Consentual Abundance
The latest episode of our podcast captivates listeners through a refreshing narrative delivered by DJ Starsage, who introduces a range of personal anecdotes and reflections on contemporary life. The episode begins with a whimsical allusion to the speaker's latest vehicle, affectionately named 'Mistress Jackie,' juxtaposing humor with an exploration of the complexities inherent in modern-day existence. DJ Starsage invites listeners to engage with a mix of candid updates about their daily life, particularly focusing on the challenges and transitions experienced in their new role at the Abacus Lounge. This professional shift prompts a discussion on the evolution of workplace dynamics and the intricate nature of customer service, particularly in a technologically driven environment. The speaker's insights into their past experiences with technology, including the evolution from dial-up internet to modern-day communication tools, serve as a backdrop for their current responsibilities within the corporate landscape.
As the episode unfolds, listeners are treated to a nuanced examination of the balance between personal and professional obligations. DJ Starsage shares the realities of working from home while managing a demanding social calendar, shedding light on the complexities of navigating client relationships and the expectations tied to customer service roles. The speaker's reflection on their adaptation to new technologies, such as engaging in chat-based customer support for the first time, illustrates the ongoing evolution of work environments and the need for adaptability. The episode further delves into the psychological aspects of job satisfaction, discussing the emotional weight of balancing responsibilities and the quest for fulfillment in one's professional life.
In a poignant conclusion, DJ Starsage reflects on the importance of community and personal growth amidst the challenges of modern work culture. The narrative encapsulates the essence of human connection, resonating with listeners through shared experiences of navigating change. The speaker's openness about their personal life, including family dynamics and the joys of decluttering, adds a layer of intimacy to the discussion. This episode ultimately serves as a reminder of the importance of adaptability, the value of interpersonal connections, and the continuous journey of self-discovery within the framework of professional environments.
Transcript
Hello, dear listeners, it is I once again, DJ Starsage.
Speaker A:Just skipping about the universe and going on a joyride with Mistress Jackie.
Speaker A:Yes, I know it's sounds a little kinky, but that's what I've decided to call my new ride because, well, her predecessor was the lady.
Speaker A:And so I figured rather than make my cats jealous that nah, Jackie would be my mistress.
Speaker A:So, so.
Speaker A:Oh, I've got a few things to update you on as per usual.
Speaker A:So go ahead and grab yourself a drink or a snack, sit back, you are in store for the next edition of Surely you just the day to day life of a modern day jester.
Speaker A:So how are you and what have you been up to?
Speaker A:It is a sad Sunday.
Speaker A:I almost said Saturday.
Speaker A:It's a Sunday afternoon and I'm just heading out on some errands.
Speaker A:I managed to kick off my day after seeing hubby out the door.
Speaker A:I kicked off my day with doing some meal preparations and packing my lunch for the first couple of days of the week.
Speaker A:As I, I may have mentioned, at the Abacus Lounge, I spend just two days in the office and the rest are at home.
Speaker A:So in effect I'm home five days a week.
Speaker A:I mean I wasn't exactly expecting my social calendar to be altered with different obligations, but you know, you take what you can get and.
Speaker A:Well, I am now entering my second month of being at the Abbott Lounge and we have a variety of responsibilities on my team.
Speaker A:We work basically what are called tickets, you know, we requests from our clients and it could be a, a variety of different things, but we also usually get chats and phone calls occasionally.
Speaker A:But ironically, but interestingly enough, while I've been in the workforce for, you know, most of my adult as much as I've participated in the technological age, I have not had a job involving technology where I participated in a chat room or a chat experience with customers, which I find quite interesting because I've worked for companies that show, shall I say, I've been in a technology type of industry.
Speaker A:So I suppose it's been a long time coming.
Speaker A:I mean I am of the generation where we just got Internet in my house when I was in high school.
Speaker A:Of course.
Speaker A:Mind you, I came from a conservative upbringing in a rural community.
Speaker A:And of course although mom had gotten the computer for her continuing her studies for her to, you know, finish her degree, she had no intentions of allowing the Internet in her home because of course it is the later infamous puppet.
Speaker A:I think Broadway show Avenue Q told us the Internet is for porn, you know, but be that as it may, we were just getting Internet at home in school when I was in junior high and dial up was king.
Speaker A:Of course, although cable Internet was available, it was still considered a luxury and not something that mom or dad would budget for.
Speaker A:So of course people knew when the phone line was being used at home because we weren't the sort that, you know, budgeted for but had the means to get a second line.
Speaker A:So that was my experience of youth.
Speaker A:There was, you know, who's on the line?
Speaker A:Something that, you know, older generations might understand.
Speaker A:A phrase that older generations might understand is at one point in time, we didn't have dedicated lines to homes.
Speaker A:We had what were called party lines.
Speaker A:But those were, those were all done and gone and said for by the time I entered this world.
Speaker A:Anyways, so back to the Abacus Lounge.
Speaker A:I'm shortly due to start embracing my responsibilities that include chats with our customers.
Speaker A:And of course, there's a group of resources to be used for that.
Speaker A:And what I find to be challenging mostly is knowing where responsibilities end.
Speaker A:I've worked for service providers before, and I should mention that the Abacus Lounge is not a service provider.
Speaker A:We're just sort of a middleman.
Speaker A:But I've worked for service providers before where it was very clearly defined that, you know, we do this, but we don't do that.
Speaker A:And so I'm having to learn where our responsibilities start and where they end.
Speaker A:And some of those vary from client to client.
Speaker A:Some may want us to perform tasks that others don't care for us to do, so that there is a challenge.
Speaker A:And then, of course, eventually I will be taking phone calls, which I am relieved to know are not the lion's share of our work.
Speaker A:In my department, yes, we do get phone calls, but compared to being in a dedicated call center environment, which I have in the past, you know, I'm not going to be getting 40 plus calls a day.
Speaker A:I'm not going to be expecting to resolve the customer's issue within seven minutes of saying hello.
Speaker A:So that should be interesting.
Speaker A:I am finding though, that handling customer issues through tickets, if they are of a technical nature, we call those help desk versus a service request.
Speaker A:If a customer has a help desk request, that is practically like having a pen pal through, you know, the old snail mail because you send instructions on, you know, something to help them resolve their problem.
Speaker A:And, well, a, they either get back to you or they don't, or, you know, if you have fixed their problem, they take their sweet time getting back to you to let you know that you could close the case that you don't have to bother with checking in with them to see if the problem has been fixed.
Speaker A:So it can be a calamity of sorts.
Speaker A:And you know, there, there are some expectations there.
Speaker A:Of course we don't want to have these, these tickets, these for forever because that makes it as the, the department look like we're sloppy, that we're not handling things the way we should in a timely manner.
Speaker A:So there is that.
Speaker A:But either way, for having been there for two months, I'm as confident as I suspect is is, you know, considered expected at this juncture.
Speaker A:I, I do feel, you know, well, I am glad that I have the level of experience that I have having worked in customer service before.
Speaker A:But it's certainly been an interesting experience performing in a different capac, just say not having to constantly be on a phone call and being able to do the bulk of my work through looking up orders and you know, seeing if the, the customer, AKA client got what they asked for.
Speaker A:So it is like most jobs I've had something that I can see myself doing for, you know, however I need to.
Speaker A:I guess that is the case for most of us who work jobs that aren't necessarily extensions of a degree program that we've, you know, gone after you.
Speaker A:You are employed for the purpose of paying your bills and unless you become disenchanted with, you know, said salt mine you typically stick.
Speaker A:It's just different for me in that I'm so used to being part of an in person workforce and that is something that's certainly a thing of the past.
Speaker A:Anyone working in this type of a setup where you, you know, you work on computers and you process, process orders and you interact with customers, a lot of these things don't need to be done in a building that the company rents.
Speaker A:Granted, there is still a degree of trust, of respect.
Speaker A:You have to perform and you know, meet your expectations with the company.
Speaker A:And certainly you're using company property to perform your tasks so they want to make sure that you're, you're not skimming from the till, so to speak.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But it's definitely sort of a passive participation thing.
Speaker A:But yes, I haven't done chat room or chat things for employers before.
Speaker A:And while I, I'm an old pro at the typical chat rooms of the days gone by, this is going to be short and sweet.
Speaker A:Do this, do that.
Speaker A:Have you done this?
Speaker A:Have you done that?
Speaker A:Not long conversations, hopeful.
Speaker A:Although I can see that, you know, going a different direction because I mean from all of my years of being on phones with customers.
Speaker A:I know that there's a fair number of us out there that don't have many people we interact with.
Speaker A:And you just get someone on the phone and it's just, you know, the, the wind taking your kite in a different direct direction.
Speaker A:But that is something that will be on the horizon for me at the Abacus Lounge and come to find out.
Speaker A:When I was hired, this is no surprise to me.
Speaker A:I, I was informed of this earlier on, but my transplants intended work time, my shift, as it were, is supposed to be a later event.
Speaker A:It's supposed to be 11 to 8 and I haven't worked a shift like that in quite some time, certainly not somewhere that I was a new employee.
Speaker A:And fortunately my boss has told me that I'm not a expected to move into that time until I'm more comfortable with my responsibilities.
Speaker A:But it also isn't just weekends or just Monday through Friday, so it's, it's definitely, well, I don't want to say an eye opener, but it's a, a reality flash.
Speaker A:In jobs that I've had and days gone, those were the shift assignments that folks often would get for being a new employee.
Speaker A:And you work your way up the chain, the ladder, so to speak, After a while you have the option of changing your time.
Speaker A:And you know, honestly, I'm not so sure that I need, you know, to be on a regular daytime shift.
Speaker A:I mean, not that it makes much difference, but growing up, mom always worked 3:30 to midnight and so we would usually see her on her days off or in the evenings, although she would wake up in the morning to see us off to school most days.
Speaker A:And how she managed to carry that daily routine for as many years as she did, I mean, hats off to her as of course, many parents have, you know, admirable attributes that we don't normally have the capacity to emulate once we're out on our own.
Speaker A:And maybe not necessarily responsible for others, but I don't have a demanding social life.
Speaker A:It's not like I have a calendar of events that I look forward to.
Speaker A:I'm not, you know, on any board of directors or, you know, group of volunteers.
Speaker A:Although in hindsight, maybe I should start volunteering.
Speaker A:I would love to do something with animals, but, but I'm, you know, a basket case when it comes to hardship, so that would be difficult.
Speaker A:But getting back to work, we have a project in my department coming up and there was going to be overtime available as a result of this.
Speaker A:I told that normally a new employee is not eligible to take advantage of overtime.
Speaker A:But this is such a big project and my boss has explained that he's confident enough in my abilities that I'm encouraged to participate.
Speaker A:What's interesting is they are, I assume, based upon the needs of the customer, our client, and they are asking for the lion's share of this work to be performed on the weekend, which I suppose means that they, they want this to be done outside of regular business hours because it would detract from, you know, our regular workflow.
Speaker A:So interestingly enough, enough, this work, this overtime is mandatory, which some of you may groan and say, oh, that's just despicable.
Speaker A:But I see it another way.
Speaker A:I see it as a assurance, a reassurance that there is a need for people in my department that the work cannot be performed by automated means.
Speaker A:And so what's the purpose of complaining when you have an opportunity to make more than your regular hourly wage?
Speaker A:And I for one, was certainly pleased to have that opportunity when recently we had the Labor Day holiday.
Speaker A:And for the first time in a very long time, I had the.
Speaker A:Well, I didn't have the option of whether or not to work because we were open for business that day at the Abacus Lounge, but I was paid, I, I guess it's time and a half or something like I was paid for the holiday, but I also got paid to work the holiday, if that makes sense.
Speaker A:And so despite there being a minor difference between my pay between at the, the Brand Barn and at the Abacus Lounge, the advantage of getting paid to work the holiday actually gave me one of my largest paychecks that I've seen in quite some time.
Speaker A:And that certainly will come handy because I spent six months without a paycheck and hubby and I tried to live life as we would normally have, as though I were still working.
Speaker A:Now we didn't do anything insane like buy any new electronic toys or go on any trips or anything.
Speaker A:But you know, we did go out to dinner like maybe once every other week because hubby and I don't get days off together because he doesn't even take his day off some days because he's in management.
Speaker A:You know, if the store is suffering productivity wise, he will go in to make up for those shortcomings because he's salary.
Speaker A:And so there's no limit to the amount of hours he could be on the clock.
Speaker A:And if it means whether or not his team will get a bonus, he will pitch in to help.
Speaker A:So I'm very fortunate to have that type of person in my life that has a strong ethic to pull himself up by his own boots, straps, or the both of us, I guess.
Speaker A:Sadly, with his transfer from Morty's west to Morty's north, it seems like while the suggestion was that in time he may be in the running for becoming the store manager, the reality now is that.
Speaker A:But he will become the store manager because with the turnover at that location, and I'll get to that more in a minute, the current store manager has made it clear that he does not intend to stick around.
Speaker A:Now, we have since learned that there is a, let's say, let's just say a problem child in their midst.
Speaker A:They have an employee who essentially refuses to take responsibility for the responsibilities of their position.
Speaker A:And this, unfortunately, is a common trope of retail work.
Speaker A:Sometimes someone will get hired at a company and the job description will say certain details.
Speaker A:And then as time goes on, the job description for that role or, you know, whatever the positions are in that store are considered changes.
Speaker A:And so there are different expectations.
Speaker A:And there are those who believe that because that's not what the job description said when they got hired, they are not required to perform the same duties, the same tasks.
Speaker A:Now, it should be noted that for those of you who are not aware, those of you who have not worked in retail before or recently, I certainly have not, or I've had limited experience with the matter.
Speaker A:But you may not be aware that in most stores.
Speaker A:Sorry for the whistle there.
Speaker A:For most stores, unless we're talking about a management role, those folks that get hourly pay, they all do the majority of the work.
Speaker A:There's no specific task that one person can say, oh, I don't do that.
Speaker A:It's not my job.
Speaker A:You don't have a specific role with the company.
Speaker A:You are to, you know, get product out on the shelves, make sure it's displayed.
Speaker A:The aisles are neat and tidy.
Speaker A:If you're asked to do something by a member of management, you can, you can refuse if you want, but you.
Speaker A:You certainly shouldn't expect to be around for very long if you start doing that.
Speaker A:The folks in management are there to overse the team, to make sure that the work is getting done.
Speaker A:And yes, some of them may actually help out if they're feeling generous, if they want to promote a team spirit.
Speaker A:But for the most part, leadership is just that.
Speaker A:They are there to motivate people and to do the paperwork.
Speaker A:So it's not as if they're actually claiming that something is beneath them, literally on paper.
Speaker A:Their job is to make sure that Those making an hourly pay are there to do whatever is needed and for however long they're scheduled.
Speaker A:So that being the drama with Morty's north, it's been made clear that the.
Speaker A:The current grand poop, just hey, to borrow a phrase from the Flintstones, I guess, has expressed intentions, ambitions to be elsewhere.
Speaker A:And here we were hoping that it would be at least some time off, maybe in the new year.
Speaker A:However, it turns out he has expressed that he has an interview.
Speaker A:So somewhere else presently, recently.
Speaker A:And I for one, am not thrilled at the prospect of this because in the worldwide, I mean, going on three short weeks that hubby has been at Morty's north, he has gone in on his days off to help the team that's struggling because they have, let's just say, some folks who don't believe that it's within their realm of responsibility to perform all the actions that are requested of them.
Speaker A:And, well, let's just say it's this problem child who has been identified as being the reason this store has had so many managers come and go.
Speaker A:So I guess the exterminator has been called and we have to flush out the past.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Anyways, what is going on with me?
Speaker A:Well, as I'm speaking to you, I have just gone to the store and picked up a few essentials.
Speaker A:On my way home, I dropped off a bag of goodies.
Speaker A:No, I. I'm not doing volunteer work for Meals on Wheels or anything, you know, redeeming that.
Speaker A:That, you know, level.
Speaker A:But I did just purge.
Speaker A:I like that word purge, because it sounds healthy.
Speaker A:So as I was saying, I just dropped off a bag of goodies.
Speaker A:As you may have.
Speaker A:May know from past confessions, my husband is a collector, okay, A hoarder.
Speaker A:I can't blame him, I suppose, because he's never lived away from his home state.
Speaker A:And for any of us who have, I see moving great distances as an opportunity to declutter because who wants to pack boxes of stuff that you don't need?
Speaker A:You know, do you really need all of the circulars, the ads for the local grocery store?
Speaker A:I know, yes.
Speaker A:Some people still get paper mail.
Speaker A:Do we really need all of the paper bills for the last couple of years if we've already paid all of them?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Yes, there.
Speaker A:There are services out there that still don't have electronic.
Speaker A:Our water and sewer here in not quite apple country.
Speaker A:And our trash bill I don't believe is electronic either.
Speaker A:So there is that.
Speaker A:And then, of course, I've had a fair sight of interactions with our car insurance and imagine that the year that I've had I've had interactions with our car insurance and those of course take place on paper, so.
Speaker A:But I assume that hobby not having lived anywhere but his home state has allowed him the opportunity to collect, to amass a collection.
Speaker A:And that's not been my experience.
Speaker A:I've moved across the country a couple of times and unfortunately as a result of some of that, I have lost valuable personal things.
Speaker A:I once had a copy of my father's union dues book from when he was in the workforce.
Speaker A:I suppose it was before I was born because he became a stay at home parent after I entered the world.
Speaker A:It was just a, you know, a little pocket sized book showing that he'd paid his dues for the union he was in, but that that was something personal that had been handed down.
Speaker A:And I had also the bandana, the neckerchief that my dad had the day he passed away.
Speaker A:My father passed away unexpectedly at the age of 62 after he had mowed the entire acre plus that was on their property in one day.
Speaker A:It was a late summer day and dad had quit smoking, he had had prostate cancer and you know, within a couple of days actually of his 62nd birthday, he had a heart attack after trying to mow the entire yard that day.
Speaker A:So when I went home for the funeral, I took the opportunity to collect the neckerchief that he had left on the back porch because I knew that that was something that he had used to wipe his brow.
Speaker A:And you know, I wish that I'd been able to hold on to what.
Speaker A:But having moved across country several times, it's something that I lost somewhere along the way.
Speaker A:So I don't blame hubby first for holding on to so many things.
Speaker A:But to get back to my point, I just dropped off an entire shopping bag of gently used electronics.
Speaker A:Yes, things that hubby had bought me a few years back because, you know, Second Hand is more affordable than brand new.
Speaker A:And when you can't afford the latest and greatest, you can always tinker with old technology.
Speaker A:I'm the sort of person that gets excitement out of repurposing old laptops just by installing Linux on it, wiping the dryer, maybe upgrading the RAM on it, giving the device the most of its abilities with the technology that was available at the time.
Speaker A:Because I can afford to do that.
Speaker A:You know, it's not like buying a new Apple MacBook Pro or Air or whatever they're called these days.
Speaker A:I'm not going to be making a monthly payment on a credit card for, you know, two, three plus years.
Speaker A:So his heart was in the right place and for its time it served its purpose.
Speaker A:But I had three laptops and a netbook, if you don't know what that is.
Speaker A:A netbook was a precursor to the tablet.
Speaker A:It basically is a screen with a keyboard and the keyboard was just big enough to fit in your lap.
Speaker A:And well, the idea was that this is a little computer that would fit in a bag, like a purse size bag, not like a diaper bag or a backpack size.
Speaker A:A netbook was one of the first computers that did not have a CD drive or a physical drive.
Speaker A:And then of course tablets came along and replaced that.
Speaker A:But I had three laptops, I had a netbook and I had a Windows tablet.
Speaker A:It's basically the same as a regular Android or iPad, but instead it ran Windows.
Speaker A:And I found a version of Linux or sorry, version of Android made for use on desktop computers.
Speaker A:And because it really, you know, on the, the element of the hardware, the basic principles, it was a PC.
Speaker A:I installed a newer version of Android on it.
Speaker A:This was years ago now, but so all in all I had my fun with it, provided its distraction.
Speaker A:But now, now in more recent years, it's just been sitting on the shelf collecting dust.
Speaker A:And unlike some of the other devices in my house, let's just say I have more than a couple of spare television sets, mostly because they were 3D in nature, that are occupying my home office.
Speaker A:And because those are something of more sentimental value to Hub.
Speaker A:Not because they belong to any family members, mind you, but because before we could afford to buy the 4K projector that was his only hope of us having 3D in our home.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's decided for some reason he wants to hold on to those.
Speaker A:So ergo, I did not try to drop off the TVs that he was so keen to, to let me know were important to him, even though they are taking up my personal space.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm not sure how many of you have experience with loved ones who collect things.
Speaker A:At one point in time I had amassed several trash bags full of clothing, work related clothing, you know, khakis, professional, you know, Docker type pants that hadn't been worn recently, you know, so they're gently used.
Speaker A:And I figured I'm just gonna gather these up because they're taking space and I'm gonna put them in some trash bags they recently washed, I'm gonna drop them off, take them in, have them donated to a thrift store.
Speaker A:Don't you know that when came time for laundry to be done.
Speaker A:Instead of doing laundry, he went into the wardrobe and dug into the bags of extra clothes, old clothes that were needed to be donated, and declared that there was nothing wrong with them, that they didn't need to be donated.
Speaker A:So make of that what you will, but today I dropped off things that were technically mine and it felt good to declutter.
Speaker A:There is now an empty space on a shelf that, of course, just, you know, the heap will fall over onto.
Speaker A:But for a brief moment there was an absence, and I didn't feel that there was an absence.
Speaker A:It felt like a window had been opened, there was a breeze coming in.
Speaker A:It was even small, sort of sunshiny to a degree, but baby steps as they say, I suppose.
Speaker A:And with that being said, my afternoon is drawing to a close.
Speaker A:I have already made my meals for my first two days in the office, as I said, and I'm back at home at Chateau Starseed, sitting in my driveway.
Speaker A:Have to go in, put away a few things.
Speaker A:Hopefully my evening doesn't go by too quickly.
Speaker A:We've just recently had our season review with that show about film and television trivia that I do, matinee minutia with our favorite British podcaster, Mr. Paul Chandler, the shy yeti of the Shy Life.
Speaker A:And if you'll go over there to shyetti.libson.com or just look anywhere you get your podcasts from for the Shy Life, you'll find our season seven review with him.
Speaker A:And if you missed any episodes last year in the past year, you may be delighted to know about some of them that you could go back into our archives and catch a gander at.
Speaker A:So and there will be new adventures of this last video store.
Speaker A:It's trapped in time in this little rural shopping center or strip mall, as Matt has so reminded me they're called.
Speaker A:Alrighty folks.
Speaker A:Well, as always, you can email me djstarsage at gmail com and find me on Blue sky at DJ Starsage.
Speaker A:That is all for now.
Speaker A:Jackie sends her love.
Speaker A:Bye bye.
