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Nov. 5th, 2009 05:02 pmI had to order a headset for work today. I've never actually had to perform my own office equipment purchasing before, unless you count my thing for slightly nicer pens and fine-tip dry erase markers.
I honestly thought they were kidding when they told me this. Since my work life has been a series of headsets, I've often used the quality of the headset as a marker of the employer. For example, it took an entire year of negotiation at The Bank for me to get a headset, even though my job involved a couple hours of phone calls per day. Once I got the headset, my productivity rose as I had expected.
When I was in training at what was then AT&T Broadband, they handed each of us our own headsets, still in the box -- it felt like a blessing. I got really good at putting my phone on my chair or on a ledge so I could run around the pit while still taking calls. This helped me fix other people's problems and get them sales while I got mine.
When that job moved to outer space and I commuted with it, I got a discount on someone's old wireless headset. This was before Bluetooth, so it had a weird battery pack with a broken clip and a funky charger. Still, it made my crappy end run at Comcast tolerable.
When I was at IBM, I found a headset at my desk and scrounged up a binaural later on. These were Plantronics headsets with the extension tubes, on-wire mute buttons and very clear sound. Classy!
HPVL didn't have headsets. We just picked up the phone. Since it happened so infrequently (a couple times a week), it didn't matter.
Now I am dealing with what feels like... libertarianism. I was only able to scrounge a broken headset, so I had to make a purchase. Oh sure, it's not my money -- but my boss didn't realize how cheap these things aren't.
I wouldn't want a cheap thing anyway. I have to absorb the customer, be involved. I can't do that if I can't hear nor can I be heard.
I enjoy feeling like a 1920s Ma Bell operator and a corporate raider had a baby. I am The Operator, capable of making things operate for the first time or the last. I talk people down from ledges and get them back to work. Thus I want to feel as comfy as possible while I listen and test.
And hey, my company got a discount on a decent wired headset with sound controls. If only my extension were reachable from the outside...
-back to learning, Ps/d
I honestly thought they were kidding when they told me this. Since my work life has been a series of headsets, I've often used the quality of the headset as a marker of the employer. For example, it took an entire year of negotiation at The Bank for me to get a headset, even though my job involved a couple hours of phone calls per day. Once I got the headset, my productivity rose as I had expected.
When I was in training at what was then AT&T Broadband, they handed each of us our own headsets, still in the box -- it felt like a blessing. I got really good at putting my phone on my chair or on a ledge so I could run around the pit while still taking calls. This helped me fix other people's problems and get them sales while I got mine.
When that job moved to outer space and I commuted with it, I got a discount on someone's old wireless headset. This was before Bluetooth, so it had a weird battery pack with a broken clip and a funky charger. Still, it made my crappy end run at Comcast tolerable.
When I was at IBM, I found a headset at my desk and scrounged up a binaural later on. These were Plantronics headsets with the extension tubes, on-wire mute buttons and very clear sound. Classy!
HPVL didn't have headsets. We just picked up the phone. Since it happened so infrequently (a couple times a week), it didn't matter.
Now I am dealing with what feels like... libertarianism. I was only able to scrounge a broken headset, so I had to make a purchase. Oh sure, it's not my money -- but my boss didn't realize how cheap these things aren't.
I wouldn't want a cheap thing anyway. I have to absorb the customer, be involved. I can't do that if I can't hear nor can I be heard.
I enjoy feeling like a 1920s Ma Bell operator and a corporate raider had a baby. I am The Operator, capable of making things operate for the first time or the last. I talk people down from ledges and get them back to work. Thus I want to feel as comfy as possible while I listen and test.
And hey, my company got a discount on a decent wired headset with sound controls. If only my extension were reachable from the outside...
-back to learning, Ps/d
