Well, I'm back at work and I'm still trying to get my head out of my ass from being on vacation. I had about 200 e-mails that I had to go through on Monday and two meetings yesterday, so I'm finally sitting at my desk wondering what should I work on. So, I thought, why not blog a gripe or two and share my internal strife with the rest of the world.
Todays Gripe:
I can't. I'm not saying I can't gripe. What I'm griping about is when people say the phrase "I can't" without even taking the time to think about the task at hand or even consider the words: "I can". This may lead back to my impression on people that I'm arrogant or a Know-it-all and maybe I have some sort of undiagnosed mental illness, but I take it as a challenge to solve problems when they arrise. The words "I can't" don't even enter my thoughts. Actually, I feel somewhat inadequate or a bit like a failure if I don't at least point the person with the problem is some direction to find the solution.
Like I said, maybe it's some sort of undiagnosed mental illness, but
I can't walk away from a unsolved problem.
New Gripe:
Autoattendants I don't know which is worse, calling somewhere and getting an autoattendant or actually getting through to a live person. If you get an autoattendant, it takes five minutes for you to negotiate through the selection process and in many cases you end up in what I call voice mail hell, going through an endless list of selection ["To continue in English; press 1", "For Customer Service; press 3", etc. etc.]. Then in most cases you end up speaking with someone anyway because you've gotten lost in voice mail hell and press '0' out of frustration. On the other side of the coin, if you get a live person, they are most often someone who has answered the phone so often that they speak at the speed of light and have no patience for questions.
Case in point: I call my town's Public Works Department to schedule a "bulk pickup" for my house. I'm renovating the Master Bathroom and I have quite a bit of waste material to get rid of. Previously, I've just loaded it in my truck and hauled it off to the town yard for disposal. But, the last time I did so, they told me that they weren't allowing people to truck construction waste in anymore because contractors were taking advantage of the situation and the town needed to reduce the tipping fees to get rid of the waste. So, they informed me that all I need to do is call the Public Works Department and schedule a "bulk pickup".
Now, back to my gripe; I call the town and get an autoattendant: "Welcome to the Public Works Department, to continue in english, press 1; Para continuar en el español, la prensa numera dos." I press 1 and continue on through a myriad of pressing until I finally hear something that resembles "bulk pickup". I press 8 or whatever and this woman answers: "lic Works", which I initially didn't understand but seems to be the last part of "Public Works" or "Hello, Public Works". Obviously, she's done this before. Anyway, I start to request a bulk pickup and before I'm done, I hear: "Whatisit?". I can't write the way it sounded but I have to say that my 42 year old, hearing impaired ears struggled with this one for a second or two. This second or two time lapse must have been too much for this poor speed talker to endure, because I again heard: "Whatisit?". My response was: "Are you asking me what kind of materials I need picked up?" Immediately the response is: "YES!". Okie dokie, well I start to say "construction stuff" and get an immediate: "We don't pick that up!" I explain the town yard incident and she responds: "Well, if it's still there after Friday, then you know I'm right". Ok, well thanks for your time Speedy. I think I'll make a bonfire out of the stuff and burn her in effigy.
I have to continue this later. Got work to do. I'd like to talk about the actual time wasted listening to autoattendants.
Been pretty busy lately. Not even enough time to gripe. I'm working on a bunch of projects that all seem to be coming to a head at once, plus I'm leaving on vacation this Saturday. So, the coffee keeps pouring and my nerves are almost shot, but what's life all about anyway?
Been pretty busy lately. Not even enough time to gripe. I'm working on a bunch of projects that all seem to be coming to a head at once, plus I'm leaving on vacation this Saturday. So, the coffee keeps pouring and my nerves are almost shot, but what's life all about anyway?
