You are at your desk, working away, talking to a customer. Suddenly, the following pop-up notification appears:

It is important to keep all footwear (shoes, sneakers, sandals) on at all times. It is prohibited to be removing your footwear at anytime. Also it is prohibited to place your feet up on your desk and must be kept on the floor, sitting responsibly.


How do you react?

I guess it has to be a joke right?

Unfortunately

That kind of management style is a real turn-off for me...firing off orders from an ivory tower to tell the many not to copy the sins of the few is, I think, lazy and uninvolved management in the extreme!

You are very right. And this sort of thing has been going on for months. Mgt talks about our "professional" environment, yet they treat the agents like children.

This was one of 3 issues that arose that particular day. The other 2 were a) rudeness and unhelpfullness of chat floor support and b) a circulated process-change sign-off (about call flow) which ended "Failure to comply will result in dsciplanary action up to and including termination". I cam every close to pitching my ID and walking out. Unfortunately, you can't do that. You need your id to exit. That really puts a damper on the dramatics.

So I refused to take any more calls that day and winged off a memo to management. I suspect nothing will come from it. As usual.

Having worked somewhere where the water cups were
conical so you couldn't have a drink at your desk
and re naming Customer Service Agents (CSA's) to Customer
Service Professionals (CSP's) was the years
winner of the improve morale incentive......

I understand EXACTLY what you're feeling!

Scott!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards

DaveA

You do understand, you poor sod!

We were bullied for months about upselling a certain product on every call. When we survived that, our client hit 5 million customer and, in appreciation, we received...

free popcorn.

which we couldn't eat at our desks anyway.

An answer is to find an organisation that allows you to work from home all of the time....feet on desk, pajamas on and unlimited coffee at your desk...roll on the mobile working revolution eh?

I too worked with dave at a place where free thinking was unacceptable.

I remember being told that my opinion was not important and to keep quiet whilst challenging a managers idea to give verbal/written warnings to staff members for putting the telephone down on rude/abusive callers. This was when I worked for a charity donation line.

I was once given a verbal warning for not being happy at work???? go figure!!

People should not have to be told to keep their shoes on nor should they have to be told to get their feet off the desk. They should not do it full stop.

This is not about oppression this is about consideration for others and others property.

I would not wish to sit at a desk that someone had just left after having their shoes off for a few hours, it's not just about the smell it's also a hygene issue.

The point is not about shoes, feet, or hygeine. the point is that the message regarding this was flashed to some 200 agents. While I have no doubt that there was someone with shoes off, sending such a message to all of us is demeaning.

I have yet to receive any response to my letter of complint, but I am fully prepared to receive disciplanary action for being 'unprofessional'. Hello kettle, you're black.

Nice thought. typing away, all the coffee I want, wearing what ever I want...
...having my son grabbing the keyboard, freaking out and dumping everything on the floor, pouring juice on his head...

Naw, don't think it would work. ;)

"Excuse me Sir, would you mind holding while I research why did you put cookies in the litter box???"

Send him an e-mail........no freaking, no dumping, no juice at desks..........:-)

Like all agents, he just ignores the e-mails. Mostly, he stands around with his hand in the air, waiting for floor support.

We recently received an email telling us to 'only put bodily fluids and excrement into the toilets; not into waste paper baskets. If you are unable to reach the toilet in time, please contact the maintenance staff right away.'

The bad thing to think about is that they've had more than 1 problem with this, and decided they needed to email us all.

I do work from home part of the time, and my youngest sometimes tries to pour his juice on my keyboard instead. I'm thinking about going back to working in the office.

That's both funny and sad. 'Course, the wording of the e-mail implies that non-bodily fluids are ok in the trash, so perhaps they brought it on themselves.

As for working from you, you might try sending your kid to work to pour juice on things. At least he'd be out of your hair. ;) Mine just started talking. He can say 'hi'. If I can get him to say 'please hold', then I will be getting a recruitment bonus and we won't need a sitter!

Perhaps thats how the "bodily fluids" email got started?

Yes, now that my older son is 4, when he comes by my office (I'm there part time too) they joke about getting him a headset.

There was a lady on the phones at one point who had such a little high pitched voice that she sounded about 7 yrs old. Some customers actually asked if her parents were home. LOL

If we can manage to get our kids into training classes, we don't need sitters and the company gets an investment in their future! If we train them in customer interaction skills, they'll be ready to learn the technical soon and, hopefully, ready to be managers by the time they are old enough to work.

I hope to have my 2-year-old become a Site Director at 16. That way, when he's in his mid-20's, he should be earning a fortune and he can support me and his mom.

Also, I love the idea of a 6 year old telling his teacher, "Listen please, Miss. I understand that you are frustrated, but yelling at me is not solving the problem."