So, the General Manager for the group who owns the building has decided, due to cost-cutting measures, not to have a manned reception desk. He doesn’t want an automated system to answer and transfer customers around, though. I mean, that would be costly, and we can’t have that, now can we?
So to have his cake and eat it too, he came up with a solution in place at other divisions of our company.
He wanted it to be mobile, on a tablet-like device, and moved from person to person over the course of the day.
See, the idea is, we distribute the receptionist duties through the customer service team personnel. That’s our business group now, and we do customer service for their division too. So that’s a corporate way of saying, “We don’t want it to be our problem anymore. It’s yours now. Because…customer service. Yeah.”
So I’ve spent the last chunk of my day working over the phone with the service provider for our phone system. And they’ve done a good job so far, but the truth is, they’re already into us for about two hours at something ridiculous like $140 an hour. (I’m in the wrong business.) And the amount of money we pay each year to maintain the system didn’t cover this. So.
Because I was the one sitting on the phone with the provider’s tech, I’m wondering (read:Pretty sure) it’s going to drop on me to support this new computer. I didn’t do anything, mind you; they had remote control of the computer and did what needed doing. All I did was click when they said to do so. But that won’t matter when it’s broken. I’ll probably be told, “Well, you’re the one who worked with the service tech on it. You fix it.”
And frankly, I’m fast losing interest in taking on more and more hardware support and software installation and maintenance, without any sort of compensation or rewards. That’s my boss’s tune – “being a good corporate citizen” – not mine.
And I’m getting a little tired of being volunteered because he wants to be a good corporate citizen, too. If you don’t have the skills to do it, you owe your staff at least the courtesy of asking them before volunteering them. This isn’t the first time I’ve had it happen, and it won’t be the last, I’m sure.
So tomorrow is the big day from the phone system’s perspective. We will be ready to shut off the old computer and see if the phone will ring through the new one. If it does, we move to a new model for covering the main switchboard. Instead of us going to the board, the board comes to us.
I wonder if I end up having to take a shift answering it too?
-jdt-
En*DANE*gered 
Wow. Just, wow. What a load to carry! I think there comes a point where just one tiny little straw is the one that finally breaks the camel’s back, and your boss doesn’t seem to be aware of that, probably because it isn’t HIS back. *sigh* I wish I could help you in some way.
I’ll be praying. LTY
Thank you Love. I need all the prayers I can get. And I already have a bad back; it probably can’t carry as many straws as it used to. I need the strength of He Who made the back to get through it all.
Taking people who thought they wouldn’t have to answer phone calls all day and make them answer phone calls all day makes those people resent the phone calls thus making the customer service suffer.
Agreed, but we never got a choice. And our team’s been covering the phones for a while now, even before they dumped the receptionist. It fell to us last summer when the other business group just kept cutting hands and not replacing headcount. Not completely unexpected, but not welcome either.
But for the time being, the bottom line will benefit and the stock will rise.
Eh, this little division’s sales won’t impact our stock much. It’s not a big enough sliver of the pie.
And I’m pretty sure this is how the pyramids were built.
Yep. I believe so.
OF COURSE you are going to be held responsible for that machine. Just, of course. That’s how it always works. 😛
UGH, I know, you’re right, Spark. Just… 😦
Not having someone man the front is very short-sighted. It gives the immediate impression that the business really doesn’t care about potential customers and/or visitors. We have that at my job (person who did got promoted to another division), in that certain clerical staff rotate manning the front for three hour shifts. A slightly better improvement than not manning, but still, it’s a poor image decision. And unlike the private sector, this position will never be filled and in fact, eliminated due to the red ink that our state bleeding.
The entire lobby is going to be closed down and locked, G.B. It’s not like visitors won’t be expected. But now they’ll have to use a phone outside the lobby to call their party and have someone come let them it. Like you, I agree it’s a poor idea at best, and it’s NOT going to work. I’ve seen visitors who were expected sitting in the manned lobby because their party was tied up in a meeting, or forgot and went to lunch, or didn’t come in that day, or whatever. This is a disaster waiting to happen, and the same GM who made this decision is supposed to be supporting our efforts to make the customer experience better. *Eyeroll*
So you’re up to what, a four page job description now?
Ha! Kind of like yours I guess, right B? Aren’t you sort of a go-to guy for all IT-related things?
That is correct. I am the entire IT department. And graphic design. And Software Development. And a property manager. To be fair though, my company is much, much smaller than yours.
True, my company is a global company with a bunch of employees. But our business group is almost like an independent company operating on its own…unless, y’know, my boss puts us under the other business group. *Sigh*