Changes for Becky

Ah, the prodigal blogger returns! I have been out of commission for a while, it seems, mostly because every time I look at the blog I think "I should post something" but I can't think of one interesting thing to blog about that wouldn't take 40 years to type out. Well, here's something I can share in less than 40,000 words: things are changing for me. Again.

This last week, Nathan and I took a trip to Ohio to visit my family. This was a trip that would not have happened without my amazing brother, Andy, who generously donated the last of his award tickets from the miles he'd saved from JetBlue. Nathan and I flew from Salt Lake City to New York City (JFK) and then on to Pittsburgh. Although Pittsburgh isn't the first choice airport for visiting the family, it's closer than Columbus, which is where we flew into for Christmas (we wouldn't have except that it saved us several hundred dollars). As far as JetBlue goes, I thought they were a great airline. I loved having a personal TV to watch (there is one in every seatback with 25 free channels of DirecTV) and the unlimited snacks and drinks. The seats were comfortable as well and I'm always a fan when an airline has a changing table in those closets they call bathrooms. The main downsides were the airports they use. Pittsburgh is the closest airport to the family that JetBlue flies to, and it's almost 2 hours away. If the price was significantly cheaper I would consider using them in the future, but right now I think I'd only use them to go to other places for vacation besides to visit the family. Oh, and don't even get me started on how much I love JFK......

Anyway, the day I left, my boss called me (well, she was my current superviser, but we just call them coaches) and basically said that my desk was being combined with another desk and therefore all the schedules were being switched around. Somehow I got the short stick with that and they only had about 3 options left, all of which started at 5 or 5:30 pm. I told her that my son doesn't go to bed until 8:30 or 9 so I couldn't take anything that started before then. Her response was that I would have to switch teams and that someone would contact me. I reminded her I was leaving town that evening and she assured me that wasn't a problem, someone would just leave a message or something.

Well, David called me the next day and told me there was a message but it didn't say anything except "call me" and left a phone number. So I called the number (the cell phone of another coach) and got voicemail, so I left a message asking her to call my cell phone as soon as possible. The entire rest of the trip I heard NOTHING. The night I got home I wasn't scheduled to work even on the old schedule and I was too tired anyway, so I just slept. The next day I got a call from a random coach I'd never heard of telling me I had mandatory hours from 4:15 am to 12:15 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. I told her that I could only work until 10 on Sunday because of church, but she didn't give me any information about what desk I was on, so I got on IM and tried to talk to a coach...nothing. So I just didn't work again. When I got on the computer to start work this morning, I found an IM saying I was back on the Info desk. At least I know now.

The Info (Infomercial) desk, ironically, is where I started at this company. Then they dissolved it in favor of these stupid dedicated desks, although they still needed people to work the info desk as backup to the dedicated agents, so the Info desk didn't ever really die...although it did dissolve just long enough to get rid of the $11/hr pay that Info agents used to get, which means that although I'm back on the Info desk, I'm still making $9/hr [Roll Eyes Here]. The good news about being on the Info desk is that I'm back to scheduling my own hours. I don't have a set schedule anymore but I also don't have set days off anymore either. As long as I hit 25 hours a week, I can take any weekday off that I want. Having this flexibility is definitely an advantage, although it is all dependent on what hours are available. I have no guarantee that I will be able to work decent hours, and my nights will probably become a flurry of on and off work and sleep. After David goes to bed, I'll most likely sleep a bit then work most of the morning with some long and some short breaks to sleep until Nathan gets up. This will be better and worse than my old schedule at the same time. One major negative of the Info desk is that you are required to work WAY more mandatory hours on weekends, which means my weekends will suck even worse than before (which, of course, is the only time David doesn't work and could therefore spend time with me....). I also have to attend more training meetings, although these have been getting out of hand lately and if they continue to be out of hand I will probably stop going to all of them. It is a BIG hassle to get to these meetings. Overall, I'm happier on the Info desk, mostly because it is the overflow desk which means I don't take very many calls at all. For instance, I've been on the phone over 2 hours and I've taken about 5 calls. Someday I won't have to work this job and that will be much less stress on me, but for now, it makes us some extra money and I still can be home with Nathan, so I will endure. The Lord has and is continuing to bless our family so much, I don't want to complain.