Squeaky Wheel and All That

At times I am still amazed at the complete 180 my life has taken at work. One year ago I was pretty sure I was going to quit my job and was taking some vacation days (the first paid vacation day I'd ever had) to de-stress and sort things out. I wanted to use the days before I gave my notice, hehe. And now a year later, I am still on the verge of taking vacation, but not because I am so miserable I can't stand the thought of another day there. Much of this turnaround is due to the hiring of a GM who 1) actually knows what he is doing 2) makes himself available to meet with me and listens to the concerns I have.

Last year I was feeling attacked and people were nitpicking my performance. I felt like no one trusted me to do my job let alone take on more responsibilities. I was often done with my work quickly and spent the remainder of my time surfing the internet. Enter the GM who listened to me when I said "I can do more. I want to be able to shine and I have never had the opportunity to do so." And now is my time.

I have been given the responsibility of calling our customers who wish to cancel their accounts and try to "save" them. Today was my first day of sorting through the pile and I did talk to three clients. I wasn't able to save any of them but it did give me some experience in composing a "script" for the best things to say. Hopefully my nervousness didn't show. I even polled a co-worker after my calls to see if he thought I sounded nervous. He didn't. So yay for that!

For now it is a trial run to see how I do and if I feel it is a good fit for me. As of now, I'm excited to put my customer service skills to the test and see what happens.