Thursday, January 26, 2006

Post-firing Flotsam and Jetsam


One of the interesting things about performing an extraction (i.e. terminating a call center rep) is the post-firing cube clean-up. I generally like to perform this task myself, much like a forensic scientist studying a crime scene for clues. In most cases the rep has taken any items they value (snapshots, favorite coffee mugs, etc), leaving behind the detritus of a failed call center career.

Pennies: All of my post-firing cube clean-ups have involved picking up pennies from the desk drawers - sometimes there are quite a few, sometimes only three or four, sometimes they're stuck to the bottom of the drawer with dried coffee or other unidentifiable crud - but they're always there.

Meeting notes: many times I find ratty, crud-stained note pads with old meeting notes. It's funny to see how the theme of a meeting gets a little warped in these notes. I'll read them and recognize the particular meeting they came from and what the dominant theme of the meeting was, but it won't really be reflected in the newly-departed rep's notes. Sometimes it's way off the mark and sometimes you can tell they were just writing random snatches of words from the meeting to appear attentive. One time I found meeting notes that were interspersed with the rep's furious rantings about her boyfriend. It went sort of like "Reduce the ACW time on regulary inquiry calls...Why is he such a fucking CHILD! I am full of HATE.... Large onsale to begin May 9...HATE..."

Paystubs: so many times I find paystubs left behind.

Dirt: Sometimes I feel more like a Hazmat team than a forensic scientist (or call center manager).