Touch and Go: Faith in the Future

The last several days have been daunting at times. The push forward harder than imagined and, thus, my faith that things will work out in the end has been tried on more than one occasion. Tried, but it did prevail.

I've lamented in the past, about how "Customer Service Representative" seems to be less about service and more about commando practices used in getting off the phone as soon as possible. I have come to the conclusion that, since the company I work for is a private contractor for a larger organization, the actual "customer" is the organization/client that hires us to perform this service. They are the ones who liked my company's statistics regarding call times and number of calls handled. Thus, the callers are merely part of this grand statistical scheme.

You see, mid-week, I was called into an office by my supervisor and told that I was being put on an "improvement plan". This means that I have a month to bring my call time down to the mandated level on a consistent basis, and must show acceptable improvement along the way or I may be released from the company. Shape up or ship out.

I did some soul-searching and came to the above mentioned conclusion. It feels "dirty" to not inform callers of pitfalls ahead, or problems with their applications that will, no doubt, bite them later down the road. The name of the game is: only answer their questions and only examine their application closer if so noted in the "comments" part of the computer screen.

Well, the next day I cut my call time drastically by following those guidelines. They were given to me by my supervisor and fellow workers who have fantastic call times. I went home feeling both triumphant that I will be able to fulfill the expectations of my superiors, and, also, like I let the people down that called for my help.

That day, I was told by my ecstatic supervisor and manager, that my request for a shift change had been granted and I would be notified of my new hours next week. A reward for proving that I could tow the line? Who knows, but it will be nice to have hours that more closely fit Cameron's.

The next day, Saturday, I felt awful. The "kidney stone" pains are back, but different. They started back last weekend and have hung around on a more consistent basis, but milder. So, I called my doctor and left a message that I still need to take the test, that I had previously canceled, as the pain had returned. I'm getting really sick of this.

Today, I have been a little better, pain-wise, but overall yucky. We needed groceries so I headed out in the late afternoon while there was a little cloud cover, which made it nice out. I parked the car and started wandering the isles of the store. An announcement over the store's loudspeaker caught my attention, "Will the owner of a black Saturn please come to the front of the store?" At first, I thought, that can't be about my car, though someone might have bumped into it. OK, I'll check it out. At the front of the store, I was greeted by a man in a red vest, who's name tag indicated he was the manager.

He said it looked like my car had caught fire. Thick, black, smoke had begun pouring out from under the hood so they called the fire department. I went out to the parking lot and saw no smoke. A couple of young guys were out gathering carts and hanging around my car. They told me about the smoke, apparently it was enough that it lifted the hood a little. It smelled odd, kind of like burned plastic, with an electrical nuance to it. Great! Now what?!

While I was surveying the situation under the hood, a fire engine pulled up and guys in baggy pants strolled up to the car to offer assistance. Confident that there was no longer any danger, they disconnected the battery and made sure I had things worked out regarding getting home, then left. I didn't see anything that looked burned, but there was a lot of sooty, carbon-like, substance along the passenger side of the firewall, and on the underside of the hood.

Since we'll be relying on the motorcycle for a while, I made sure to stock up on groceries so the car would be utilized, regardless of its condition. Thanks to AAA, I got the car and groceries home. I need to see about getting some overtime hours in so I can start saving for repairs. With my new schedule, it should be easier to find opportunities for the extra time as it's usually offered during the hours I regularly work.

Only 3 more months. That's all we have to last here.

Cameron checked with the career center at school and found out that between 6-9 weeks before graduation is when students will start courting their potential employers. It is recommended that a few locations, not a huge number, be focused on. I've been looking at potential places to relocate, using a list of US dealerships that he was given.

Researching makes it more real. Sometimes, it's hard to look ahead and see success. That's where faith comes in. We've had our share of falling on our faces, then dusting ourselves off to continue on. We always come out of it, usually a little wiser for it. For us, it's the bumpy, muddy, road that we choose. The experiences along the way enrich us and provide insight that we may have never arrived at, should we have taken the easy path.