Confessions of a Call Center Gal - By Lisa Lim Page 0,95
knew we’d both get it.”
I elbow him playfully. “Congrats to you too, Mister Big Shot! You’re a Third Level Techie now. A bona fide star. Me? I’m just a pitiful low level tech. And when I don’t know what the heck I’m doing, I’ll be calling you round the clock.”
He tips an imaginary top hat and executes a gallant bow, Fitzwilliam Darcy style. “And I will be at your service.”
Hmm, no wonder they just called him Darcy. Fitzwilliam?
I’m still laughing at Mika’s theatrics when I hear Truong’s voice crackling in my ear. “You’ve got exactly two minutes left, Miss Flirty Pants.”
“I have to run,” I say at once.
“Wait a sec.” He halts me. “How come you didn’t call me when you found out about the job? I got the call from HR this morning, so I’m sure you got it too.”
I cast him a meaningful look. “I wanted to tell you in person.” I don’t know why, but I tell him this because I want him to feel special. And he does.
His face breaks into a glorious grin.
I clear my throat and turn the tables on him. “Ahem, and why didn’t you call me when you found out?”
“Same reason,” he says, holding my gaze for far longer than necessary.
I palm my face. It feels warm. Very warm.
“I really must go! Otherwise there’ll be a fatwa on my head.”
He steps aside. “I’ll call you tonight?”
“K’, later,” I say and fly up the stairs, this time with my chin up, to avoid any more head on collisions.
Twenty Three
The next several months pass without incident and I throw myself into my work with fierce determination. Being a second level technician has its definite perks, especially when I have an awesome supervisor. Thank the Lord I no longer answer to The Führer. I’ve finally escaped her Gulag camp and I still, to this precise moment, feel a heady sense of freedom.
My new supervisor, Douglas Gomez, is known as the Yoda in this call center, and I can see why. He is a brilliant mentor and guide. He is my maestro, and I blossom under his tutelage.
The instant I expressed my ardor for writing, Douglas put me on a special project. And so a large part of my job now consists of writing user guidelines for our knowledge base.
I’ve since learned that this style of writing is called technical writing. Just like poetry writing, technical writing is an art form in and of itself. Instead of the speaker-audience relationship that I am used to, this style of writing tends to be more of a teacher-student relationship. Consequently, there is a fine line I have to toe. On one hand, I have to be careful not to dumb down to my readers, and on the other hand, I don’t want to leave out too much info to the point that my documentation hardly makes any sense at all.
Tech writing was a bit daunting at first, but I dove right into it and honed my skills every day, learning to develop my own bare bones style of writing and define my own voice.
A lot of my time is spent organizing complex material in a logical manner, and I’ve even picked up Visio, which is a great tool for creating diagrams. Whenever I include graphics in my documentation, I immediately score a hundred points with my readers.
Another part of my job involves interacting with third level engineers, and my go-to tech is Mika. This is the fun part as I get to play the role of journalist slash investigative reporter and extract as much information from him as possible.
Mika has been beyond helpful and patient with me, but he occasionally slips and starts speaking in code, and I find myself having to ask him all the ‘dumb’ technical questions. But truly, that is the only way I can thoroughly understand a subject. After all, I can’t write about something I only half understand. And with Mika as my faithful guide, and with me constantly poking and prodding him for more, there is no stone, rock or pebble left unturned.
Still, I am a rookie in this field of writing, and when Douglas is not satisfied with my work, he sends me back to the drawing board where I’ll have to rewrite a second, third, sometimes even a fourth draft. But I love the challenge, I love sinking my teeth into a juicy project; and most of all, I love writing again.