Improv
I have only been back to work now for two days and my mind is filled with questions. I have been looking at the world around me and now find myself asking "what the heck is it with some people?" Have I been reading the wrong definition of common sense all of my life? Am I that different from others in the world?
I guess it is all because I have been working error reports at work. Reports that are sent to training from support agents or other agents about fellow agents that are not following policy. Some of the things I have been seeing just make me scratch my head and wonder, what was this agent thinking that would make them disregard policy to this extent? Then there are those that I see that make me scratch my head and wonder, who put what in this persons cereal this morning that made them so negative on life that they would take the time to report an agent for disregarding policy, but with justification?
Then, I was asked to listen to a few calls that were captured. These were calls that they wanted me to evaluate as to whether the customer was really good at pushing buttons or were the agents just completely out of line. Holy Schmoley. I won't even talk about these, these really caused me to question the definition of common sense, customer service, charity, good will, being helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, and benevolent?
Final straw was when I was pulled into a managers office to talk about one of program testers and the reports they send. This agent had just been written up because they of the letters they were capitalizing in the subject line of their report. I know that this may sound funny to some of you, but in our line of work there are certain things we capitalize. I have a hard time typing in lower case some times because of it. For example, "ATRE was not working, FLT between IAHSAT gave a PopUp error, SHARES response was INVALID...etc. I know that many of these things don't make sense to the public, but they do us. The agent, who is different in their own right, was capitalizing random words to emphasize the way sound of the word. Like eXpand, INability, ReFUnd, DePOSit, thRILLing...etc. Well, when you put some of these words together, supposedly, they have hidden meaning. I never thought of it, but someone has taken the time to compile all the error reports that were being sent by this individual and started putting meanings to the caps. Oh My Heck!
What is up with the world?
It was very refreshing this morning to be reading the news and see a completely random act of goodwill. There was a video clip of a man, caught in the chaos of travel, surrounded by hundreds/thousands of others in what could have been an unpleasant experience. In fact, it probably was. Yet, he was standing there, with his guitar, getting the mob of people to sing along with him. It was amazing.
I began to wonder how many times I have been in similar situations, those awkward moments of silence, tension...etc. and have suggested it would be good to do something completely random. Those in my group suddenly become serious and beg me not to do it. After watching this video, I truly believe we need more of it. Complete random improvisation of goodwill, breaking out into song, knock-knock jokes, starting a line dance, or the bunny hop. Sometimes silly, embarrassing things are what the world needs. We all need to laugh, in spite of ourselves and our situations. A good man, Elder Wirthlin, said that once. We need more.
Check out ImprovEverywhere.com for good ideas, think of your own, step outside the box, look for the opportunity to cause jaws to drop, just do it, I dare you.
I guess it is all because I have been working error reports at work. Reports that are sent to training from support agents or other agents about fellow agents that are not following policy. Some of the things I have been seeing just make me scratch my head and wonder, what was this agent thinking that would make them disregard policy to this extent? Then there are those that I see that make me scratch my head and wonder, who put what in this persons cereal this morning that made them so negative on life that they would take the time to report an agent for disregarding policy, but with justification?
Then, I was asked to listen to a few calls that were captured. These were calls that they wanted me to evaluate as to whether the customer was really good at pushing buttons or were the agents just completely out of line. Holy Schmoley. I won't even talk about these, these really caused me to question the definition of common sense, customer service, charity, good will, being helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, and benevolent?
Final straw was when I was pulled into a managers office to talk about one of program testers and the reports they send. This agent had just been written up because they of the letters they were capitalizing in the subject line of their report. I know that this may sound funny to some of you, but in our line of work there are certain things we capitalize. I have a hard time typing in lower case some times because of it. For example, "ATRE was not working, FLT between IAHSAT gave a PopUp error, SHARES response was INVALID...etc. I know that many of these things don't make sense to the public, but they do us. The agent, who is different in their own right, was capitalizing random words to emphasize the way sound of the word. Like eXpand, INability, ReFUnd, DePOSit, thRILLing...etc. Well, when you put some of these words together, supposedly, they have hidden meaning. I never thought of it, but someone has taken the time to compile all the error reports that were being sent by this individual and started putting meanings to the caps. Oh My Heck!
What is up with the world?
It was very refreshing this morning to be reading the news and see a completely random act of goodwill. There was a video clip of a man, caught in the chaos of travel, surrounded by hundreds/thousands of others in what could have been an unpleasant experience. In fact, it probably was. Yet, he was standing there, with his guitar, getting the mob of people to sing along with him. It was amazing.
I began to wonder how many times I have been in similar situations, those awkward moments of silence, tension...etc. and have suggested it would be good to do something completely random. Those in my group suddenly become serious and beg me not to do it. After watching this video, I truly believe we need more of it. Complete random improvisation of goodwill, breaking out into song, knock-knock jokes, starting a line dance, or the bunny hop. Sometimes silly, embarrassing things are what the world needs. We all need to laugh, in spite of ourselves and our situations. A good man, Elder Wirthlin, said that once. We need more.
Check out ImprovEverywhere.com for good ideas, think of your own, step outside the box, look for the opportunity to cause jaws to drop, just do it, I dare you.
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