haonowshaokao

The weekend is almost over already and there hasn’t been a great deal of interest to report. We did have a party last night, I suppose. It was ok, though short because everyone decided to go out to some bar at 11. I drank a lot of red wine with coke and olives, then went up to my room for a little lie down. At 6.30 I woke up, parched beyond belief and with a headache that wasn’t helped at all by the 200db funky house coming from below. Ten minutes later a girl turned up in my room and started talking to me, but I mumbled a vague summary of my condition to her and rolled over again to bury my head in the pillow. Apparently she’d been sent up to ‘get with’ me, which is a bit weird to tell the truth.
Earlier there had been some more Slovaks over, plus one Czech girl who was trying very hard to have a fight with everyone in the room. She was trying to be some kind of feisty ball-breaker type, but just looked insecure and attention-seeking instead. Everyone was winding her up something rotten. She’ll learn.
Back to the call centre tomorrow. I have to learn a load of three digit codes first though. Eck.

My week is done, I am a free man for two days.
Last night I went out to celebrate the weekend a little prematurely. Rich was DJing at Fitzherberts, as were a good few other people. I was introduced to many members of the crowd, most of them very fashionable, and drank three bottles of Newcastle brown, which was one too many.
This morning the house was a mess, the back door stuck, my milk on the turn and my breakfast non-existent, but somehow I got over it all and down to work. We did the usual taking notes, roleplay, etc. I stayed awake. Sam didn’t, not sure how long she’ll last.
Party tomorrow at my place. All are invited.

Nearing the end of my first training week at the call centre now, and it is all going a lot better than I had imagined. The people all seem to be pretty nice as a whole, the atmosphere not as stressed as I might have imagined and the system fairly complicated but I’m at least not at the bottom of the class.
The other people are a mixed bag – male and female, from 17 to ‘mid thirties’, English and foreign types. They all seem to be fairly well-educated though. A shame that after all that education their only job prospect is in a call centre, maybe. Maybe not, I’m surprised at the complexity of the job and the responsibility we are allowed.
The only thing I’m waiting for now is confirmation of my holiday time over new year. Real fingers crossed over that one – if I get refused I would be surprised, since I already had a tacit agreement and they aren’t going to want to waste all this training on someone who’ll quit. Because I will absolutely be in Prague for the new year.

So that was the first big weekend of the winter. Started Friday with confirmation that my future career was indeed Callcentre Operative. I bought a shirt, washed my trousers and went out with Charlie and some of her gang to see the art degree show in the Pavilion and then go to the pub. It was a bit of a rubbish time really – there was an odd atmosphere pervading, and I wasn’t in the mood at all, anyway. And when you’re not in the mood to socialize your charm becomes a little forced. Alcohol doesn’t help either.
Saturday was better. I wasn’t planning on doing anything apart from lying on the sofa, watching the X Factor and having a bath, but after a lot of Svarak (erm… mulled wine) with the housemates we all went out to a cheesy club which was in fact a whole load of fun, though ten pounds on the door was a little steep.
Today I started work. There were fifteen people in the Lloyds building at 8.50, all of them training to go on the phones. It being the first day, we sat and watched about six or seven videos on health & safety, data protection, harassment, etc. Some of the trainees were moaning about having to watch them – and to be fair they were on the whole repetitive and patronising, but I can think of worse ways of earing 6 pound 50 an hour than sitting watching a screen. They all seem OK, though. It isn’t much of a career after twenty or so years of education, but nobody seems to view it like that. Fortunately.

This morning I had another aptitude test at ‘Office Angels’ to see if I would be a spineless and well-behaved contract slave. I think I lied fairly convincingly. Then on to Ladbrokes, where I appear to have been offered a job of sorts, moreorless. I’ve got the rest of this week to work out whether I want to be a helpdesk guy at Lloyds or a Deputy Manager (eventually) in a bookies’ shop.