Telemarkerters

Before the national do not call registry, I remember getting phone call after phone call from telemarketers. I always remember I ended up hanging up on them because when I would tell them I wasn't interested they would continue to harass me and try to keep me on the phone. When I have told them again and again NO, I mean NO and by your harassing me doesn't make it easier. It really pisses me off that people don't have the respect to accept that you have said no, and I believe they should be hung up on when they are harassing you. They can be very demanding and pushy and it just makes me get that much meaner. I'm so thankful for the do not call registry the government put in to place!

Pregnant People at Work

I know that it is a natural part of a woman's life to have a child. I don't know a woman that doesn't want to have a child, and I am happy to see someone bringing another life into the world when they are ready to. The only problem I have with this is when it affects your work at work. I know there are the typical sicknesses with being pregnant, and I can be understanding. I currently have a co-worker is is 8 weeks pregnant and does nothing but complain how bad she feels. She continuously sits in the chair or floor while I'm getting my ass stomped and doesn't have a care in the world. I have talked to my direct supervisor and we ended up calling employee relations because he wasn't sure how to handle the situation. He wanted to say something to her, but at the same time you have to be careful of what you say because you never know when you might have a law suit on your hands. Employee relations told us to remove any chairs from the pharmacy and make sure we were not doing all the work, but to make sure our customers got served. My pharmacy manager is going to speak with her this week and I hope that things will get better, otherwise the next 7 months is going to be true hell.

I want to suggest that when attempting to correct a bad situation, proceed with caution. No one person or company needs a lawsuit over their heads because of the matter a situation was handled. I learned that it is always adviseable to ask for others input before proceeding an issue.

Stress at Work

I've recently realized that being stressed at work is something that needs to be avoided by all cause. I understand that there are going to be times that are more stressful then one another, but when you show you are stressed you tend to show it to your co-workers as well as customers. I have an employee who is consistently using curse words and storming out of the pharmacy because she is so stressed. I'm not sure why she acts like this, but it's something that she has always done. I have tried to talk to her and get her to calm down, but I'm not getting anywhere with it. I usually can when she's getting ready to blow and send her outside for a few minutes to calm down, but there are times when I can't stop her. I have learned that the best way is to remove yourself from the situation for a minute and try and get yourself together. Does anyone else have any other suggestions?

Verizon Wireless

Of the companies that I have to call the most for customer service (Comcast, Dominion, Capital One, Wachovia & Verizon Wireless) I would have to say that Verizon Wireless has some of the best people working for them. I called the other day and I spoke with a guy who was VERY helpful. I just called to ask him one specific question and I ended up talking to him for over 30 minutes because he was so helpful that I figured I could just take care of everything that I needed to at that time. I even ended up getting 250 free minutes! This wasn’t an isolated incident. I can’t recall calling Verizon Wireless and having a problem with anyone at all. Everyone there has great customer service in my opinion. On the other hand, I have found out that when you go into a Verizon Wireless store it is a totally different case. Some of those people are the most annoying ever. The people at the call centers are great though!

Good Job!

I think that it is important for workers to receive positive feedback from their employers. If they are doing what they are supposed to be doing or going out of their way to do something extra I think they should receive recognition for what they do. In my opinion there are a lot of people who don’t do what they are supposed to do because they feel like no one shows them any appreciation for what they do. There is such a large focus on correcting people who aren’t doing the right thing that the people who are doing what they are supposed to do often go under the radar.

In my position I keep a daily log of the errors that cashiers make. I also make sure that I note the cashiers who are doing everything right because I feel like it serves as a form of encouragement for them to do what they are supposed to do.

How do you want to be greeted?

There is a large debate going on in the business world about whether or not customers should be greeted with “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”. It has been said that the amount of money a consumer spends in a store depends on which of the two greetings they receive. Personally, I don’t pay much attention to that. They interviewed some people on the news and I found it interesting that most people actually had a preference as to which one they preferred. One person said they prefer “Happy Holidays” because it refers to the holiday season, not just Christmas, which is only one day.

How many of you pay attention to which of the two greetings you receive and do you actually tailor the amount of money you spend to the greeting that you received? Which greeting would you prefer?

Ageism in the workplace

We recently had a store meeting at my job and one thing that the store manager talked about was people coming to work when they are scheduled and everyone being on time for their scheduled shifts. He then pointed out two people that he says are always on time for their scheduled shifts. Both of these people happened to be over 50 years old. This made me think about the presentation that was done on older people in the workplace.

I work in retail and a lot of employers there are both students and workers. During mid-terms there were a lot of people who called out because they said they had tests to study for. Older workers are not college students and they don’t really have many other factors that prohibit them for going to work.

Young people work hard to go to school and work and I think we should get more credit than what some employers give us.

Staff Meetings

Staff Meetings. Oh what joy they can be. I used to think that they were useful until the last few years, but I decided we were going to have one to see if we can clear some things up at my work. We decided on a time and location and made sure everyone signed and knew that they had to be there. Out of my twelve staff members, one never showed and two were more than 15 minutes late. I'm not sure how you can conduct a meeting when some of your people aren't there, but we went on. I then realized that my direct supervisor and I had a list of things to talk about and as we were talking about them some of my staff decided they would turn the "open forum" into nothing more than a bitch session. Everyone wanted to tattle tail on one another and so forth. I finally got frustrated and told them that we were all adults and if you couldn't act like an adult at work and now then you might as well put your two weeks notice in and move on. I believe staff meetings would be efficient if and only if people take what is discussed out of the meeting and put it into their every day work. This meeting was a week ago and I have yet to see any improvements in the issues we discussed at the meeting. Once again, I believe they are useless.

Holiday Time and Customer Service

As we are fast approaching the Christmas time, I have to continue to remind myself that people are going to be a little more impatient then usual. When I was talking to a coworker the other day, she made the comment how she hated the holiday time because people were always so demanding and pushy. I know that everyone has a lot on their mind and all they can think about is not having the time to have it all done. I remind myself and others that in order to help with the process put a smile on your face and help everyone out as quickly and efficiently as possible. They will learn to understand that we're all busy and that we have to do things a certain way to make sure all policies and procedures are followed. Make sure to do your best and keep your cool when you have that unruly customer who just wants to be served like it's a fast food joint.

Question about our class

Hey whoever who can answer! (Ugh this is weird, it won't let me enter!) But anyway, how do we access all the other blogs again? I used to have it very convieniently located on my Bb alert list, but I've recieved way too many alerts that the blog alert disappeared on the list. I went to our announcement page, but it was blank. Does anyone know...?

Holidays

Holidays are the special time of year for people to enjoy time with their families and friends. When work is involved, that is not always the case. It is hard to get time off this time of year. Employers want people to stay on the jobs so that they can make more sales, but most people sort of slack off when holidays pop up.

It is really hard to have a balance when work life interferes with home life. To all the people who have mastered the balance, thank you. It is a job that most people have a hard time doing. So on this day, have a happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family and friends.

When Your Old Job Wants You Back

Once again, a blog about my sister. I know, but she just has really interesting stuff that happens at her jobs. Anyway, my sister quit working for Company A in June of 2006. She went through the proper protocols and gave her two weeks notice. When this happened, she was asked to do an exit interview with her hiring manager. This woman was very unprofessional. She was mad at my sister for quitting, she didn't like the reasons that my sister gave for moving on to another job, and she made a point to let my sister know that she would never, ever hire her to work at this company again.

Fast forward to October of 2007. My sister has been working at Company B for a year and a half now. She received an envelope in the mail from her former job with a boomerang toy inside. She read the letter that she received from the company. The same lady that didn't want to ever hire her again made a point to let her know that she could come back. The letter basically stated that Company A has great benefits and would love to have her as an employee again. The thing that made my sister throw the letter in the trash, however, was this lady's last shot at her. She addressed the letter to my sister as MR instead of MS. How rude!