" WHAT DO I DO DAD?"

...hardest question to answer!

...specially if you know that it's up to your son to figure out the answer.

TJ arrived home from work looking glum...so I knew something bad had happened at work.

Bottomline is, although he was recently regularized, he wasn't complying with a WFE -thingy (Work Efficiency something) that he had been warned about, and since he still didn't use it, he was given a written warning...with the possibility of suspension, and even termination.

It was one of those moments that I wished I could just wave a magic wand and make his troubles disappear...but I had to walk him through why he was in such a predicament in the first place.

Simply put, he just didn't seem to appreciate the need for doing something that had been prescribed---the WFE, whatever it was. He was also not meeting important metrics like his AHT (average handling time) and CRR ( call return rate.)

What wasn't good was that he was starting to put himself down again---saying something like if he couldn't hold down an easy job like being a call center agent---then what was he good for?

I had to do my best in pointing out that being a call center agent wasn't easy to begin with, and that actually many call center employees have been known to quit even before their probationary period ends. The fact that he made it through 6 months says something about his staying power! (If it was any consolation,even his cousin Bruce had tried working in a call center but eventually resigned.)

The father and son talk dragged on for more than an hour...and I could understand he was feeling real bad, because in spite of the pressure, the job still paid well. So, he felt that losing another job was going to seem like the end of the world!

I could only think of helping him see options that were open to him.

First, he could always salvage the situation by catching up on his stats. (He wasn't so enthused about this because he said any mistake he would make next week would already be counted.)

Second, he could voluntarily resign but check if there are other options within Convergys for him. But even as I said this,I also told him he should make other plans already, like what would he be doing if he was out of work...look for another job? Skill up for his "dream?" (like one of his friends CJ, who had taken a sabbatical to learn game development, and was eventually hired at the Lady Luck gaming company.)

I think mentioning his dream, made the situation a bit lighter..and maybe gave him hope that it wasn't really the end of the world if he resigned from Convergys.

After all too, I didn't really want to see him make a career out of becoming a call center agent!

I didn't let him off the hook easy though. I had to point out to him that the one thing that was always getting in the way of him spending time on developing his skills....was PLAYING COMPUTER GAMES!

And unless he gave up this addiction...it would be the same story all over again.

I told him to write down his plans and set his new objectives.

It didn't solve his problem...but I think it did pep him enough to want to focus on his dream again...and (hopefully) resolve to do something radically different from the way he's been running his life today.