Basically I manage a customer service department for a medical device manufacturing company. Do you want to know the irony in the devices we make? Without going into too much detail we make a mechanical pump that will deliver food to people who have to get their nutrition through a feeding tube. Do you remember a little baby that had such a thing .. oh 15 years ago now?
Yep, that's me feeding Baylee while she was in the hospital. That right there is a called a bolus feeding. Where you screw a syringe onto the end of the feeding tube and into the tummy it goes.
If the feeding pump that my company makes was available 15 years ago we would have had one. Isn't that a little crazy? It's pretty crazy to me. There are times where I talk to mom's on the phone who are having problems with their pump. What makes me uniquely qualified to do my job is that I am one of very few people in the company that can say to the mother on the other end of the phone, "I COMPLETELY understand your frustration and we'll figure this out together." It also makes me freakishly passionate about what I do as well.
It's not like when I worked at Discover Card managing teams of people selling stupid services that I knew were crap to people who really couldn't afford the services in the first place. I now work for a company (and have for the past 6 years now) that makes peoples quality of life better. And a lot of those people are children. What we do is really cool.
When I was hired at Discover Card 15 years ago they asked me whether I wanted to be collections or customer service. I had my pick. I ended up choosing collections because the location would be staying in Sandy. However, years later they moved out to West Valley too. But at the time a location close to home was the deciding factor. I worked there for 10 years, almost to the day. It began as a job on the phones in the call center. I started at the ground level. While I worked there I also went to school full time. Within two years I was moving into positions of leadership. Discover Card taught me a LOT of things. And I give them and their training programs full credit for making me the manager than I am today. I learned those skills there, not in a classroom. Discover Card also paid 100% for my masters degree. Again, how many people can say that? They provided me with opportunities I would never have had otherwise. And the only reason I got a job there was because I was pregnant with Baylee and I needed a job with insurance. I started the 1 month training program there, then 2 weeks into the program I had Baylee 6 weeks earlier than expected. Along with the preemie baby was $70,000 worth of medical bills. Paid for by the insurance I picked up at Discover Card on day 1 of employment. I was lucky. As a result I was a training program drop out and when I returned to work I went straight onto the phones. Discover Card was good to me and I have never forgotten that.
I digress.
Today I still manage people. Collections is a much easier business than customer service. With collections you have a right and a reason to call someone. With customer service people are often calling you to gripe about something. And there are days where it downright sucks. But I would take a grumpy customer over an employee issue any day of the week.
Employee issues suck. Let me say that again, employee issues suck. I get so sick and tired of listening to employees complain about how one of their co-workers isn't doing their job. Or one of their co-workers was mean to them. Yes THIS HAPPENS. Really? It drains me of all patience. If I went to my boss and complained every time one of my peers didn't do what they were supposed to or threw me and/or my department under the bus I would not have a job anymore! I would never in a million years expect my boss to be my referee.
Which all of this brings me to the original point of this post. My kids. And what life lessons I can teach them so that they don't become those whiny employee's. Because guess what folks? Whiny employee's don't get promoted!
This post is already really long so I will start by sharing one. Then maybe I'll write more posts about others. Maybe I'll start a themed series.
Life Lesson #1 - Respect
Learn to show respect. This means that you don't get to always speak your mind. Being "honest and open" isn't an excuse for being rude. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Sometimes you DON'T get to speak your mind because it would be rude and inappropriate. My parents taught me to respect my elders. This means that you don't talk back. It means that when they tell you the same story for the second time you sit and listen. If you learn this now, early on in the home then when it comes time to getting a job you will have the basic skills to interact with your boss. You don't talk back to your boss. Period. Because again, sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Sometimes you don't get to speak your mind because that makes you the pain in the ass employee. Trust me, you don't want to be that employee.
Hopefully my kids will thank me for this one day. Because I know that I am grateful to have learned this from my parents.
To be continued ....
What would you teach your kids with regards to respect?
