Okay, I know it's "Pineapple Upside-Down Cake", but I wanted, if only for one last time (yeah, right) to gripe about my current work/sleep schedule and how it's thrown my life upside down.Though it's only for the duration of this 8 week training period, I find the adjustment to accommodate the 5pm to 2am shift daunting to say the least.
I have no time, it seems, for anything other than work, staying up 'till dawn pretending to not be tired, sleeping 'till 3pm, having a short period of "normal" hours to deal with "life", then off to work again. I'm using the 9pm to 10pm "lunch hour" to get shopping done since stores are well closed by shift end.
Training is going along well though. The class is made up of about 17 mostly late 20's to mid-40's people quite diverse yet all united by (for all but one) many years of call center experience. Only one young blond haired little boy in his early 20's hailing from the white-bred pure-and-simple environs of Boulder, Colorado is among us and already he admits it may not be what he was looking for. Can you say "Dead Meat Walking"?
My words of wisdom for him, to which many other seasoned veterans chuckled in agreement, was that he, being an apparently bright young lad, will be absolutely amazed at the sheer numbers of people calling in who will be stunningly, nay, shockingly, STUPID. We warned him that it's funny at first, but it gets old fast. Really fast. Especially when it's reinforced and reiterated amongst not only your co-workers, but your managers as well. (I didn't share with him this last part...it would have been a bit apolitic, don't you think?)
Our trainer is nice but she has an irritating Valley Girl inflection syndrome. You know what I'm talking about. The young, insecure white girl public speech affectation which has her ending every sentence as if it had a question mark?
Her screechy, somewhat monotonic tone slowly escalating in pitch as each of her sentences end?
As if she's asking a question?
Without her consciously doing it?
It's just a natural way of talking for her?
Oh my God, gag me with a spoon??
Arrgghhh????
Ah well, just some of the quirkiness you put up with in the world of the newly employed. I should be happy. I have a job. And it seems, hopefully, pretty much easy. Pretty much a...
Piece of cake.