Introductions

So, it's 0725 on a Sat morning, and Im in the office, having started at 0700. Why? I hear you ask, I bet you have an important job. Well no, not really, unfortunately I don't work for the emergancy services, or on any matter of national security, I work in a call centre.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to have never needed to work in such an establishment, allow me to describe it for you:

The building is split into 3 levels, each with 2/3 "floor", "floors" being the areas where the work is done. Each floor contains rows and rows of desk, each with 4 computers, and telephones. The walls are white, the lighting is bright and stripped, and the desks devoid of any personal possessions. Within the building we also have a canteen, serving grease filled rubbish at a knock down price, a "games" room with a pool table, and numerous coffee machines, dispensing much needed caffine to the workforce.

A number of jobs get done in our centre, which is the Customer Service Contact Centre for a major supermarket chain, which simply means that we handle all complaints mande to "head office" regardless of the method of complaint.

My job at the centre (at the moment anyway), is fraud prevention. I security check orders to establish as far as possible that they are genuine before we take payment and dispatch the goods. If it sounds like it could be remotely interesting, I have given it more credit than it deserves. As with most call centre jobs, my job doesn't really require thinking very often, and the system is largely automated, requiring me to input data, and call the customer if we are failing the order. All of which is repetitive and not very sitimulating.

So why am I at work at 0730 on a Sat morning? Well the short answer is, thats my shift. 0700 - 1530 Sat - Wed. The long story is that we have a daily dealine of 1300 to have checked all the orders we need to check, and having staff in at 0700 is the only way we can make that deadline.

So, as you may have gathered I don't like my job, so it probably doesn't surprise you to learn I am looking for something else. In particular, I want to work with the emergancy services, who do an invaluable job, and whose hard work and professionalism is an insipration.