To Boldly Go Where Others Have Gone Before..... (well I am sure that is the case)

**Warning this post is long and rambly as I haven't posted anything of length since October of last year, just little posts in Facebook**

Well, I did something that I never would have thought I would have a year and a half ago. I called my boss the other night and told him that I wanted to go back to being a rep at the call center.

I took my CS Specialist (management) position in September 2008 and was pretty excited about it. I was going to be working again with a good friend (Indi) and getting away from the call center where they were changing my job priorities daily. I was working as Production Support lead for the Clarify application (customer service software) I have been working with for 7 years (it wasn't there the first 2 years I worked there). Indi was in charge of testing new builds for the application and worked in the same center with me.

Things went ok, I struggled some to do a good job in my new position. Production Support can be like banging a head repeatedly against a brick wall. Indi was going to leave in April of 09 to travel the planet with her husband (Rhys) and they were supposed to be able to hire someone to take her place. Since the economy took a nosedive and AT&T was cutting back positions they decided they were not going to replace Indi with another person. We were able to get a couple of contract workers to fill in and they moved me over to Indi's position. There were supposed to be 4 builds that took place after Indi left in 09 but somehow the first 2 and last 2 got combined (making them large and hard to maintain control over).

I tried as hard as I could to stay on top of things and ended up in October and November putting in 12 and 14 hours in each day to make sure that I stayed on top of it. This happened on the weekdays for 6 weeks, usually I could get some time in on the weekend to get in some rest but there were some weekends in there that I worked an additional 20 hours. During this time Karma kept telling me that I needed to find another job, I am kind of a workaholic and she was really getting concerned over my health. I was watching the news and they said the unemployment rate was 10.2% for our area. I might be able to find another job but it would be starting out at square one all over again and there would be no guarantee that it would be there for very long after I had gotten it. The last build of the year went in on December 6th and I was able to get in the majority of my vacation after that.

I told Karma during the stretch of 12 and 14 hour days that I would look over my job position at the end of January. I would evaluate how things looked for the future and see if I wanted to continue on with the position and if the answer was yes then I would evaluate again every few months. Part of this was to get her to back off as it was only adding to my stress level to think of that and still put in all of my time. She wasn't hounding me about it but things had a tendency to run over repeated in my head during this timeframe as I would analyze and re-analyze things.

I fought a bout with shingles in December. I had never had them before and would like to never have them again, mainly they are brought on by stress and stress is what I had had for a long time. I also had to go to the doctor again the day before Christmas for something else (I won't go into the details on that one to spare you, lol). 2 times to the doctor in a month was something that I hadn't done in forever.

During my time off at the end of December I had a lot of time on my hands to think about my job. During this time I really started to think about how the job was a big stresser and how to make some changes. Lord knows that I can't change the job, I either have to change my perception of the job or change jobs but what could I change to?

1. Did I want to apply outside of the company? The economy is still bad so I would have to worry about being in the same pool as people that have been out of work for 6 months or more. It would mean starting over at a new place, do I want to do that?

2. I could apply for another management job in the company but I haven't finished my training on that as live classes have been short in coming. Also it could be a "out of the frying pan and into the fire" situation where I would end up with worse than what I have.

3. I could try to move back to taking calls in the call center. It would mean demoting myself to do it. I would give up a few things from my present job but I would know that I would be off by a specific time of the day and allocate time to spend working on personal things like working out, studying for a possible different career and spending time with family and friends.

I decided on option 3 but I am kind of a loyalist. One thing that proved that I was making the right decision was that they changed around my duties (due to losing others) to include stuff that basically doubled or tripled my work load. I don't want to leave my boss (Bryan) in the lurch. We have builds coming up in February and June. I told him that I would be willing to stay on until July so a replacement can be found and trained (with my help).

I was really dreading calling Bryan to tell him all of this. I wasn't quite sure how he would take it. He actually took it a lot better than I was imagining. I called him Thursday evening and after giving him the explanation as to why I wanted to move back he said that he understood. I think they are supposed to make an attempt to save you but the only thing that he really did was say that the last 3 months were crazy and not typical of how the work normally is. He did also ask if this was truly what I wanted. My boss indicated he would have to talk with his manager but that if I thought that was the best career path for me then they would not stand in my way of making that happen. After I told him, I felt a little guilty as it still seems a little disloyal even though I have to look out for me and my family.

The next day I was talking with Bryan and he spoke with his boss, John. He said that John was surprised that I wanted to leave and thought that I would "go the distance". Bryan indicated that they might have to move me over before July though. He said he wasn't sure at this point if they would allow for both me and my replacement to be there at the same time due to budget constraints. Someone had told me that if they let me go before the second week of March then they wouldn't have to pay me any bonus but I don't know if that is true or not. Since it was not something that I was planning on I don't really know that I will be missing it. I think that the change of responsibilities will be nice. At least after I leave work I won't have to worry about working late into the evening during UATs or coming in for testing on the weekends (which was only a couple times a year but still it will be nice).

There will be a reduction in pay from what I make now but I should be going back in at top pay for a CSR and keeping my seniority (which since I have been there almost 9 years should mean a good shift). Ultimately I want to go back to working in Tech Support, I always liked working in that group but had to move when they combined the upstairs and downstairs groups and restricted the early shifts so I had to come in later. There are a lot more positions on the team now and I figure I should get a really good shift. I should then be able to plan an outside life easier then.

I guess the best way to put it would be in a list of the things that I will gain or lose and whether they matter:

Gain:
Stable shift (know when I would go in and leave everyday)
Lots of support (others around to help with answers if I don't have them)
Ability to plan outside activities due to the stable shift
Better health care package
Less stress
Getting paid every other Friday instead of twice a month (comes in handy on the months where you have 3 Fridays)

Loss:
Laptop and VPN connection (which I really only need to perform my present job)
Free home phone (it wasn't that bad to pay for anyway)
Ability to work from home (in the year plus I have been in the job I have worked solely from home about 5 times, so not a big loss)
Some flexibility in start time (if I didn't have a meeting or call scheduled early in the morning)
Ability to run errands if not on calls (I have done this only a few times as well but will miss this one but not overly)
Reduction in pay (it won't be overly huge but I am sure it will have an impact, Karma indicated my peace of mind is more important and I agree. If nothing else I can get a part time job to help fill in the gap)

I am sure there are many other adjustments that will take place as well but I either haven't thought of them or just didn't mention them here. I know that some customers are tough to deal with but I don't think it will be that hard to get back in the swing of things. Just knowing that I when my shift ends then my work concerns are over for the day is HUGE. Overall I think it will be the best thing for me.

If you have made it all the way through my ramblings and still have a brain then I congratulate you and would like to offer you an award (although I don't have any). Just thanks for hanging in there with me.