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Dec. 5th, 2006 10:38 pm
Set the radio alarm for 6 am and stayed in bed nearly an hour listening to the Capital Gold Breakfast Show with its news flashes from Adelaide, telling of England's spectacular collapse and Australia now closing in on victory. By the time I set off for the bus stop, the Aussies' win was virtually assured :(
Got into the telephone unit to see the place fully decked out with Christmas decorations. The call scheduler had gone down, so the early girls had spent the time putting the decs up. There was even a little Christmas tree on the nibbles table, together with the rest of the Heroes, a selection box of Bendick's chocolate mints, plus - in a concession to healthy eating - satsumas and grapes. I sampled the chocs and fruit in equal quantities through the morning.
The system was back up just before the half-hour, so we 9.30 starters were straight on the phones as normal, worse luck. Actually my calls weren't too bad, there was just one awkward old lady and she can be forgiven, as she wasn't in very good physical shape so naturally found getting up and asking her son to come to the phone a bit of a strain. Plus I was sat near Karen and Paulette (who gave me my second Crimbo card this year), so plenty of banter was guaranteed. What stressed me out today was that I STILL can't log on to my internal mail.
I told Sue #4 and explained that this was the third working day in a row that this had happened, that I'd reported it to the supervisor both previous times, and yet NOTHING had still been done. I added that it looked to me like tech support are just plain not interested. Sue said it wouldn't be that, there were people having problems with another aspect of the computer system, also it might be related to the scheduler going down this morning, plus tech support were short-staffed; she even suggested the bad weather might be a contributory factor. That ranks right up there with British Rail's leaves on the line.
I sat back down at my booth, saying quietly but aloud "Flaming useless twazzucks." Karen heard, and asked what was wrong and I told her. She recommended seeing Heather #2; she reckoned that she'd had a similar problem and told various people to no avail, then finally she'd seen Heather who'd got on the phone and got the problem solved in ten minutes.
I didn't get to see Heather straight away, as when I approached her she said she was just off to lunch. Alas, when I did speak to her later all she offered to do was report it to tech support just like Christine #3 had done yesterday, and when I asked when I could expect the problem to be solved she didn't know whether it'd be this week or next. So Heather has lost the power to put rockets up arses that she had when she helped Karen, and I remain at the mercy of the couldn't-give-a-toss turdbuggers in tech support. Utterly pathetic.
On my second coffee break I shared the whole saga with Di and Julie. Christine #3 came up while I was telling them, and she explained to me that telling Heather had been a waste of time because as she'd reported my problem to tech support yesterday, it's already in the log so no-one else can do anything about it until they get back to her. I apprised all three ladies of my extreme frustration that I am unable to access my internal e-mail, as I might miss some vital news and nobody would think to tell me. Christine #3 and Di claimed they'd keep me posted now they know, and Christine said "You know about the Christmas three hours, don't you?"
I'd never heard of it. "What Christmas three hours?"
Gales of laughter from Di and Julie. Christine told me we were all getting three hours' ex gratia pay as a Christmas bonus, but as a trade-off we'd no longer be paid for the hour we take off for the staff Christmas lunch.
Finished my last interview at 2.31. But I still had two days' payclaims to enter. Got them punched in, packed away my headphones while the computer was shutting down, and sprinted down to the bus stop, getting there a minute before 2.38. In the end the bus came two minutes late anyway.
Saw the same girl selling The Big Issue in Fareham. I didn't expect my report to TBI's central vendor feedback team to have had any effect yet, and anyway I never mind paying the PROPER price, so I gave her exactly £1.50 for a copy of the new issue. She dared to ask me "Do you have 50p for me?" I said no. The sheer brass neck of some people amazes me.
Bought The News, in which I read on the bus home that the pitch at Gosport Borough was waterlogged and so Hawks' Hampshire Cup tie there tonight had been postponed. So spent the evening writing Christmas cards and watching Chelsea v Levski Sofia over my last Marston's beer.
Got into the telephone unit to see the place fully decked out with Christmas decorations. The call scheduler had gone down, so the early girls had spent the time putting the decs up. There was even a little Christmas tree on the nibbles table, together with the rest of the Heroes, a selection box of Bendick's chocolate mints, plus - in a concession to healthy eating - satsumas and grapes. I sampled the chocs and fruit in equal quantities through the morning.
The system was back up just before the half-hour, so we 9.30 starters were straight on the phones as normal, worse luck. Actually my calls weren't too bad, there was just one awkward old lady and she can be forgiven, as she wasn't in very good physical shape so naturally found getting up and asking her son to come to the phone a bit of a strain. Plus I was sat near Karen and Paulette (who gave me my second Crimbo card this year), so plenty of banter was guaranteed. What stressed me out today was that I STILL can't log on to my internal mail.
I told Sue #4 and explained that this was the third working day in a row that this had happened, that I'd reported it to the supervisor both previous times, and yet NOTHING had still been done. I added that it looked to me like tech support are just plain not interested. Sue said it wouldn't be that, there were people having problems with another aspect of the computer system, also it might be related to the scheduler going down this morning, plus tech support were short-staffed; she even suggested the bad weather might be a contributory factor. That ranks right up there with British Rail's leaves on the line.
I sat back down at my booth, saying quietly but aloud "Flaming useless twazzucks." Karen heard, and asked what was wrong and I told her. She recommended seeing Heather #2; she reckoned that she'd had a similar problem and told various people to no avail, then finally she'd seen Heather who'd got on the phone and got the problem solved in ten minutes.
I didn't get to see Heather straight away, as when I approached her she said she was just off to lunch. Alas, when I did speak to her later all she offered to do was report it to tech support just like Christine #3 had done yesterday, and when I asked when I could expect the problem to be solved she didn't know whether it'd be this week or next. So Heather has lost the power to put rockets up arses that she had when she helped Karen, and I remain at the mercy of the couldn't-give-a-toss turdbuggers in tech support. Utterly pathetic.
On my second coffee break I shared the whole saga with Di and Julie. Christine #3 came up while I was telling them, and she explained to me that telling Heather had been a waste of time because as she'd reported my problem to tech support yesterday, it's already in the log so no-one else can do anything about it until they get back to her. I apprised all three ladies of my extreme frustration that I am unable to access my internal e-mail, as I might miss some vital news and nobody would think to tell me. Christine #3 and Di claimed they'd keep me posted now they know, and Christine said "You know about the Christmas three hours, don't you?"
I'd never heard of it. "What Christmas three hours?"
Gales of laughter from Di and Julie. Christine told me we were all getting three hours' ex gratia pay as a Christmas bonus, but as a trade-off we'd no longer be paid for the hour we take off for the staff Christmas lunch.
Finished my last interview at 2.31. But I still had two days' payclaims to enter. Got them punched in, packed away my headphones while the computer was shutting down, and sprinted down to the bus stop, getting there a minute before 2.38. In the end the bus came two minutes late anyway.
Saw the same girl selling The Big Issue in Fareham. I didn't expect my report to TBI's central vendor feedback team to have had any effect yet, and anyway I never mind paying the PROPER price, so I gave her exactly £1.50 for a copy of the new issue. She dared to ask me "Do you have 50p for me?" I said no. The sheer brass neck of some people amazes me.
Bought The News, in which I read on the bus home that the pitch at Gosport Borough was waterlogged and so Hawks' Hampshire Cup tie there tonight had been postponed. So spent the evening writing Christmas cards and watching Chelsea v Levski Sofia over my last Marston's beer.
