10/10/2015: Accident / My Call Center Experience I

10/10/2015: Accident / My Call Center Experience I

2:16am – 2:57am

It’s late now and I just off work.  Part of me wants to write this but another part of me just wants to play games and sleep.  God has grace for all.

Today, when I was driving back home on I-10, when I almost reached home, I saw police lights flashing and red lights everywhere.  Normally, there will be police lights in that area because the other side of the highway is under innovation.  But as I drove closer, I see that something is wrong.  There are lights, more lights, on my side of the highway as well.  As I got closer, the lanes on the highway started to be disappear, blocked by lights on the ground, until only the exit is available.  Then I smelled a smell of metal and possibly flesh.  As I reached the exit ramp, I saw the accident.  Two cars, totaled.  The car on the back was heavily damaged, with the front heavily bend and the windshield white.  As I was looking, I was thinking whether anyone driving or in the seats would survive.  The car in the back, I thought had a chance, but whoever should survive that would be critically hurt.  The car in the front, it was catastrophic.  The whole front is caved in.  The windshield is even more damaged then the one in the front.  Both cars are on the side of the highway.  In my analysis, looking at the damage, my guess is that the driver in the rear collided into the driver in the front.  The driver in the front lost control and crashed to the side at an even faster speed.  The driver in the front, I reasoned, probably had no chance of surviving.  When I saw it, I covered my face with my hands. 

Why is this incident so important?  I think it is because of my situation and how it touched me.  I found a job at a call center helping people resolve video and internet issues.  I went from spending most of my time alone to talking to people more than eight hours a day.  What a shift.  But, as I talk to people, as I talk to total strangers, I begin, at least unconsciously, to care for them.  For me, I get nervous every time I pick up a call.  The beginning is the worse.  I don’t know who that other person is, whether they will be nice or mean, or super-mean.  But, I can clearly say for everyone I talk to, I want the best for them. 

Today, I have been touched by the modem hymn “Grace For All” by Holly Starr.  This song, or should I say, many of her songs, somehow stuck to me.  Her songs, like Kari Jobe, helped me to live and to be closer to God. 

Before this call center experience, I would care less for people.  If see an accident, I would say a quick prayer and move on.  I could care less about what happens to strangers.  Well, in a way, I do care, with social work, but now, it is at a different level.  Talking to strangers, helping them, has helped me to become even more sensitive. 

Peace is to prepare for war.  The three things that matter in this world is power, love, and wisdom.  Sorry, I just want to say those things.  When I talk to people on the phone, I always remember and try to have power and love.  Where does power and love come from?  It comes from God.  Yes, they tell me to be confident.  But that falls on hollow ears.  I can’t just be confident.  Not by my own strength.  I become confident when I am filled with God’s power. 

I have only been working at the call center for about two months now and I have been learning so much about not just the technical aspect but on the experience.  For me, when I talk to the customers, I always try to ask how they are doing, hobbies; I share about myself, my military experience, and how God helped me, while keeping on track with technical issues.  I don’t like to just keep customers on a silent hold and have no talk except what is necessary. 

I do believe everyone should at least have some call center experience.  Then they will know what talking on the phone with total strangers who is mostly frustrated is like. 

Who knows, the person I talk to, or try to help, or promised to call back on, can be in that accident.  And I see me going into that call center job as an accident.  I never planned this.  I just saw this job posting on craigslist and I decided to give it a try. 

The company I am working with has decided to give all the agents a raise.  I am happy.  It feels like a blessing from God. 

I can share many experiences I had with customers, both good and bad.  When talking to people, I miss the face-to-face experience.  It’s more difficult to establish good rapport when strangers can’t even see you.  And I also stutter, with an Asian ascent, but, I am still doing OK.  With God, I’ll do OK. 

And the quote, “Focus on what you can do and you will be able to do what you can’t” also helped.  What I can do is pray.  What I can do is to worship and to spend time with God.  What I can do….  And what I can’t do are my goals, heh, with God.

Working at the call center has been very stressful, and the night shift is, by now, not what I wanted.  I initially chose to work nights because I am a night person.  But, I am missing out so much on my supernatural church.  I don’t know what I was thinking when my trainer called me into their office to pick a schedule.  I had a morning choice with Wednesdays off, I think.  But, God will give me grace.  I did try to request a change in my schedule and my supervisor is supportive of me.  And, many times after a call, I have to give myself a break.  I just can’t go from people to people, stranger to stranger.  It’s draining and I have to quickly recharge myself for the next hit. 

It’s late now, I got off at 1:10am today and played ping-pong with my co-workers.  You know, I haven’t played ping-pong for probably like 10 years but I played well.  I told them it’s because I used to play tennis back in high school.  :p 

I want to share this song or hymn that helped me recently.

8/9/2014

[Written at Greyhound station, Phoenix, AZ]

8/9/2014:                   |  S: 0255

Q: So what is going on right now?

A: Right now I’m at the Greyhound bus station at Phoneix, AZ.  We are changing buses so our bus train is waiting.

Q: How are you feeling right now?

A: I feel OK.  I’m tired and the intermittent sleep onboard the bus is helping little.  Right now, I do have a lot of thoughts.

Q: What thoughts are you having?

A: It’s too many for me to write briefly but I’m having thoughts about my future, destiny, about God, what I’m going to do once I get to Los Angeles, and the application of social work with the people I’m with.

Q: Hmm, application of social work with fellow passengers.  Sounds interesting.  Could you elaborate?

A: Most of the passengers I’m with seem to come from the lower socioeconomic classes.  By being with them, sitting close to them, I get to see and experience what they are feeling and going through.  Furthermore, God, or chance, gave me the opportunity to help some people.

Q: How did you help them?

A: I talk to them.  I introduce myself.  I am nice and kind to them.  That doesn’t sound like much, but any message we put out is like an aura that can change the world, or the environment.  I did help a woman on a deeper level though.  It’s quite a story. 

Q: I love stories!  Tell me the story.

A: Well, at the Tucson, AZ station a young woman came in.  She looked kind of distraught.  When moving her carry-on on the bus, she carried one bag and sort of shuffled her other bag on the ground.  This is before we departed.  She asked the bus driver for help multiple times.  She moved and sat at the very end of the bus partly because there are few seats left and she was one of the last ones there.  At the back of the bus, the rearmost seat, she asked for the driver for help again.  She told her she doesn’t want to sit at the back because she doesn’t feel safe.  I was sitting at the front of the bus then.  The bus driver asked are there anyone willing to volunteer their seat for her.  After a brief silence, when I felt no one is going to volunteer, I decided to volunteer.  Oh, I almost forgot.  As the woman was moving her carry-on in the bus past me, she dropped something.  I picked it up and saw that it was a reboarding pass.  I tried calling out to her but she didn’t hear me.  It’s probably partically b/c I have a soft voice.   [end of written]

[typed] 8/20/2014

I walked up to her and handed her the ticket.  She looked at the ticket and told shook her head quickly and told me it’s for the bus driver.  I handed the pass to her and tried to explain briefly.  The way she looked, her demeanor, suggests to me that she could be somehow oppressed.  I’m guessing, and it’s pure speculation here, that she probably got out of a domestic violence situation.  I’m glad I can help her.  :)  I tried to talk to her when we were standing in line waiting for the bus.  She looked as if she’s still confused.  I can feel she was thinking about talking to me but then decided to talk to the Greyhound staff.  After some talking and references of other staff, she got to board first.  Heh.  It’s fine, she probably deserves it. 

I look for opportunities to lend a helping hand.  They don’t come my way often, probably because I don’t really go out of my way to look for them, but if they do, I try to help.  

1/8/2014 [Discovery]

1/8/2014:

S: 2:42pm

E: 3:40pm

So sorry that I haven’t written for a while.  I feel these days, I would rather communicate my thoughts verbally, hence, I have been more of an extrovert by calling and talking to people.  I just hope I won’t be bothering them due to my adrupt change of behavior. 

What is a Friend?

I don’t know.  Maybe I make the worse friends.  I was hanging out with one of my friends partly because he feels alone.  While being with him, he has his quarks.  I could tolerate it, but he could sense my uneasiness so he kept telling me, “If you want to be my friend, then you have to accept who I am.”  It’s just the way he is, it’s all-or-nothing, OK, got it.  However, that statement somewhat bothers me.  I see friendship like a light form of marriage.  In a marriage, both couples will almost always need to bend a little in each other’s direction.  The husband/wife can change some of their bothersome habits, and the other spouse can change theirs, too.  Like friendships, it involves compromise.  When I’m with people, I control myself, with wisdom, so I can come out as friendlier to them. 

My First Client

Client confidentiality is a very important issue in social work but, happily, I have her permission to share what I did.  Well, I wasn’t actually a social worker helping someone, but these days, I feel like when I’m helping a person, I apply social work principles.  Ok, so here is an example.  The list may not contain everything about the client because I’m just drawing on what’s above the iceberg.

Carol (not her real name) is a 45 year-old woman.  She lives in Florida.  She has daughters whom both are living outside the house.  The oldest one is studying pre-med.  The youngest working and making a living on her own.  Her husband died recently.  Due to this, she suffered from severe depression.  Before her husband passed away, they lived in a family home.  However, following his death, the house was foreclosed.  Carol lost much of her belongings and moved to a small apartment.  Now, she is moving to another apartment, similar price, but with a nicer environment.  She said before, she used to be so happy.  “Life is wonderful,” she would tell me.  She is chronically unemployed, her last job more than a year ago as a bartender.  She quit her job because her supervisor, as she said, treated her horribly.  She is on-track to apply for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), however, her case, as she said, is taking a long time.  Her next hearing will be in June.  She has a dog and her dog helps a lot to keep her company.  She feels alone and isolated.  She also has financial troubles.  She has trouble paying rent and buying necessities.  She doesn’t have a bank account because she owes a few hundred dollars to the bank.  She is taking advantage of the SNAP food stamp program.  She is taking three medications for her needs.  One is to address hypothyroidism, another for depression, and the last to control muscle movements.  She told me that the hypothyroid medication helps to allieveate her depression the most and that she just got dignoisted by a doctor for that condition.  The doctor said to take that medication for two months.  However, due to a lack of funds, she couldn’t afford any of the medications.  She said she tries to eat healthy but that her appetite, due to her depression, has been poor.  She has a relatively poor social support system.  She was abused as a child.  Her family has been long divorced.  She has two sisters.  One sister is hostile to her and refused to help.  The other one did help her by giving emotional and some financial support.  Her mother is also not so well-off but she did give Carol some support.  She doesn’t go to church, she isn’t very religious.  That is her status in a nutshell. 

She has so many challenges.  Where can I start?  What can I do?  I remember in one of my social work classes, my professor gave a short story, like the one above, and told our class to identify the biggest issue.  I raised my hand and said that unemployment was the biggest issue.  I was thinking if the person has a job, then he/she will be able to have income, and thus, with money, more issues can be solved.  But no, I was wrong.  The biggest issue was mental health.  If the client has alcoholism, depression, or other personal issues, he/she may not be able to hold a job.  Thus, I would have wasted my efforts.  So, focusing on my client, my very first actually, I prioritized her issues.  I used the goals and objective approach.  I set the goals to be measurable, attainable, and with a time frame.  I considered making an eco-map, but I didn’t. 

So, for my diagnosis, I put the first priority for Carol is to set up a bank account.  If she has a bank account, it will be much easier for people to help her financially.  The second priority is her depression.  For that, she will need funds to purchase her depression medications.  The third item is her short-term expenses.  She needs to have the money to sustain herself at least in the short-term.  Fourth in sequence is employment.  I can assist her in finding a part-time job (no full-time because SSI won’t allow it).  With these four steps, I feel she will be much happier and will be able to live a self-sufficient life.  I could, if I am willing, modify the plan to add more details.  For example, she can join a support group or club.  I can research agencies around her area who may be able to assist her.  I’m writing this just to give an example of what I think social workers do.

There are more topics I want to write about but I ran out of time.  I will write more later.