Well, I had an interview at Network Solutions today. Got all excited. There was a pretest, and they said to move on to the next phase in the interview I needed to score 40% or higher. I guess it was an attitude test and I scored 25% on one field, out of like NINE and they didn't want to interview me anymore. WTF is that?? How cold can you be? Are you telling me, if I got 100% in all other fields, and just 25% in one, you'd still not consider me?? I have two and half years experience in the field and your not even LOOKING at that, you trust a computer print out over what you hear and see.
Whatever.
I have 2 interviews on tuesday, and one on friday, my birthday. Hopefully something comes out of it. All this time I'm taking off is UNPAID, so something better come from it.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
"Breaking" News
I have convinced chuck to purchase tickets to the Breaking Benjamin concert for both of us; So, he, I, and his GIRLFRIEND will be going on June 2 at Montage Mountain. He needs to schedule the time off first, and I need to make sure I have a babysitter.. but hell or high water, I deserve this. On another front, the job search continues.
Everyone that I have applied to online, was at a job fair on monday. I gave them my resumes, looked them in the eye, and pleaded, without words, for them to hire me. I think, I hope, I made a good impression. I also saw an old friend, my old boss from Pizza Casa.. she is an Avon Lady.. and now, suddenly I am??
I haven't worked out the details, but we'll see how that works out.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Here is the News from RCN
I-Team Investigation: R-C-N Former Employees Speak Out
Reported by: Amy Bradley 04/12/2007 10:43pm
Stefania Steransky says she was understandably upset when word came last week that her position at R-C-N would be cut come June. "I got my laid off notice saying my last day was June 8th and we were getting a severance pay of one month and we were able to collect." But just two days after getting word her job was on the chopping block she was fired. "Friday, I went into work. Everything was going well. A girl actually I work with got fired at three o'clock and then I got called into the office at 4:30."
Steransky says her bosses told her she had avoided a customer by transferring a caller. A claim she disputes, but says even if she did, the normal procedure would be a verbal and written warning before being fired Steransky says "I just think I got fired because of them not wanting to pay us our severance pays."
Steransky's co-worker Dana Almy thought he was safe. He had made it through the layoffs. "They kept me because my numbers were great. Out of three hundred people active on the front line of customer service representatives, I was 12th."
But Almy says R-C-N claimed he also avoided a caller And fired him. He says by doing so, they saved the company money. "Actually, I was 15 days away from getting 1-thousand dollars from R-C-N because a friend of mine who worked there referred me and I was a top performer for six months.
Both Steransky and Almy had undergone performance reviews just two weeks before being fired. Both had been given favorable scores, even raises. Steransky says in February, she was one of only five people picked to go and train new employees in South Carolina.
Now, she says she realizes the people she trained are ones who are replacing her position. When the layoffs were announced, R-C-N spokeman Mike Houghton made a promise. "This has been going on to figure out how to do this in the most humane fashion and to make sure we take care of the interest of our employees."
We tried to contact R-C-N about the firings. We were promised a phone call back, but instead recieved this statement by e-mail. "While it is R-C-N 's policy not to comment on individual employee matters, we can say that we expect that each of our employees will appropriately take care of our customers. They are taught, and continue to be taught that in all of their rcn training." Both Steransky and Almy are now scrambling to find work. They're hoping by speaking out, they may be able to stop others from also finding themselves out the door, sooner than expected.
Reported by: Amy Bradley 04/12/2007 10:43pm
Stefania Steransky says she was understandably upset when word came last week that her position at R-C-N would be cut come June. "I got my laid off notice saying my last day was June 8th and we were getting a severance pay of one month and we were able to collect." But just two days after getting word her job was on the chopping block she was fired. "Friday, I went into work. Everything was going well. A girl actually I work with got fired at three o'clock and then I got called into the office at 4:30."
Steransky says her bosses told her she had avoided a customer by transferring a caller. A claim she disputes, but says even if she did, the normal procedure would be a verbal and written warning before being fired Steransky says "I just think I got fired because of them not wanting to pay us our severance pays."
Steransky's co-worker Dana Almy thought he was safe. He had made it through the layoffs. "They kept me because my numbers were great. Out of three hundred people active on the front line of customer service representatives, I was 12th."
But Almy says R-C-N claimed he also avoided a caller And fired him. He says by doing so, they saved the company money. "Actually, I was 15 days away from getting 1-thousand dollars from R-C-N because a friend of mine who worked there referred me and I was a top performer for six months.
Both Steransky and Almy had undergone performance reviews just two weeks before being fired. Both had been given favorable scores, even raises. Steransky says in February, she was one of only five people picked to go and train new employees in South Carolina.
Now, she says she realizes the people she trained are ones who are replacing her position. When the layoffs were announced, R-C-N spokeman Mike Houghton made a promise. "This has been going on to figure out how to do this in the most humane fashion and to make sure we take care of the interest of our employees."
We tried to contact R-C-N about the firings. We were promised a phone call back, but instead recieved this statement by e-mail. "While it is R-C-N 's policy not to comment on individual employee matters, we can say that we expect that each of our employees will appropriately take care of our customers. They are taught, and continue to be taught that in all of their rcn training." Both Steransky and Almy are now scrambling to find work. They're hoping by speaking out, they may be able to stop others from also finding themselves out the door, sooner than expected.
Job Search
So, now I am on the road to finding a new job, and let me tell you, I hate change. I like where I'm at currently, my bills are paid, my kids go to a o.k daycare..
So I started putting out resumes on www.monster.com and http://www.pacareerlink.state.pa.us/ as well as different websites. I've applied to Bank of America, Travelocity, Verizon Wireless, Collection Agencies, anything with 'customer service' functions. I abhore factory work, mainly because I can't stand for long periods of time. I guess the weight I packed on and having those kids kinda put my spine in a weak position. I can always go back to food industry.. not, plus I doubt I'd make enough to pay my car payment.
So Bank of America called, and they pay pretty well, the only problem I might run into are the shift hours. 12pm-8pm is a little bad for me, means I'd have to find a different daycare, and the drive would take me an extra 20 minutes to and from. We'll see how that works out, my 'pre-interview' is on my birthday, of all days, 5-04.
Now, scheduling time off may be a problem. My work, since they now know I will no longer be in their employ as of july, has seen to it that any vacation time I have scheduled prior to being notified of these lay-offs, that may put me over the 48 hr mark, is changed to VTO (Voluntary Time Off) so it means, that 1.) All the time I scheduled off for appointments will now be unpaid. 2.) trying to get time off for interviews now will be next to impossible.
Two bumbling idiots who work here, because they were fired straight out, decided to go to the local news station and tell everyone how bad RCN is. Ok. well, I'm not exactly thrilled with what RCN is doing, and I have alot at stake here, but, these people were fired for legit reasons.
The one just blind transferred someone without even asking what they needed or dealing with the call, the second one I'm told he hung up. Something to that extent, never trust gossip, but now it's all over the news and I'm wondering why the news station would even take them seriously. All it is, is a bunch of disgruntled employee's. Get over it, move on.
So I started putting out resumes on www.monster.com and http://www.pacareerlink.state.pa.us/ as well as different websites. I've applied to Bank of America, Travelocity, Verizon Wireless, Collection Agencies, anything with 'customer service' functions. I abhore factory work, mainly because I can't stand for long periods of time. I guess the weight I packed on and having those kids kinda put my spine in a weak position. I can always go back to food industry.. not, plus I doubt I'd make enough to pay my car payment.
So Bank of America called, and they pay pretty well, the only problem I might run into are the shift hours. 12pm-8pm is a little bad for me, means I'd have to find a different daycare, and the drive would take me an extra 20 minutes to and from. We'll see how that works out, my 'pre-interview' is on my birthday, of all days, 5-04.
Now, scheduling time off may be a problem. My work, since they now know I will no longer be in their employ as of july, has seen to it that any vacation time I have scheduled prior to being notified of these lay-offs, that may put me over the 48 hr mark, is changed to VTO (Voluntary Time Off) so it means, that 1.) All the time I scheduled off for appointments will now be unpaid. 2.) trying to get time off for interviews now will be next to impossible.
Two bumbling idiots who work here, because they were fired straight out, decided to go to the local news station and tell everyone how bad RCN is. Ok. well, I'm not exactly thrilled with what RCN is doing, and I have alot at stake here, but, these people were fired for legit reasons.
The one just blind transferred someone without even asking what they needed or dealing with the call, the second one I'm told he hung up. Something to that extent, never trust gossip, but now it's all over the news and I'm wondering why the news station would even take them seriously. All it is, is a bunch of disgruntled employee's. Get over it, move on.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
News
Almost 300 call center employees will lose their jobs as RCN Corp. trims costs by outsourcing work done at its Plains Township facility.
Officials of the Herndon, Va.-based communications company told employees Wednesday, saying the work would transfer to third-party call centers in the United States as RCN seeks to improve efficiency in an increasingly competitive market.
About 300 workers will remain in the Plains Township facility, including information technology, customer service and some other back-office activities.The layoffs are the latest setback in a period of tough times for RCN, which provides cable, telephone and Internet service in select metropolitan markets.
Ten years ago, RCN thought it could be to communications what Microsoft is to software.“The ’90s were the heyday for them, when they had a unique product and were facing Baby Bells and cable companies who were just starting to improve their networks,” said telecommunications industry analyst Jeff Kagan. “Today, it’s a tougher market with more competition and declining prices.”
Once in the forefront of the industry, RCN was the first to deliver the so-called “Triple Play” — bundled high-speed Internet, television and telephone service on one wire. For a time, RCN owned C-TEC, then-parent company of Dallas-based Commonwealth Telephone.
Now the highly leveraged company faces a new breed of competition from phone and cable companies.Like many communications companies in the 1990s, RCN borrowed heavily and overbuilt its network, lacing promising metropolitan markets with fiber optic lines.
The so-called dot-com crash battered the company heavily.
By the time RCN began brushing off its financial woes, the competitive landscape had changed. Incumbent cable television providers such as Comcast began offering their own bundled services. More recently, telephone companies such as Verizon Corp. started cross-selling satellite television service with line-delivered phone and Internet service.
“They are copycats who stole our business model,” RCN spokeswoman Lisa Barder said. “But we are holding our own and working really hard.”
In May 2004, RCN filed for bankruptcy protection, emerging in December 2004.The company posted a net loss of $11.9 million in 2006, following a net loss of $136.1 million in 2005.Late last year, the company hired the Blackstone Group with the intention of identifying a buyer for the company, but that effort does not seem to have generated much interest. Though it was unique in the 1990s, RCN’s network today is just another line on the utility pole.
“The opportunities for them so vibrant in the 1990s are gone,” Kagan said. “There may not be an out for RCN.”
Approximately 300 RCN employees will be laid off gradually starting in June and will receive severance packages of at least one month’s pay and one month’s paid health insurance, company officials said.The average tenure of laid-off employees is two years, RCN spokeswoman Lisa Barder said. The company will have on-site job fairs featuring other local employers with call centers, she said.
©The Citizens Voice 2007
Officials of the Herndon, Va.-based communications company told employees Wednesday, saying the work would transfer to third-party call centers in the United States as RCN seeks to improve efficiency in an increasingly competitive market.
About 300 workers will remain in the Plains Township facility, including information technology, customer service and some other back-office activities.The layoffs are the latest setback in a period of tough times for RCN, which provides cable, telephone and Internet service in select metropolitan markets.
Ten years ago, RCN thought it could be to communications what Microsoft is to software.“The ’90s were the heyday for them, when they had a unique product and were facing Baby Bells and cable companies who were just starting to improve their networks,” said telecommunications industry analyst Jeff Kagan. “Today, it’s a tougher market with more competition and declining prices.”
Once in the forefront of the industry, RCN was the first to deliver the so-called “Triple Play” — bundled high-speed Internet, television and telephone service on one wire. For a time, RCN owned C-TEC, then-parent company of Dallas-based Commonwealth Telephone.
Now the highly leveraged company faces a new breed of competition from phone and cable companies.Like many communications companies in the 1990s, RCN borrowed heavily and overbuilt its network, lacing promising metropolitan markets with fiber optic lines.
The so-called dot-com crash battered the company heavily.
By the time RCN began brushing off its financial woes, the competitive landscape had changed. Incumbent cable television providers such as Comcast began offering their own bundled services. More recently, telephone companies such as Verizon Corp. started cross-selling satellite television service with line-delivered phone and Internet service.
“They are copycats who stole our business model,” RCN spokeswoman Lisa Barder said. “But we are holding our own and working really hard.”
In May 2004, RCN filed for bankruptcy protection, emerging in December 2004.The company posted a net loss of $11.9 million in 2006, following a net loss of $136.1 million in 2005.Late last year, the company hired the Blackstone Group with the intention of identifying a buyer for the company, but that effort does not seem to have generated much interest. Though it was unique in the 1990s, RCN’s network today is just another line on the utility pole.
“The opportunities for them so vibrant in the 1990s are gone,” Kagan said. “There may not be an out for RCN.”
Approximately 300 RCN employees will be laid off gradually starting in June and will receive severance packages of at least one month’s pay and one month’s paid health insurance, company officials said.The average tenure of laid-off employees is two years, RCN spokeswoman Lisa Barder said. The company will have on-site job fairs featuring other local employers with call centers, she said.
©The Citizens Voice 2007
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Down the Proverbial Toilet
Well, it's official. RCN will be laying off a substantial amount of it's employee's in the Wilkes-Barre Call Center.
Too bad this is where I work, and I've been given notice that on 7-06-2007 my job will no longer be here.
Nice huh?
Let's just say, I'm freaking out a little bit.
Well, maybe ALOT!
They decided that they can get cheaper service from new-hires in South Carolina and the Phillipines then actually put out the money for actual competance.
Too bad this is where I work, and I've been given notice that on 7-06-2007 my job will no longer be here.
Nice huh?
Let's just say, I'm freaking out a little bit.
Well, maybe ALOT!
They decided that they can get cheaper service from new-hires in South Carolina and the Phillipines then actually put out the money for actual competance.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
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