Even Better News

Seems like the company I'll be taking calls for was more than a little embarrassed, at last, to come in dead last in customer service ratings among the five major cell phone providers. I believe they were in the same position when I worked at the place before, and I could've told them you get what you pay for, and this place pays about the lowest they can (currently five whole cents an hour above the state minimum wage, which is one of the highest in the country at $7.95/hr.). Needless to say, they don't attract the best employees, as one look at some of the people I'm sharing training with would prove.

So today we were told that starting Feb. 9, we're getting a $2/hr. raise to $10/hr. After 90 days, the pay begins to be based partly on performance, so the rate drops to $9.50/hr., but by then they pretty much expect people will be able to make up the other fifty cents and possibly more. Ten bucks an hour with the very short commute compares very favorably to what I was getting downtown. There's also the possibility of increasing the pay by being good at offering what they call "service solutions"; in other words, selling extra services.

The possibility exists that I could get more money than I've gotten at any other job since I moved, if I can get better at concentrating on doing what they expect and not insisting they're not making a whole lot of sense even if they're not.

A lot of times in the past when the employer has announced something and said it will benefit the employees, what they said needed a large grain of salt to go with it. They used to offer a 25 cent per hour raise every three months to a certain limit and then it went to six months, which is how I got to $10.25/hr. before I left. Then they changed things, but it only affected people hired after a certain date. It was a definite step back for them, with quite a bit longer between increases, and a lower cap on hourly rates, but they made it sound like it was a great new program. It was, but not for employees.

So maybe, just maybe, they've learned something. I'm feeling encouraged, but past experience tells me to believe it when I see it. But if I can perform better than last time around, I could do better paywise.