Getting bad feedback in my new job

[catfeeder]

2 hours ago, jazz_lover said:

Hopefully trying to relax and sound more confident rather than worrying whether or not I will be able to help the callers (at least on the spot) will help on that score.  

Sorry to hear this, JL. Consider that sounding confident and sounding friendly usually go hand in hand. Practice smiling while you speak--it carries over into your tone, and that builds a customer's confidence in you.

[Batya33]

2 hours ago, catfeeder said:

Sorry to hear this, JL. Consider that sounding confident and sounding friendly usually go hand in hand. Practice smiling while you speak--it carries over into your tone, and that builds a customer's confidence in you.

Yes! My mom taught me this when I was very young and liked answering the family landline.  She was in customer service for many years including 15 at a major insurance company and her colleagues commented often on how upbeat/personable she sounded on the phone. Great tip.

Jazzlover I'm really sorry about the feedback - it sounds like you want to work on this and be better on the phone. Good luck and they are lucky to have such a hard working dedicated person.

[jazz_lover]

I’ve been making a go of it this week. 

I think I’m getting more confident but my trainers comments I am still using too many filler words and pausing too much to think. 

I’ve been mostly doing assisted calls where someone is next to me to consult as required. But there’s been a not so subtle implication that they would have expected or have been able to answer a lot more unaided and my technical knowledge isn’t where it needs to be. 
 

I did handle a few calls unassisted and was able to give advice on the call. But they were easy ones and very few of these calls are easy in part due to the vast breadth of topics that can arise but also because callers don’t always present the facts clearly or have lots of follow up questions which creates pressure as you can’t keep putting them on and off hold so need to think on your feet. 

tmrw they want me to listen to a more experienced trainer take calls and then later that day listen back to some of my calls to see the difference. And then do some more assisted or live calls. 

and Friday I’ll have another catch up with my boss. 

it’s clear I’m not meeting expectations in terms of progress and they are trying to give me a chance to improve and trying to think of ways to tailor the training to help me but the gap just seems so vast in terms of what they expect and where I’m at now. 

[Batya33]

7 hours ago, jazz_lover said:

I’ve been making a go of it this week. 

I think I’m getting more confident but my trainers comments I am still using too many filler words and pausing too much to think. 

I’ve been mostly doing assisted calls where someone is next to me to consult as required. But there’s been a not so subtle implication that they would have expected or have been able to answer a lot more unaided and my technical knowledge isn’t where it needs to be. 
 

I did handle a few calls unassisted and was able to give advice on the call. But they were easy ones and very few of these calls are easy in part due to the vast breadth of topics that can arise but also because callers don’t always present the facts clearly or have lots of follow up questions which creates pressure as you can’t keep putting them on and off hold so need to think on your feet. 

tmrw they want me to listen to a more experienced trainer take calls and then later that day listen back to some of my calls to see the difference. And then do some more assisted or live calls. 

and Friday I’ll have another catch up with my boss. 

it’s clear I’m not meeting expectations in terms of progress and they are trying to give me a chance to improve and trying to think of ways to tailor the training to help me but the gap just seems so vast in terms of what they expect and where I’m at now. 

Do you think their expectations of you are unrealistic?

[jazz_lover]

It’s hard to judge really. Clearly there’s a learning curve otherwise there wouldn’t be a training period for a mid level career job. 

Of course some people have more of an aptitude for it than others and perhaps chattier people find it easy to keep the phone call going and think on their feet and look things up during the call. 
 

Perhaps other people from different backgrounds have a broader knowledge base and that helps them. They do hope that by listening to calls in the first month or so you pick up knowledge and there have been afternoons assigned to offline reading and study questions. But already I’ve been involved in hundreds of queries on a huge range of topics and only rarely are queries similar so you can cement that knowledge.

And learning by osmosis isn’t easy and that seems to be how they hope youll learn. But it’s been information overload and I haven’t really been able to consolidate my knowledge. 

I do intend to ask for more guidance on upgrading my knowledge base and explain that it’s a contributing factor to my hesitancy on the phone

But I can understand their patience is wearing thin and they might want to cut their losses soon 

 

[Batya33]

Do you like learning to be more “chatty?”  My job is often very detail oriented and I interact with people with different jobs than mine which are also very detail oriented. If they’re not good at that it means I have to work harder to check their work and correct their mistakes so it doesn’t damage my work product and or have a bad domino effect. I really appreciate when I work with someone who is skilled at this AND I can tell quite often if they’re skilled and also like that kind of work. I am very very good on the phone and I have been for many years. My job now requires less of it. I also enjoy it. But if you asked me to learn a job that required intense math skills - not just calculator stuff - I could learn it. Sort of. But it’s not my forte at all and I don’t take to it by osmosis and my learning curve would be a lot steeper. I’d do it if somehow it really sparked my interest.

That and then what you’re referring to to me are in very similar categories requiring both an innate skill set, a passion or enthusiasm for it or at least some external incentive - strong - to take on the challenge.
 

I get the sense you “like” this well enough but did you take the job because you really needed a job? Which is fine and maybe that’s why it’s taking you longer and or maybe the higher ups aren’t seeing enough interest in these skills in your end ?

[Kwothe28]

20 hours ago, jazz_lover said:

I’ve been mostly doing assisted calls where someone is next to me to consult as required. But there’s been a not so subtle implication that they would have expected or have been able to answer a lot more unaided and my technical knowledge isn’t where it needs to be. 

I have a house friend(our families hang out) that does one of those “We call retired old people to sell them medicine that is mostly natural cures that are maybe approved by doctors”. Its a hard occupation, you do have to convince old people to buy their product that they would send later to their adress. Its not a scam per se but those natural cures are not cheap and its questionable whether they will help you. They try to convince you over the phone it will but they certanly cant guarantee you that.

Anyway, have you ever wondered why you have so many women doing that? For example, my friends work is 100% women while men are doing stuff like packing and delivering. Its because you basically have to be chatty woman for that kind of a job. You call somebody, talk maybe even half an hour in order for them to take your offer. You have to be pretty good at convincing people and talking to them over extended period of time to do that. Which women are more natural at. I was interested to see some data on that. 72% of call center employess in USA, are women. Its basically their thing to talk over phone. Might be generalization but its true.

And again, you dont fit in there. You can stay on your head while juggling plates and talking to customer at the same time, you wont impress them. Because you are not a chatty woman. And you dont fit in that kind of a work. Again, I wouldnt be hopeful regarding your performanse. They wont help you get your ins and outs and will always not back you up with your Boss and your evaluation will always be negative. No matter how fast you adapt to conditions. And even if you somehow magically stay, would you want that when its clear your colleagues dont exactly like you and dont have a high opinion on you based on what they say to your Boss? So again, take some time of the week in maybe sending few CVs to something that you can actually thrive at. Some jobs just arent for us. 

[jazz_lover]

I’m getting along better with my trainers. They seem to be starting to warm to me. Although it might just be that they feel sorry for me because they know I am on thin ice. My boss is still a bit snappy with me and I can tell she’s getting frustrated but trying to contain herself and be professional and she hasn’t been around much this week. 

I find the work interesting. The queries are interesting and I like helping people. 

But I didn’t really anticipate how difficult it would be to field queries via the phone and quickly assess what information is missing and how far I can help them all the while sounding confident and keeping up a chatty patter and I don’t think I have a natural aptitude for that and it’s very crucial to the job. 

That aspect will get easier once I’ve been exposed to a lot more queries and build up my knowledge base so I start to anticipate where things are going and know where to go but it makes the training period very challenging and I probably require more handholding and assistance than they’re willing to give and it might take me a long time to get fully up to speed.

I have a meeting with my boss tmrw so will see how that goes. 
 

I think I’ve shown some progress this week so hopefully that will convince them to give me some more time. 

They have hired someone new but that person isn’t joining until April next year and most people in my industry have 3 month notice periods. And it’s always been their intention to continue to expand the team. So I don’t know whether that and the fact that for my 6 month probation period they can sack me with no reasons required and just a weeks notice period that they won’t be in a hurry to get rid of me provided I can be of some benefit to the team. 

But hard to tell really. All I can really do is show a desire and commitment to improve and respond positively to feedback and so on. 

[jazz_lover]

Hanging on 🙂 luckily my boss is sick so our catch up is now on Monday and she said will then discuss this week and make a plan for next week so that will take me until the end of the month at least 

[catfeeder]

3 hours ago, jazz_lover said:

Hanging on 🙂 luckily my boss is sick so our catch up is now on Monday and she said will then discuss this week and make a plan for next week so that will take me until the end of the month at least 

Terrific! Thanks for the update JL, and so sorry that this has been so stressful. Glad to hear your trainers are warming up. The boss and her impatience may be the reason so many people bail, so the more she's out of the picture, the better.

A big positive to put in your pocket is that resilience is one of the most important life skills one can build, and yours is excellent. You will look back on this time with pride in how you've stepped up to meet a tougher challenge than you had envisioned. This will serve you well going forward in EVERYthing you attempt in your future.

Head high, and we are with you!

[jazz_lover]

Had my 1:1 with my boss. She said that I was still well below the level expected at this stage of my training and not ready to fly solo. However she said that it was obvious I’d made a very concerted effort last week and there had been some signs of progress. I have to come in for another three days for assisted calls this week.
 

Then my boss asked me if I liked the job and if it was everything I thought it was going to me. I admitted the learning curve was steep but I said I was never bored and was learning a lot and enjoying the challenge. 
 

 

[Batya33]

1 hour ago, jazz_lover said:

Had my 1:1 with my boss. She said that I was still well below the level expected at this stage of my training and not ready to fly solo. However she said that it was obvious I’d made a very concerted effort last week and there had been some signs of progress. I have to come in for another three days for assisted calls this week.
 

Then my boss asked me if I liked the job and if it was everything I thought it was going to me. I admitted the learning curve was steep but I said I was never bored and was learning a lot and enjoying the challenge. 
 

 

I'm glad you told her that - and she did have some positives to share, for sure.  Good luck this week!!

[jazz_lover]

Still holding on. I’ve been demoted to assisted web chat. Boss says I’m not a safe pair of hands and still well below where she’d expect me to be and she is very worried and concerned. 

She asked if I could think of anything they could do to help. 

-I said that trainers continue to sometimes be a bit too helpful and even if they want me to discuss with trainers before going back to client I’d like trainers to see how much I know and how far I can get to the answer before prompting me or telling me what to say 

-I said I’d like to be given more of a chance to research queries and read around them as a learning opportunity 

-I also said while I’ve been trying to fill gaps in my breadth of knowledge it might be more productive for me to try and build on more common topic areas so that I can field what she calls bread and butter questions better 

she said to let her know if I could think of anything else they can do to help 

I asked them if they had any suggestions. They came back with:

-I need to consolidate my knowledge to prepare myself for when repeat topics come up 

-I need to get better at understanding what the client is really asking and what information I am missing and try to do so before I consult with colleagues 

-I need to control the calls better 

- I need to make sure the client has fully understood before I end the call

My boss has reiterated she needs to see a huge ramp up in coming weeks.

I will try and work on the areas mentioned the best I can but I need to somehow improve super fast. 

[Batya33]

It sounds like you want to stay with this job and have your marching orders from the boss.  Good luck!

[jazz_lover]

Thanks. I'm going to need it. But it is good that I've finally been given specific areas to work on rather than just being told I'm not good enough and need to improve which has been the main message over the last few weeks. 

 

[Batya33]

5 hours ago, jazz_lover said:

Thanks. I'm going to need it. But it is good that I've finally been given specific areas to work on rather than just being told I'm not good enough and need to improve which has been the main message over the last few weeks. 

 

I'm glad you are finding the specifics helpful.  You seem to really want to make this work.

[jazz_lover]

Oh dear. 

My boss has been travelling today. I sent her an email in morning thanking her for the helpful feedback in our meeting the previous day identifying improvements areas. 

She emailed back saying as I said yesterday I have serious concerns about progress made with regards enquiry handling and current level of technical knowledge versus what is needed for the role. And at this stage it would be expected new starters should be live in the helplines but she feels it is too risky to have me solo on the helplines and struggling to see this changing anytime soon based on minimal progress seen since starting with us

Then she made a small list of what she considered easy queries I needed assistance on as well as a few instances of similar queries where I struggled second time around as well. 
 

Then she said it’s a senior role not a junior role and she would have expected a much higher baseline level of knowledge. 

And looking at feedback this week she isn’t seeing any significant improvements in any of areas required and need to seriously consider next steps and good to have another meeting tmrw.

I’m not really sure what to do. 

I am really trying and it’s not easy. Maybe she’s right and I’m completely useless. But if I’m making zero progress why doesn’t she just put me out of my misery and sack me ? 

My heart is pounding fast and I’m dreading the meeting. I don’t really know how to approach it or what she means by seriously considering next steps. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Batya33]

You are not useless in the least. This simply might be a bad fit.

Here is what I would do _JMHO.  Today update your resume and start a job search.  Resign ASAP and maybe you can even leave this off the resume since it has been such a short time.  

They may be concerned about impacts of termination for internal HR reasons you may know nothing about. I wouldn't follow up on this I'd simply resign - would you qualify for unemployment?

[jazz_lover]

Mmm I’m also starting to suspect at this point they’re just trying to cover themselves by collecting evidence and arranging meetings. 

Where my boss left is that I should come into the office on Monday and she’d mentioned she wanted a meeting on Monday. Would you suggest preempting her by submitting formal resignation first thing on Monday ?

I do like the job and was prepared to try hard to improve. But my efforts don’t seem to be paying off or maybe they’ve already made up their mind I’m a lost cause and that confirmation bias is blinding them to any improvements I am making. But I know I’m quite far behind where I’m expecting to be on this stage still on assisted calls and web chat when typically someone would have gone live weeks ago.

Would be great to get an outside view of the pros of resigning as opposed to sticking it out with the hope that either something suddenly clicks and my performance improves a lot or that they are planning to wait a few weeks until my next performance review before killing the trigger so I’ll get a few weeks extra pay. 

[catfeeder]

20 hours ago, Batya33 said:

I wouldn't follow up on this I'd simply resign - would you qualify for unemployment?

Resigning would disqualify you for unemployment. I would NOT resign. Allow them to offer you another role or let you go, and keep all documentation along with your notes in this thread to prove that you were legitimately trying, and you were not let go for misconduct.

Apply for unemployment, and if you're eligible given your earnings during their calculation of 'base weeks,' (which you can research on the Unemployment.gov site) then UIS will send a form to your employer to confirm your claim. Most employers dispute these claims because they are responsible for paying a portion of the claim. 

This is typical in nearly every case where one is not let go as part of a mass layoff. However, all you need to do is file an appeal. Most people don't know this, so they don't do it. You will be called for an appeal hearing, and most employers don't take their dispute that far, so the claimant wins by default. So just present your documentation, and you will win 2/3 of your current earnings for 13 or 26 weeks.

There is no shame in not being the right fit for a particular job that requires certain skills you don't possess. Let them spare you from the misery of grinding through a role you're too nervous to perform.

My heart goes out to you, JL, and I'm sorry you're suffering through this. Consider ways to minimize the importance of this in the larger scheme of things. This experience could lead you to the right job, but don't allow it to harm your self worth. There are plenty of jobs that I could never do successfully, and this sounds like it might be one of them.

[jazz_lover]

FYI I’m in the UK so rules are a bit different and you don’t get automatic unemployment benefit and it’s means tested so you need to go to job centres and it’s such a pitiful amount that my time would be better spend making applications and recovering from this ordeal. Legally as I’m probation they don’t need to give any reason for firing me and I suspect they are only dragging it out for internal HR political reasons.

Not sure if that changes your advice.

Also I’m wondering if it’s better to send the official resignation email to boss and HR or speak to my boss first as a professional courtesy. My confirm with the latter is I don’t really trust her and if she’s got the wheels already in motion I want to be sure I preempt her. A halfway house would be to just email her and say let me know if you want to discuss before I send separate email to HR. 

Thank you for your sympathy and support. I think the experience should make me stronger and I’ve learnt more about myself and hopefully next job will be a better fit. 

[catfeeder]

2 hours ago, jazz_lover said:

Thank you for your sympathy and support. I think the experience should make me stronger and I’ve learnt more about myself and hopefully next job will be a better fit. 

You're welcome, and sending you good vibes. The fact that so many people quit this job means that you're in good company, and the difficulty level is extreme for anyone who is not a natural gabber with some degree of experience in this field. Honestly, I have reasonable self-confidence, but I don't believe that I could pull off that role.

Head high, and I hope you'll let us know how things go for you.

[Batya33]

2 hours ago, catfeeder said:

Resigning would disqualify you for unemployment. I would NOT resign. Allow them to offer you another role or let you go, and keep all documentation along with your notes in this thread to prove that you were legitimately trying, and you were not let go for misconduct.

Thanks for clarifying.  I didn't know.

[jazz_lover]

Should I do the resignation email first thing Monday cc'ing HR? Or should I talk to my boss first as a professional courtesy?

I feel she is being pretty political and there is a chance that when we have a catch up meeting on Monday she may well sack me then as from her emails last week she's been collecting evidence and documenting things by email in preparation. And I get the feeling she wants me to resign anyway so it won't come as any kind of shock to her and I've only been in the job several weeks so perhaps it isn't necessary.

 

 

[Batya33]

1 hour ago, jazz_lover said:

Should I do the resignation email first thing Monday cc'ing HR? Or should I talk to my boss first as a professional courtesy?

I feel she is being pretty political and there is a chance that when we have a catch up meeting on Monday she may well sack me then as from her emails last week she's been collecting evidence and documenting things by email in preparation. And I get the feeling she wants me to resign anyway so it won't come as any kind of shock to her and I've only been in the job several weeks so perhaps it isn't necessary.

 

 

I think given that it's several weeks and the training period I'd tell HR - no need to talk to boss.