My First Week In The Optus Operations Floor

It's been a week since we were endorsed to the Ops (Operations) floor. I missed training, the drinking sessions, laughing and bullying times with each other. I miss my wave mates who treated me nice and loved me the way I am.

At first, I'm sad because I was the only one who was distributed to one team, my other wave mates, they were in one team and being handled by one of the team leaders who joined us for training. Eventually, as I meet my new team mates one by one, I feel okay already and happy and I just realized that being with tenured agents gives me an advantage when it comes to handling calls. I'm not saying that my wave mates are not good, it's just that since we just came from training, what they know is what I know as well. Training is just the tip of the iceberg and everything will be learned in the operations floor.

Interacting with Aussie customers for me is better than the Americans. They are much nicer. I've noticed that the irate Australian is the equivalent of a nice American. Most of the Aussies are understanding once you tell them the current situation. They value honesty and they would even thanked you for being straightforward to them. I love them already!

Honestly, I'm still grasping for processes but I know, with the help of my SME's (Subject Matter Experts), my team leader and my team mates, I can survive this account.

The Optus Training Experience

In my previous blog, I've mentioned that I transferred accounts from Time Warner Cable, and now I'm with Optus, an Australian account. 

At first, I must say that I'm a bit scared because the training would be a whole new experience. It's new because, first new set of learning's, second, new accent and lastly, new tools to learn. I had to make adjustments at the start of training because I need to unlearn most of the things that I know with my previous account. Good thing, I already have technical background with troubleshooting Internet connection issues, so the adjustment went smoothly.

Our trainer was funny yet knowledgeable, I must say. He always insert jokes and lines when he discuss our modules but he makes sure that everyone learns the processes.

The new set of wave mates I have were cool and very outgoing.I became close to them as soon possible. The class has different antics like if one wave mate is sleeping then he or she would get a photo taken and that photo will be uploaded in Facebook. Every Friday after shift, we always go out to unwind, either have lunch or drinking sessions... I would definitely miss this guys

Right now, our wave is at the last toll gate of our training and that is fish bowling. Just like nesting, we are given the chance to take in calls to apply all the things what we've learned.

Over-all, my training experience was wonderful and if given the chance, I would love to have training again! =)

Learning The Australian Culture

On my previous blog, I made mention that I was transferred to Optus, which is an Australian account. Our trainer, Mike discussed the noted facts about Australia this morning.

First, its capital which is Canberra (the stress is on the first syllable... well that's somewhat new to me because previously, I'm putting the stress on the second syllable... now i know how to pronounce it right!).

Mike also showed us some of the country's best places such as The Sydney Opera House and The Uluru (others call it Ayer's Rock, notable for appearing to change colour as the different light strikes it at different times of the day and year, with sunset a particularly remarkable sight when it briefly glows red. Although rainfall is uncommon in this semiarid area, during wet periods the rock acquires a silvery-grey colour, with streaks of black algae forming on the areas that serve as channels for water flow.)

Sydney Opera House

Uluru/Ayers Rock

 He also flashed Australia's flora and fauna as well. Included  were kangaroos, koala, and the seawater crocodile which is larger than the Komodo Dragon.

The topic got intense when he introduced the vowel sounds in the Australian accent. They are somewhat similar to the British English but with a "twang" and "drawl". When he let us hear a  few words, luckily, I was able to get most of the words. There are still words I did not understand, because I'm not so into it. Their accent is thick and there is a tendency that you might write another word which sounds the same. We're just starting with the phonemes but I know there's a lot more to come.

I'm starting to love learning a new accent, will there be a time that I can call myself an Aussie??? How I wish... Hahahaha!!! =)