Pieces of a Man Think it. Do it. Be it. Embellish.

67.68.69.70.71.72.73.74.75.76 77.78.79.80.81.82.83.84.85.86 87.88.89.90.91.92.93.94.95.96 97.98.99.00.01.02.03.04.05.06 07.08

Although my stint of managing a call centre is coming to an end at Easter, articles about the future of customer services still engage me;

Computer systems are being used to snub you more effectively, depending on your value to the company you're calling.

This is how it works. In the customer record is a field that rates your importance, based on your spending power. If you have deep pockets, you may merit a "1", marking you as first-class customer whose calls should be answered pronto by a senior customer service agent.

The same field, in the record of a poor customer, might contain a 3, which tells the system to treat you like a third-class customer (or pond life, as one IT executive described non-priority customers). The system will put you to the back of the queue. If you eventually get through, your call will be routed to the cheapest call centre.

I can envisage a time when final year students get straight through to IT help when their assignments are due. Of course, this assumes they're doing assignments at all...

University lecturers are going on strike this week, upset at not having their cushy life upgraded quickly enough in the annual pay round. The interesting part of this, however, is what they're considering for the subsequent weeks - a rolling refusal to participate in assessment. I wonder what would have happened in the miner's strike if the miners had agreed to come back to work on condition that they didn't have to dig coal?

I must say that the longer I work in the public sector, the more sympathy I have with what Thatcher did to the unions. Last night in the pub I even caught myself ranting, "Let the malingerers go and do a real day's work". What next? Voting Conservative?

It's scary getting old.

Labels: 2006

Is the whole Ashley Cole gay sex story just an elaborate construction to enable the use of the cracking headline I saw last night;

ASHLEY SAYS: I'M NO REAR GUNNER

Labels: 2006

... and more at Flickr...

Labels: 2006