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 Stress & Frustrations

 
  Surviving Stress in a Call Center 
 

Stress at work is a given.  Why else do so many companies hand out little squeezy stress balls to their employees?  I’ve never known those things to actually reduce everyday stress.  You’re not allowed to really peg someone in the back of the head with one the way you’d like to when someone has been so rude as to not put more paper in the printer when they last used it.  Or when someone didn’t bother making more coffee after they took the last cup.  But one does come in handy for squeezing to strengthen your hand or, if placed between your back and your ergonomically engineered chair that seems to be designed for people 5’10” and above, you can use it for a mini lower-back massage.  Though for real, temporary stress relief, it’s my opinion that chocolate works much better.

 

My all-time greatest contribution for overall team stress relief was during the holiday season when I worked in a call center.  Every team would decorate their section with lights and tinsel and stockings and whatever else they could think of to create some kind of festive atmosphere.  Christmas cards were routinely handed out.  There were baked goods and candies galore.  We all would get fat and sometimes sluggish.  But the job was still the job and the daily stress was still lurking about.  So I decided to do something a little different.

 

There were about a dozen people in our group.  Inspiration struck.  I bought a cheap 3 ft. artificial Christmas tree, a couple of yards of muslin, and a set of permanent markers.  Over the course of two or three evenings I cut out 24 gingerbread man shaped figures about 10" high from the muslin and then colored different designs on half of them with the markers.  They weren’t personalized with names but I did try to vary the designs according to what I thought might fit each person’s character in an amusing way.  Then I sewed them up including scraggly strands of embroidery floss for hair, stuffed them and, voila, I had 12 Dammit Dolls!

 

Showing up at work a bit early, I set up the tree on a central table in our group and tucked the dolls all over it.  It helped to add some candy canes here and there also.  The fun began when everyone came in.  I explained that these were Dammit Dolls and each person could have their own.  They each got to choose whichever one they wanted and, surprisingly, pretty much everyone chose the one I had in mind for them when I was coloring them.

 

It was a huge hit.  People could throttle and twist the dolls and one girl even used hers as a voodoo doll to stab repeatedly with T-pins!  Everyone kept theirs long after the holiday season and I even had a few requests for more from other group’s supervisors.  I guess it just goes to show that for stress relief, something with a face works better than a mere squeezy ball.  Hmm, now if I could just find little chocolate people to bite.

 

© Janet L. Burgar, December 2008
Coming soon:
 
Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Age, or Religion

Sexual Harassment

What to Do About an Overly Chatty Co-Worker

What to Do About Inappropriate Language and/or Jokes

The Absent Supervisor

 

  Ethical Practices – You Are What You Believe 

 

In the business world you hear a lot of catch phrases like 'transparency' and 'core values'.  What with all the fraud being exposed in corporations, it has become popular for companies to promote Ethics training classes.  That's all well and good, sounds wonderful on the surface and, for the most part, I'm sure quite a few businesses are practicing ethical behavior.

Ethics is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as:

“A set of principles of right conduct.

A theory or a system of moral values.

The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person: moral philosophy.

The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession.”

 

This boils down to being about basic honesty, decency, and integrity (defined by Webster as a: “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility”).  My father always used to say that the best thing about telling the truth is you don’t have to remember what you said.  That started me down the path of basing my life on a strong sense of integrity with a firm lack of respect for those who live by acting on hypocritical double standards.

 

On the job, you should actively participate in any Ethics training offered and closely compare what you learn with your company’s Core Values and what actions and policies you observe on a day-to-day basis.  A company is made up of all of its’ individual employees.  If everyone feels responsible and is held accountable for totally ethical practices, it benefits all concerned and results in a stellar reputation that customers will flock to with a great sense of security.  I know that sounds like a company line but if you truly believe it and live it, the whole business atmosphere becomes cleaner and healthier.

 

Let me give you one specific personal example.  When I worked Customer Service in a large corporation they had a great product that was selling well for $49.99 and had been for quite some time.  Then, during a team meeting in our call center, we were told to add in a $4.99 monthly insurance-type feature and to tell customers who phoned in that the product was actually $54.98.  Ironically, this was only a couple of weeks after we had all attended a mandatory Ethics training session.  I was appalled and piped up with the question of what if a customer questions the price.  It was stated that, if that happened, we could tell them what was added but, otherwise, we were to not say anything and let the customer assume that the price had just gone up a little.  After the meeting, I spoke with a manager and told him that I could not, in good conscience, abide by that new policy because it seemed unethical to me.  About a week later, a notice was sent out that rescinded the decision.  I did not lose my job and that method of standing up worked much better than just grousing to my fellow employees about it, which would not have accomplished anything more than making me seem like an ineffectual complainer.

 

You can be an Ethics Watchdog without being overbearing or exuding a holier-than-thou attitude.  Just think about what is right and fair.  If you notice something that is bothering your sense of decency, go speak with your supervisor or submit a suggestion worded in an intelligent unemotional way.  You’ll be doing your part to make the business world a better place.

 

© Janet L. Burgar, November 2008