Annual Increment

It’s a very cold day. I can be seen shivering in the office even with my sweater on. Someone came to inspect the air-con and took temperature. I just hope they can adjust the temperature so that we can work better instead of thinking of how to keep ourselves warm all the time.

A cup of boiling water is not enough to keep me warm because it would be cold in a matter of seconds.

The only nice thing I heard today from a customer was when she said this to me, “Saya suka cakap dengan Grace. Kalau marah pun jadi reda.”

In the afternoon, I received a call in distress. The same lady has been calling to my department for another department and I have been informing her the correct numbers to dial but she kept coming back to me. I guess I might have sounded a bit annoyed but that’s because I really was annoyed, knowing the fact that even though I might be able to assist her but I just can’t do it because if I do it once, she will always be coming back to me and it won’t do any good. That’s because I’m not in charge of what’s happening in the other department and it’s best that I lead her to deal with the right people.

Finally, I gave in after she apologised for always disturbing me but that’s really because she has been calling the number of the other department for three days but nobody is picking up her call. How can I not help if she tells me that? The earlier call that I received from her was also transferred directly to another agent after I have been trying to connect to someone who is not engaged.

“Do you know that when you transferred the line to the other department, someone said “Hello” and then the line got cut off?”

I could only apologise and told her I will help her this time.

So, there it went, she ranted all she could to me, I just listened, reminding me of the days I used to be in the previous team. Her problems are not solved yet so I’ll need to follow up personally tomorrow morning. There are times that make me think whether I should just act like I don’t know anything and thus not helping or be soft-hearted and understanding and help her even though it’s not really my job anymore. Know why? Because once I start doing it, I would need to follow up and following up takes time and it would mean I’m not doing the job I was assigned to do but doing other people’s job instead. But in the end, I chose to help her because I think if I were in her shoes, I would have liked someone to help me too. Imagine calling for 3 days looking for help but with no one to turn to, well, no one to attend to her in the first place, tak boleh ni.

“Thank you so much.” she said.

Tomorrow Gracie will be clocking in to work and checking on her stuff first thing in the morning. It’s already written on my log book for tomorrow, appearing like that’s the first call I’ll be getting in the morning.

I left the office later than usual today because I was waiting for my turn to meet the senior manager to get my increment letter. Not much, just 5.89%. But what cheered me up is the performance bonus that I’m getting so, boleh lah. April will be my richest month. Then, May back to normal again with just that very very slight increase.

Till then, write again tomorrow.