Thursday Shift:

Sheila: Girl, do you have any agents who wants to volunteer for this Sunday’s shift? They’ll only be reporting from 5pm-9pm. With RD pay and… [continued by a sales talk accompanied with what we call WIIFMs (pronounced as wih-fums meaning, What’s In It For Me?)]…, okay? So just let me know by midnight.

Me: (Subconsicously thinking out loud) Can I volunteer this Sunday?

Sheila: Lovely! Alright you’ll be the assigned [OIC] this Sunday.

There. I volunteered for my first ever Sunday Overtime shift. Not that it was any different since I sometimes go to work to accompany Gary while he gets some work done. He did ask me though what was I thinking volunteering for Sunday OT. Well… it just sounded like a good idea at the time to finish my monitors. That’s all.

Sunday Shift:

Around 20 agents scattered on the floor. (Okay, that’s easy… check attendance.)

Printer’s busted. (Damn, there goes my reports.)

Photocopier also busted. (I’m beginning to think nothing’s working.)

Call Retrieval Software is down. (Oh crap, now I can’t do my monitorials until I process an IT request.)

IT personnel not accomodating the request possibly due to building maintenance an hour earlier. (Oh come on!)

Gah! How am I supposed to work now?!

I called Gary soon after I realized nothing was working at the office. He goes, “I really didn’t know why you volunteered on a Sunday when building maintenance has just been finished. They shut everything down for 3 hours today. It’ll take them some time to get everything working.”

And how am I supposed to know that?! I never worked on a Sunday!

Sheesh.

Anyway, not to discourage anyone from volunteering for OT, it’s actually a good thing. I can think of several reasons why call centers employees should do overtime once in a while:

1. You get OT or rest day OT pay. Additional income is never bad.

2. If you’re an agent in sales or collections, you get to catch up in your quota and balance out your numbers.

3. If your a Manager or a Team Leader, you get stuff done without anyone bothering you.

4. Peace and quiet (I never thought being at work could be relaxing).

5. You get to help the entire company meet business demands. An hour or two sometimes is already very helpful.

So if you ask me, will I volunteer again? I will. But not next week. Or the week before that. Maybe on March. Hehe!