Job woes…current and future

[katiep]

Ok Binkybunny friends…..I am having BIG job woes….I work for Verizon Wireless as a customer service rep.  I absolutely hate my job!  Well, not so much the job but the management and the way the culture is changing at Verizon.  I signed up to work in customer service to solve billing issues, answer questions, and think outside the box to make customers happy.  They are now making sales goals and quotas.  I don’t have an issue selling to customers while they are standing in front of me but now they are trying to get us to cold call people and recruite local business.  Plus, if I don’t hit 80% of my new sales goals I will be fired.  But, they can’t say that they are firing me for not hitting quota, they are saying I am going to be fired over ”behaviors leading up to not hitting 80%.  I am on a written warning for not doing this for the month of march.  I get a final warning and then get fired.  So far I am at 67% and need to change that by 4/30.  On my write up, I actually am being watched on my “enthusiasm level”.  How can that even be graded and standardized!?!?  I am more of a soft spoken person, not a peppy cheerleader.  I’m so tired of the stress, the inconsistancies, and getting in trouble for breathing wrong.  Example, I got yelled at today by my manager because there was only one sales rep available so I sent a customer over to him.  Apparently I overstepped my boundaries by not letting the mgr send them over and was yelled at and given a “you are a f@$%ing a**&%$!” look.  I’m not even kiding, I wish you all could have seen the look it was almost scary.  I am just so…done…with working there.  If i could quit I would.  I will also have one manager tell me one thing and then another  manager tell me another.  I had my manager today yell at me while I was serving in the greeter role for not greeting one customer who walked through the door but not an hour later was told that if the phone is ringing that I need to answer it.  So, tell me, how am I supposed to be in two places at once!? I have called HR and they just don’t care…..

Anyways,  I am trying my absolute hardest to get out of there.  It’s just not healthy anymore.  I don’t have to love my job but I should fear losing my job every day at every turn.  I apply to at the very least 2 jobs a night in my area.  My problem is that I am either over qualified or under qualified.  I have not been able to find one job that I am just qualified for!  I have been in customer service type jobs since I started working at mcdonalds at 14.  I have been in a supervisory role for about 2 years.  I have my bachelors degree in psychology and I am working on my Master degree in Human resource and will graduate 3/11.  I know school experience will kind of count when I graduate but that doesn’t help me now.   And any human resource job wants 2+ years experience which I don’t have, they want experience with payroll, different programs, and knowledge of the business that I just don’t have yet.  I don’t want to work in retail if I can possibly avoid it but even if I did it would be a pretty big pay cut.  I have been applying for about a month now and all i’ve gotten was a “mistake” interview (company was looking for a recruiter, saw on my resume a recruiting company, but I was actually temped out through them not worked for them) and a call from t-mobile for the same job i’m doing but a $4/hr pay cut.  And, i’m not going to lie, it’s a little punch in the gut that I am earning $14/hr with a bachelors degree and working on my masters and my little sister (19) who went through a dental asst program in high school and just has a h.s degree and has only been working there for 8 months is making $10/hr.  Almost makes me wish I didn’t go through all this college, get about $50k in school loan debt only unable to find a job.  I’m not facebook and am friends with some people from high school and they are just so established in their careers and have big titles in big companies and I’m wondering what i’ve down wrong to be stuck in retail doing customer service and fearing losing my job!

Does anyone have ANY  suggestions or tips on job hunting or to help my situation??  P.S  Thanks for letting me vent!

[jerseygirl]

I have called HR and they just don’t care…..

Now that just sucks! Maybe you will have to seek independant advice outside of the company. It like your managers have been told to step it up too and are feeling the stress.
Do you have a clear job description as part of your contract? You could argue (if you had to ) that you are not in frontline sales but customer care. That being pushed to do sales is affecting your primary role. Not sure who’d you argue too.

I hate when things go sale ans money orientated! Do look at getting advised on how to deal with the new environment. Does your studies in HR give any clue as to what to do? I’ve left jobs because of managment, culture and ethics. I just can’t stay when I’m against the way a place is operated. But at the end of the day, the company just goes on operating that way and I’m left unemployed. I am learning (slowly) that I need to learn ways to handle it and stay on and not take things personally.
Sorry, not helping! I just hear your frustration.

[Beka27]

In this sort of economy, everything is about selling. I work for a retail company, sort of in a customer service role, and it’s always about how much we can sell, not if the customer is satisfied, but if we can get them to buy more stuff, even things they absolutely do not need. Your company is competing against a number of other companies and I get that they want to always be bigger and better. It is a business afterall. I’m not a fan of sales and manipulating people to try and make sales. This is one of the reasons why I am going into healthcare where I can truly help others and not just try to “raise the bottom line”. I can’t offer much guidance on looking for another job, just start getting your resume out as much as you can.

[babybunsmum]

hang in there, paste on a smiley face and keep on applying for those jobs! it really is hard getting a foot in the door and some relevant experience when you are just at the beginning of your career.

it really sucks to be ‘shifted’ into a position you weren’t supposed to be filling. that has happened a lot at the office where i work so i can relate. my background is architectural design and they had me calling out for quotes and writing purchase orders to help fill a gap when times were tight. they had a skeleton crew on and we all had to stretch a little knowing that otherwise we could easily get laid off because it was slow. and because its such a small company HR here is one person who is as disgruntled as they come. lol. going to her is useless.

things have swung around a bit and i’m not doing the other stuff anymore. fortunately for me, the design work that i have gotten is really what i like doing so it was not to difficult to grin and bare it. if keeping me around meant i had to be in sales i don’t think i could have held on long tho… i sympathize with you. its just not in my blood either. in the meantime i recommend keeping a journal of times people couldn’t be greeted when you were answering a call… and speak up politely when your directives are unclear.

good luck! i hope you find some thing else soon so you don’t have to grin and bare it anymore!

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