Thursday, March 09, 2006

My New Job Makes Me Want To Cry

To my surprise, the customers weren't too bad. None of them were rude-- the worst anyone did was hang up on me. Well, no actually the worst was the guy who answered the phone in perfect, standard American English, then suddenly magically became foreign as soon as he realized he didn't know the caller. *eyes rolling* Some people were even nice and interested in my offer. I mean, I'm hooking them up with free stuff. No strings attached! That's kind of hard to argue with.

No, the problems come from sitting still for too long in my uncomfortable desk chair and from repeating the same poorly written script over and over and over. (I did adapt it some so that it sounds like something I would actually say.)

The problems come when I think about my pay. For the life of me, I can not figure out this pay structure. I know it's based on how many calls I make, but some calls are worth more than others and some calls are worth nothing. My supervisor's explanation made no sense at all. Plus, a lot of the time I was logged on last night, I was just sitting and waiting for the system to connect me to a call. Well, that's an awful lot of time to be wasting.

And the biggest problem is my cell phone. It's the only phone I have, so of course I am using it for this. I got myself this nifty and cool hands-free headset, and I upgraded my plan so that I have free incoming calls (the dialing system calls me when I log on, so it counts as incoming). It should have been fine. But Sprint PCS, unwise fools that they are, refuses to change my plan over until the end of the billing period. This is on 3/28. Today is 3/9. So let's take a look at the math, shall we?
  • 15 hours a week X 3 weeks X 60 minutes = 2700 minutes used for telemarketing.
  • 2700 minutes - 400 minutes (my current plan) = 2300 minutes over my limit.
  • 2300 minutes X overage fees + any minutes I would use for non-telemarketing purposes = a phone bill of approximately $250.00.

I'm sure you can see why this would be a problem. Especially when I wouldn't earn nearly that much.

So I’ve got three options, as I see it. I can beg and plead with Sprint to upgrade me early. I can see if I can get a cheap landline installed quickly. Or I can beg and plead with the telemarketing company to let me put off my real start until the end of the month. I don’t particularly like ANY of these options.

I am going to have to keep looking and find something else. I need to have a job where I’m sure of what I’m earning. Preferably not one where I’m tethered to my desk by the wires of a hands-free headset. I was only logged on for an hour last night and had nightmares of dread the whole time I was trying to sleep afterwards. Tonight I’m scheduled for FOUR hours. No, this is not a happy time!

5 comments:

Martie said...

$250. cell phone bill....WOW! You can have a land line installed for a lot less than that!

So sorry you have to do this....keep looking for something else; anything else would be less costly for you!

Hang in there, good luck!

Anonymous said...

I want to cry with you! Surely there is another way. ("And stop calling me Shirley!") This job is going to cost you more than you can possibly make, not to mention time wasted.

There is always the option I offered, and I hope you are considering it. This telemarketing job was a good idea in theory, but it doesn't look promising. Think about it, okay?

Bainwen Gilrana said...

I emailed my telemarkety supervisor to explain about the phone problem, and that it is too expensive to log on until I get it solved.

She seemed less than pleased.

I don't particularly care, unless they want to give me enough of a raise to cover the $250 phone bill I'd wind up with.

Tirithien said...

Good luck, my love. If you need me for anything, I'm there.

Bougie Black Boy said...

wait a minute. you have to use your own phone for the telemarketing thing?

I need to email you.