to ‘solitary confinement’ waiting for your call quality monitoring session
7. Your contract is like your prison sentence
8. Your prison warden (read Contact Center Manager/ director) has an open door policy that no one can use
9. All inmates have to return to the phones when the siren sounds (read calls queued)
10. Receiving parole or release is when you are recruited to another prison with better perks.

All thoughts are welcome and if you have any, put a comment in and we will add to the list.

Too Much Emphasis on Knowledge, Not Enough on Skills and Behaviour Changes

Too much emphasis on knowledge, not enough on skills and behavior changes By Jeremy Lee I understand the need from many clients that they want value for money from their training programs. However is the value that they want, really adding benefits to the organization?

Many organizations today when requesting from a training outline, still emphasize on many topics to be covered in a short duration of time. More topics covered equals more value to them. However with more topics needed to be covered in a single training, there is usually insufficient time to practice the skills learnt and even less time for a behavioral change to take place. When too much time needs to be spent on the acquisition of knowledge without the application of knowledge (skill) and appreciating the importance of doing something in a brand new way (behavior change), adult learners usually leave the training with a sense of awareness and little else.

Therefore does it really add benefit to the organization when all that has been achieve is the gain of knowledge. My take on this is that the critical knowledge must be covered in the training and spent as much time as possible on practicing the knowledge learnt and make that behavioral change happen. In this way, the value from the training will be more beneficial and effective for all.