Ahhhhh, work.
Jun. 1st, 2005 04:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brinshannaraIt has been so long since I properly complained about work (apart from schoolwork) on my LJ.
Training Day #2: Time to Pick up the Phone
(or, OMGIHAVEFORGOTTENHOWTOSPEAKFRENCHHELP)
Actually, it wasn't a bad day. I was at work for 5 and a half hours, had a 15 minute paid break and a 15 minute unpaid break that I combined for a 30 minute break so I could get dinner at the mall, because, like a dumbass, I forgot my sandwich, and was ravenous by 7:15.
I completed four surveys, three of them in French and one in English. I don't think I'm supposed to talk about the subjects, so we'll move on. What I will say is that I spoke French for the majority of the evening and I cannot describe to you the sheer joy of hearing someone pick up with an English "hello?" after hearing about 20 French "Oui, allo?"s in a row. It's bliss, because it means I CAN RELAX and not think about pronouncing things properly, because my English is, you know, good. My French is not quite as automatic and is a LOT harder to give a survey in. At one point, I swear, the words just sort of blurred on the screen and DID NOT MAKE SENSE TO ME, even though it was perfectly good French. I just was incapable of interpreting it. I think it was just a serious lack of concentration, because a couple seconds later, my brain flipped BACK to "French" and I finished the questions.
I may, eventually, switch to English only, but I think that I may actually be less influencing in French, because I don't do as much "filler" as I do in English.
In English, I'm an active listener. In person, I nod, I smile, I react. On the phone, I say "okay" and "all right", and other such words to give the person with whom I'm speaking the impression that YES, I'm listening. What I've discovered is that such things, when doing surveys, can unduly influence the respondent, because they may see you as affirming their answers as the "correct" ones. Whoopsie. Apart from that, I have a dynamic voice, I'm professional and polite. So there.
The target flow rate tonight for this one survey I did was 1.23 surveys per hour. I averaged 1.13, doing four of them in the three and a half hours I was actually on the phones. (4-5 was training, 5 was the pre-shift meet, 5:10-5:45 or so was the preparing for the survey... And I had a half hour break, so I did more than one survey per hour.) This is all yay. I'll find out my actual stats tomorrow. God help me, that's all I need -- more stats in my life.
My intros are, apparently, very good, and I do my best to ask if there's someone else available if I get a refusal, so that's a good thing.
And I'm not panicked or terrified over calling random people anymore. Go me.
Possibly the most annoying thing is that, at 9:29pm (literally a minute before the shift ended), I got connected through the system to this lady who actually wanted to answer the survey. So I was there 'till 9:40 and was late meeting my friend JB at the coffee shop. Thank God she picked choices that shortened the length of the survey!
All in all, it was a good day, and I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's shift. Sunday is 7 hours (from 2-9) and then next Monday is 5-9:30 and the same on Wednesday. So that's about 16 hours a week, and I can change that every month. With school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, this schedule seems for the best. For a weekend, I can drive up north after class on a Thursday and come back on a Sunday morning and still get to work, if I choose to, and I'll have the Friday and the Saturday completely off.
So that was work. JB and I came back to my place, and that story is for another, less public, entry.
Bed soon. Laundry to do before I go to work tomorrow.
Happy June. :)
Training Day #2: Time to Pick up the Phone
(or, OMGIHAVEFORGOTTENHOWTOSPEAKFRENCHHELP)
Actually, it wasn't a bad day. I was at work for 5 and a half hours, had a 15 minute paid break and a 15 minute unpaid break that I combined for a 30 minute break so I could get dinner at the mall, because, like a dumbass, I forgot my sandwich, and was ravenous by 7:15.
I completed four surveys, three of them in French and one in English. I don't think I'm supposed to talk about the subjects, so we'll move on. What I will say is that I spoke French for the majority of the evening and I cannot describe to you the sheer joy of hearing someone pick up with an English "hello?" after hearing about 20 French "Oui, allo?"s in a row. It's bliss, because it means I CAN RELAX and not think about pronouncing things properly, because my English is, you know, good. My French is not quite as automatic and is a LOT harder to give a survey in. At one point, I swear, the words just sort of blurred on the screen and DID NOT MAKE SENSE TO ME, even though it was perfectly good French. I just was incapable of interpreting it. I think it was just a serious lack of concentration, because a couple seconds later, my brain flipped BACK to "French" and I finished the questions.
I may, eventually, switch to English only, but I think that I may actually be less influencing in French, because I don't do as much "filler" as I do in English.
In English, I'm an active listener. In person, I nod, I smile, I react. On the phone, I say "okay" and "all right", and other such words to give the person with whom I'm speaking the impression that YES, I'm listening. What I've discovered is that such things, when doing surveys, can unduly influence the respondent, because they may see you as affirming their answers as the "correct" ones. Whoopsie. Apart from that, I have a dynamic voice, I'm professional and polite. So there.
The target flow rate tonight for this one survey I did was 1.23 surveys per hour. I averaged 1.13, doing four of them in the three and a half hours I was actually on the phones. (4-5 was training, 5 was the pre-shift meet, 5:10-5:45 or so was the preparing for the survey... And I had a half hour break, so I did more than one survey per hour.) This is all yay. I'll find out my actual stats tomorrow. God help me, that's all I need -- more stats in my life.
My intros are, apparently, very good, and I do my best to ask if there's someone else available if I get a refusal, so that's a good thing.
And I'm not panicked or terrified over calling random people anymore. Go me.
Possibly the most annoying thing is that, at 9:29pm (literally a minute before the shift ended), I got connected through the system to this lady who actually wanted to answer the survey. So I was there 'till 9:40 and was late meeting my friend JB at the coffee shop. Thank God she picked choices that shortened the length of the survey!
All in all, it was a good day, and I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's shift. Sunday is 7 hours (from 2-9) and then next Monday is 5-9:30 and the same on Wednesday. So that's about 16 hours a week, and I can change that every month. With school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, this schedule seems for the best. For a weekend, I can drive up north after class on a Thursday and come back on a Sunday morning and still get to work, if I choose to, and I'll have the Friday and the Saturday completely off.
So that was work. JB and I came back to my place, and that story is for another, less public, entry.
Bed soon. Laundry to do before I go to work tomorrow.
Happy June. :)
