Lessons on life from the Avaya phone

Two things that I have been using since I started working as a customer care representative or a call center agent four months ago are the personal computer and the Avaya phone. I have been exposed to the computer since I was in fourth-year college so there is really nothing new about it. It's only on the program or the software that I need some adjustments to. But the Avaya phone is something new to me.

Besides being different from the usual telephone sets that we have in offices or homes, the Avaya also has functions and codes which could not otherwise be done from an ordinary telephone set. And these functions and codes taught me many important lessons in life. In other words it brought me back to my feet. I may be terminated anytime soon because I have the highest average handling time (AHT) in the site and had given the most adjustments in dollars to customers who called in but these lessons will be treasured and will always be there to guide me in future endeavors.

Now let’s go to the lessons . . .

AUTO-IN. I was practically elated during the first few weeks at work. Knowing that only two or three out of ten applicants are offered to work in the company would make you feel proud, in fact very proud. It means you have the edge: the knowledge, the skills and potentials that others don't. There is no problem for the first two weeks because you only need to pass the Communication and Culture Training (CCT) in order to proceed to the next training. The second training which is called Program Specific Training (PST) is indeed hard work, but it still was fun. It's like going back to college again for twenty days. You don't receive calls as yet except for the last two days where we were required to take calls for two hours. These last two days is where you will hear the "Oh my Gods," "Gosh!," "Lord!" and all prayerful ejaculations possible. No matter how nervous or unprepared you are, you need to take the calls. And to start receiving the calls, you need to press auto-in. After the shift, you can spend the rest of the day talking with your friends, family members and every person you know about the calls you had. But then again, all of it started with just one press on the auto-in button.

Life’s like that. There are situations and instances which we think we are not prepared to handle. We also often feel that we are incapable of handling these situations. But running away would not solve the problem but will even make it worse. We need to face each situation no matter how difficult or how impossible it is to handle. And not just that, we need to deal with the problem head on. After having solved the problem, you can't help but exclaim a sigh of relief. Looking backward, the problem which at first seems as high as Mt. Everest will look like an anthill. We just need to take the first step.

AFTERCALL. While in a call, you may choose to press aftercall to prevent new calls from coming in after the first call has ended. This will give you ample time to finish your notes, make adjustments or make changes to the account of the previous caller. This option has to be carefully used, however, since abusing this will also affect your AHT. Some representatives, however, are using this as a means to avoid calls but MOD is very alert in calling your attention when you have been in aftercall for more than a minute. I don’t use aftercall though but TL is instilling the importance of using it to make sure that you finish the things you need to do before taking in another call. The stress however is on using it to your advantage and not to abuse it for personal gain.

There are many lessons I gained from this operation but for this blog, I’ll mention only two. First lesson: we need to take things one at a time. There is a danger of starting or doing so many different things at the same time (such as accepting a lot of responsibilities at the same time): you may not complete or become unsuccessful in any of them. This has to be differentiated though from multitasking which is performing several tasks at the same time (such as talking and typing) to achieve a single end or purpose. You can walk and sing at the same time but you cannot take two steps at the same time. Second lesson: escaping from responsibility is not and will never be the solution to a problem. When an agent avoids a call, for example, he will have to be responsible to such an act and therefore has to face the consequences of such deliberate violation of company rules. In real life, escaping a responsibility will never relieve us from the consequences of a deliberate act or omission; on the other hand, the earlier we take action and positively respond to a given situation, the better will things turn out for us.

AUXWORK 3. Auxwork 3 in the Avaya means “break time.” You may spend these two fifteen-minute break anyway you want: eat a light snack or a regular meal, smoke with others outside the building or just stretch out to relieve tension. Break time is mandatory, otherwise it will affect your productivity. You also need to be very careful not to exceed the time allotted break time or you will have to suffer the consequences.

We also need to take a breather in real life, otherwise, we will suffer burnout and will not be very productive in anything that we do. We are privileged to have two rest days in a week unlike the one-day mandatory rest day in the Christian Ten Commandments. We should use this in such a way as will nourish both soul and body. With this we can be assured that when the next workday begins, we are refreshed, full of enthusiasm and energy and are ready to hurdle difficult situations ahead.

AUXWORK 6. There is a mandatory 30-minute coaching every week. This is to let you know how your scorecard looked like in the previous week as compared to company metrics and standards. For this, you need to press auxwork 6. This is something new to me because for nine (9) years that I have been working with a non-government organization (NGO) I was evaluated only once. And it was not even a one-on-one evaluation but only ticking and answering two to three pages questionnaire which I myself prepared. With the weekly coaching, you are assured that you are always on track and know what you need to work on to become a better representative or agent. I have already been coached three (3) times on my AHT and once on my “maximize” or performance in selling.

How did we check our performance in the workplace called life? Whatever our faith orientation may be, prayer, meditation, scripture-reading, group studies, counseling / confession and private and public worship are important tools that we can use to examine our past performance and become better persons in the future. For those who have been using them, persevere; for those who have lost interest, rediscover their true value; for those who haven’t tried them, approach them with expectation that these will make you a better person.

AUXWORK 5. You need to press auxwork 5 when you need to restart your computer or refresh your software in case it hangs up or stops responding to the keyboard or to the mouse. This is a sort of emergency relief or last resort when you have tried everything to make your system work without shutting it down. I only used this operation once and was given three minutes by MOD to do it.

There are times when we badly need help or assistance on a life situation we are facing. It’s good to know we have the following assurance, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) The Lord always uses people to give us the relief or emergency assistance. Do we know who these people are -- the people whom we can turn to when everything turns sour for us? Or, are we such "relief" to people close to us, or even strangers, when things go wrong for them?

I learned that silence can be loud too

I agree that Christmas 2006 has been very unlike the previous Christmas celebrations I had. First of all, this has been the first Christmas where I no longer have a parent to greet “Merry Christmas” to. Second, there has been a drastic change in my work schedule that I could no longer enjoy the usual two-week vacation at the end of the year nor complete the 9 days dawn novena mass before Christmas. Picture this: my work in a non-government organization requires me to finish an overdue annual report and a project proposal; my work in a call center requires that I achieve all the standards that include customer satisfaction (CSAT), low average handling time (AHT), good sales output and several others; my work in the life insurance business requires that I achieve the required number of policies sold as well as first year premiums (FYP) and first year commissions (FYC). Despite all of these, however, I learned to appreciate the little beautiful things I experienced and learned during this year’s Christmas celebration.

One of the things I learned (and I think one which will become the basis of my 2007 new year’s resolution) is that silence can be loud – that silence can have more impact than all the words combined. I had only the privilege of attending the first two days of the Christmas novena mass and on the 2nd day, the gospel reading was about how the Virgin Mary came to have a child and how St. Joseph aborted his plan of divorcing her (Matthew 1:18-25). I thought it was just a very common gospel narrative since I am already very familiar with it having read at least once for the past twenty-two years. But the celebrant, an Irish priest who is now very fluent in Cebuano, expounded it in such a manner that I glimpsed fresh insights which I would not otherwise learn by just simply re-reading the story. He began by asking how many words of St. Joseph was recorded in the Bible. The answer is “none” – that’s correct, not a word. But see how great his contribution is in making God’s plan of salvation come to pass. All it took was a heart willing to obey God’s direction and some silence – just as Mary “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19 and Luke 2:51)

I have been thinking about these thoughts for the past few weeks already. At the end of the year 2006, I recall how numerous my plans were at the start of the year yet how few I have accomplished. The said gospel reading reminds me how important it is to take time to be silent to be able to hear God’s directions … and then to obey them. I remember my former officemate in Bohol, Anabelle Reyes, who said “mag-sabbatical ko karong tuiga.” I think that is what I just need for the coming year – to take time to rest and to trust God to do the rest. As the psalmist said, “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch.” (Psalm 127:1)

Towards the end my college years, three of my friends and I made a pact that we should each have written a book by the time we are thirty. Until now, I haven’t written a line as yet. I believe though that I will be able to do so in the near future. But then again, it’s not at all important how many words you’ve written but how your action spoke them. As the saying goes, “action speaks louder than words.” Mary Baker Eddy, one of my favorite authors, had her own version of this saying. She said, “Action expresses more gratitude than speech.”

I am looking forward to more of these simple truths to unravel in the next following days for “[d]ay unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” (Psalm 19:2, KJV). And one of my New Year’s resolutions would be to no longer to wait for the next New Year to start applying these truths out, but to act on them as soon as they are manifested and understood. Our commentaries about these truths are of very little value – what is important is whether or not we applied them and then how many of our brothers and sisters were benefited by them.