company review

**Company Review**

This is my review of the call centre company where I work. A mid-sized call centre occupying several floors in a modern tower block. I work on a soulless boring metrics heavy account with an emotionless robot-like team leader. He gives out NTEs like giving dog biscuits to a dog. I’m not doing tricks. Instead I’m getting QA 0 Auto Fail mark downs from the bastards in the QA dept on Floor 19. Everybody fucking hates them! We get 8 or 10 call evals a month we need to pass. Most companies only have 5. It doesn’t matter if you get maximum CSATs in a month. Get 1 or 2 QA 0s and you get no bonus that month. This happened to me a couple of times. Top CSAT scorer yet I got 2x QA 0s in June and 1x QQ 0 in July. 3x QA 0s and 3x NTEs. I got nothing in the unfair metrics heavy system. MY TL gives out a single NTE to every QA 0. I call the NTEs love letters. There is a 4-month cleansing period. If I get another QA 0/NTE I will be on Level 3 warning. I’m on Level 2 now. And a further NTE will mean Level 4 and fired from the company. I will go to a rival BPO then and apply at 3 a week. I have 9 years’ experience and feel I do good in my calls yet loath the QA side of the job. I was off work a week with bad gout. Will my robot TL give me an NTE for being out? Here’s the scripts, med cert and back to work form. Give me an NTE? I’ll do a DOLE case! Another complaint in my job is the low basic pay of only 17k a month. 24k in all. It’s not all bad. I have some good friends there and met a flirt. What will the next few weeks bring? I’ll see and be ready…

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bike choices

Bike Choices

They pester me to buy a bicycle. They all own one. Some of them are quite nifty with good features. I do like them and would get one. The reason I don't get one is due to my situ. I live by the main road. This is busy 24/7. From mopeds to cars to ten wheel trucks. Me on my bike wouldn't fair too well with any of these. Even the smallest moped is faster than me.  Rather than risk an early death I either walk or take the bus. It's safer on my limbs and conscience. Take my friend Archie. He had one of those carbon fiber racing bikes with no brakes. That thing cost a grand! His funeral cost five times that. All because he couldn't stop in time to avoid the milk float that pulled into the road. He was going too fast to avoid it. I miss my friend but question his sanity and lust for speed. He was a racer and had several trophies. The road is different than the track. Death is death however you go. A milk float doing 12 miles per hour cannot avoid a racing bicycle doing forty five. I saw his body. He looked calm. Even if half his chest was crushed. This is why I won't get a bike. Call me old or slow or sensible. My choice is right for me. Archie paid the price for his quest of speed. I salute him for dying for his cause but this is real life. And life to me matters. Does it to you? What bike will you buy?  Please be careful.