Even in the olden days, downtime was a perk of the job…
I’ll start with my cool job to get the ball rolling.
If you’ve ever had to reach a doctor, a funeral director, a towing company or a farm veterinarian in the middle of the night (and who hasn’t had a cow emergency at 3am?), then you’ve probably dealt with an answering service. My company serves about 200 customers, and if you need to reach someone after hours, we do our best to hook you up with the right person.
The cool thing about my job is that there is a lot of downtime in the office when the phones aren’t ringing and it gives me plenty of hours to watch TV, help youtube videos go viral, and write this blog. Because I run the operations, I don’t have too many hours that I am officially scheduled to work so as long as everyone else is healthy and not having a crisis that prevents them from coming in. For the most part I enjoy talking to people and helping them to get the help and information they need, and it’s always gratifying when a grateful caller takes the time to thank me for helping out.
The things that suck about my job are the things that anyone who has ever dealt with the public would expect: a fair percentage of the calls that I take involve people who are: a) old; b) whiny and demanding; c) not bright enough to comprehend the phrase “the office is closed”; and (all to often) e) all of the above. And yes, any time someone calls out for a shift, it’s up to me to be at a terminal answering the calls.
The money is alright, and the business is connected to my house so while I can’t get away from it without leaving town, at least I don’t have to deal with the hassle of a commute. On the whole, I think it’s a pretty cool job and if you have any questions about what an answering service really does or how they work, or what kind of funky computerized bells and whistles we’ve got then ask away!
How about your cool job? Want to tell me about it and be featured on the blog? Get in touch!
Gary from Scotland had this to say about my job:
Well my current job isn’t exactly overflowing with charm but the real gems come from my time working in a call centre for a train company.
Particular memories:
- The people who would call demanding that the body be removed from the tracks as it was making them late for their appointments.
- The woman who decided she didn’t like her seat so locked herself in the train toilet and called us to demand we do something about it.
- The sheer amount of people who’s grannies had died and needed to travel quickly but didn’t have money so could we just give them a ticket for free “as it’s family”
- The heavy-breathers.
And my favourite…
- The women who used to call up on a Friday or Saturday night just to speak to a Scotsman with a deep voice. I swear they were more frequent- and forward- than the heavy-breathers
Well, as one of your employees, I can say you do run a pretty cool place to work. Of course, as you know, my own aspirations lie in a different direction, as I do plan on starting my own business when I finish my schooling, but, that said, Carrie is definitely one of the coolest bosses I ever had.
And the overnight shift is awesome…how many jobs do you know of where you can goof off for long periods of time on the Internet…and get paid to do it?
As long as all the phones get answered, one can do this on the overnight shift. And, I have to say, you get some of the wildest, funniest calls in the world on the overnight shift…everything from large dogs who’ve swallowed pool cue balls, to TV stations whose networks have been fried, and need to get in touch with a special technician to get them back on-air. From folks demanding to know where their impounded car was taken (not so fun to deal with but usually funny, after the fact of the call) to some of the stories cops will tell you about partifular MVA’s or drunks they busted, or what have you.
Of course, with the direction my own aspirations go, for me, the doctor calls are the best, because I love using and knowing the doctorish words, and having doctors amazed that I not only know how to spell and say them correctly, but that I also know what they mean!
Well, anyway, working for Carrie here has been, and still is, one of my better job experiences to this point in my life.
Thanks, Angela! I’m glad you think that working at the answering service is cool!
Well…Carrie, it’s working for you that makes it cool, a lot of the times. that and some of the things that happen that…while they shouldn’t be funny…at the time or later…they ARE funny, anyway. like the dog swallowing the pool cue ball…shouldn’t be funny, but it was!!
Anyhoo, it has been so far a pretty cool experience for me at the answering service. I only hope my own business, when I get it open, provbes worthy of documentation on these pages!
Seeya this afternoon!!
[...] of my own cool job. How is this possible, you ask? The answering service for which I am the Operations Manager has a TV set to keep us all from dying of boredom when it’s slow, and my office manager never [...]
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