Through the Fire

Today I walked through the fires of “Hell with Fluorescent Lighting” and came out on the other side. Let’s see how high that I bounce. I’ll get back to that.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for any amount of time know what I do for a living: I take advice calls from representatives and escalated calls from customers in the receivables management department of a major wireless carrier as a quasi-supervisor. In a normal week every person in one like mine will take good calls, bad calls, and, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll run into something that gets you into trouble.

I made a mistake in a judgment call I made on a call yesterday regarding transferring to another supervisor, possibly one with a clearer head for the situation than I apparently had. A customer escalated on a representative and, as the fates would have it, it got to me twice. A string of things that could have—should have—gone differently added up to ensure that the customer contacted the company back and the boss of my boss of my boss of my boss (boss x 4) received enough word of this that I was suspended today pending an investigation of the activities that took place. The management team, in proper stead, took my story and examined the notations made to the account. I was advised that I should type a letter to the investigating officials from the company dictating my side of the story and selling myself to them as being (still) a valuable asset.

Although I’m never too confident in anything, as I know how the universe sometimes unfolds, I knew that my supervisor, the managers over him, and my colleagues would stand up for my integrity as a professional and my value to the team. As things would have it, I came through the fire, knowing that I had made mistakes, still able to retain my badge and keep my job.

General George S. Patton, always one to be audacious, was quoted as saying “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom." I’ve been standing inside the fire for about 6 or 7 months in my current position now, never on the outside looking in. I’ve been a change agent, a team forger, a task force leader. I have helped establish a new paradigm in my department, and if you think for a moment that I’m going to slow down…you’ve chosen the wrong answer.

So, how high should I bounce next?