So as of this Monday, here I am back in another Arise certification each morning from 9am to 1pm. Last time, a couple months ago now when I was going through the Holland America certification, our instructor was a little bit of a hot mess, having tech issues and some difficulty keeping on track but she was at least honest about herself and her foibles.
This current instructor for Modivcare though. Let's just say she's so bad, I call her the Queen of the Gaslight.
I'm not trying to be mean or hyper-critical. I, like her, am also of an age-group that in many respects are technology-challenged in certain applications. For me, it's mainly the newest tech like cell phones. I still have trouble with some of the basics in that regard. For instance, I don't know how to send a text without looking up directions on YouTube. LOL! Yes, me, a person who built computers from scratch and owned my own computer reseller business in the nineties, am, in many aspects, a downright luddite. But, I'll be the first to admit it.
Miss Iris though....um....
I knew from day one that her hosting Zoom sessions was going to be an issue when she was repeatedly having trouble with even the simplest of Zoom functions. I feel her pain as Zoom is newer to me as well. But, mind you, it's not my job to run a robust training session everyday with the thing. She was, and continues to be, befuddled by her facilitator options like controlling mutes, chat and incoming attendees while also coordinating screen sharing and video output. She's inconsistent with her Zoom etiquette that she wants us to use. Should we use our "Raise Hand" reaction feature to signal her or just use chat? Should we jump on mic unannounced or seek permission? The rules change on a dime. And when we're following the previously outlines protocol but in her mind she expects something else, she blames us.
She let the cat out of the bag on Day One about her mixed (if not outright negative) feelings about the use of various apps we use in our job. She complained about the virtual operating system we're shielded behind in order to protect the security concerns of the client and the client's customers. She stated she has misgivings and her own preferences and practices, which go against company guidelines, regarding the navigation of the CRM database software since the client wants pretty-much 100% keystroke entry (as opposed to keyboard and mouse) when servicing.
But suddenly, on Day Two, she seemed to forget all those personal opinions and stuck entirely to the company script.
Ah ha! These sessions are recorded and likely reviewed by her boss and sure enough, they must have reigned in her free-thinking attitudes and now it was all "do what I say, not what I do."
And this all brings me to today, when for the first time, she logged in behind the ASD (the Arise environment built in Linux on a removable flash drive) and when she was roleplaying a sample call scenario, we saw her screen share and in several instances, especially when pop-ups displayed, she used her mouse to navigate and execute tasks. Several trainees, including me, gently called her out on this.
Now, I can say at least in my case, I wasn't accusing her. I typed my query about it in chat in order to gauge whether the rule was sacrosanct or could there be limited exemptions as needed, especially as the stated reason for the keyboard-only rule was to prevent inefficient application navigation that could cause time delays in servicing the calls (basically providing an environment conducive towards promoting a desired low call handle time (AHT)).
Now, I already likely had marks against me in her eyes as two days ago, I complained about the latency and frequent freezing of the CRM in the training environment. I outright stated that I accepted the reasoning that the problems were related to the training version and would be improved in production. I outright told her that it better since I wouldn't continue on (with the job) if I was facing up to a half hour tech issue (for which we DON'T get paid) each time I try to service my intervals. Just being honest.
Then yesterday, she was trying to log into the CRM using screen share and it was having "gremlins" or "was acting up" when it kept failing. I could see her personalized desktop and that she was clearly in Windows, thus not behind the ASD in the Linux OS. I called that out in chat and she made a surprised face but quickly tried to cover herself saying "well she was accessing it outside of ASD since she had admin abilities as an instructor." That's bullshit. I didn't say that to her but now I knew she was gonna be one of those people who throw shade at "the systems" and she was gonna gaslight us all in accepting her version of reality.
The big gaslighting was today's denial of mouse use. Even after she'd been caught, by several people. "NO...no I didn't," she protested vehemently. When she CLEARLY DID IT AGAIN, I jumped on chat and typed "there, you used the mouse just then" and one other participant typed in chat "correct Michael." So at least a few of us refuse to be gaslighted, and, importantly, will call it out when they see it.
You know, in a way, I can't blame her though. We now live in a world in which gaslighting, or at least repeated gaslighting attempts by individuals and groups of people alike, is quite commonplace. And, to make it worse, in our industry, call center work, it's been very traditional and still very much the norm to have management pressing on workers to believe what they want you to believe. And the main message they always espouse: "Do what we say or you'll see yourself put to the doorstep." Of course now, it's a virtual doorstep and can be initiated by them with the click of a mouse.
And they'll have no issue using a mouse for that! And to that I say: