Call-Centre Burnout & The Joys Of Christmas (Pt. 1) 18/12/02 21:03

It was around half past five in the evening when I got the call from the recruitment agency I was using for my temping agency. After the initial introduction I was asked a question - "How are you?" This immediately got me out of the seat I had been vegetating in for the afternoon feeling sorry for myself, and my psychological defence system prepared for the eventuality that something was up. It was. After an intense two weeks where I had been working my little blue socks off for the department I was based in - exerting myself to get my stats up to the target, eagerly taking overtime to help the team try to complete its impossible task and even dragging myself into the call centre in the afternoon after I had called in sick; drugged up to my eyeballs on paracetomol and cough medicine (of the do not drive or operate heavy machinery kind) I had finally flaked out and needed to take two days in a row off sick. This apparently was unacceptable and so my contract was terminated with immediate effect. My research for the 'Pre-Life Crisis' project was complete but I was out of a job and the winter was closing in fast.

Fast-forward two weeks and I am happy for the first time in months. I've managed to get 3 weeks worth of work in a record shop in the city centre where I was working last Christmas - one of the only 'normal' jobs I have ever enjoyed and although I'm living off my credit card I'm feeling pretty good despite immediate financial meltdown. Christmas in a consumerism-crazed nation is a pretty bizarre affair. Normally sane and rational human beings suddenly get freaked out as they try to meet the demands placed upon them by the ones they love - turning the act of buying a CD or DVD, which is normally a very pleasurable affair as with any fetish item, into a personal dilemna of nightmarish proportions as one is forced to risk public ridicule buying into a world seemingly alien and intimidating and where there is no margin for error. Quite why a whole generation of parents/aunts and uncles should have so much difficulty getting to grips with the world of Eminem (talented but with an over-manipulated image), Queens of the Stone Age (excessively talented and easily one of the only truly great rock acts out there), Slipknot (talentless and completely over-hyped, but would appeal to most pre-teenage boys) defeats me. The world of pop music has not even remotely changed since Elvis wiggled his pelvis and Lulu secured herself thirty years of doing tv appearances and cameos on records. Sure the flavour has been slightly different each time as technology and fashion have weaved their magic but at the end of the day the song remains the same.

Archive:
• 22/09/02 21:43 - Lazy Sunday Afternoon
• 23/11/02 01:58 - A Caffeine & Candy Junkie Writes