On a dark snowy March afternoon, Amy sat in the back of a class room filled with 25 people that she never met before. It was just less than 48 hours ago when she found out that she would be able to work once again, and all she wanted to do was sit back and stand far from the crowd.
With a carefully placed name card in front of her, she listened to what the trainer was explaining to the new class: Policies and procedures, break times, learning objectives, tax forms to fill out, etc etc.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Bob the trainer asked the audience. A hand was raised in the row in front of Amy
" Yes, are there any part time hours"?
"No, this is a full time job"
"Oh, okay thanks" Jessica the hairdresser responded in a sigh.
Amy just sat in the back and rolled her eyes. Are these people serious? She thought. Yet she knew to keep her mouth shut in this case.
Luck was never on Amys side, she went from job to job with no progression. Or stability. The truth was that while Amy did not want to work at the same dreary job type that had paid her bills in the past. Her landlord, the overconfident IT executive was spending too much time in his home office. He no longer heard the conversations going on from his tenant downstairs and was ready to ask a million questions. To avoid his sneer and also to avoid the mandatory elementary job training to sweep floors at the local big box store, she went on the internet and called every call centre in the area. After a 5 person interview, and being told that she would probably leave soon because she was overqualified for the job, she was told to come back on Thursday afternoon at 1pm.
After 2 hours of information shouted by Bob, the new recruiting class was told that they could go for break. Jessica and her friend Mandy, looked for their friend Summer.
Summer Rose was an outspoken slender woman who knew her weight in the call centre. She had helped bring in the last two training classes and was responsible for personally recruiting the new class. Well, everyone except Amy. She looked at Amy with suspicion and scoul- after all, she was not able to make the $50 referal bonus from the one new agent that was unfamiliar to her.
Summer approached Amy and introduced herself " So I'm Summer Rose, what's your name?"
Amy outstretched her hand " My name is Amy"
Amy, who recruited you?
Recruited? No one, I just applied and got in...
Summer interjected: No one just gets in, you must know someone here.
Amy was stunned at what was she was being asked. Was this female serious? It wasn't like the corporate jobs that she was used to being a part of, it was a fairly new call centre in her area. What was this woman trying to prove?
"Well, nice to meet you Summer...."
" It's Summer Rose. Look, I know that this is your first day and all, but I will tell you that no one gets in this place other than through me. So I will be watching you, understand"
Amy just smiled and walked away. She knew the politics of companies and while this Summer girl was looking to establish her boundaries, Amy was not looking to join the high school clique that seemed to running rampant.
Sitting in the back of the class for the rest of the night, Amy grew tired of the basic training that she was being exposed to. Was she able to state what she really knew? No.
In her arrogant ego centric mind, all she knew is that this was not supposed to be the path of growth. This was temporary.
Or so she thought.
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