Be Nice!

Von and I have made it no secret that we work in a call center. Only the name and location have been changed to protect the not so innocent. The company we work for also has a call center in the Philippines to handle things such as billing and tech issues. It's not an unusual thing for American companies to outsource some call center operations to other parts of the world.
On several occasions, I've had customers erroneously call me with complaints about the advisors overseas.

'Thank God, I reached someone who speaks English!'

'Where are you located? I'm tired of talking to foreigners!'

'I hung up on the last person because I didn't want to talk to anyone in China.'

'I want you to get somebody from America on the phone!'

Those are just some of the ugly, nasty things I've heard over the years about the call center employees in the Philippines. It's not that they're incompetent or can't do the job, people are offended because they're not American. They use the excuse of a language barrier, when in truth they speak fluent English, some of them with or without an accent.

Sometimes they try to reel me in to their nastiness chuckling at their own derogatory humor, but I purposely let them hang themselves with awkward silence. If you feel this way about someone who's different from you, what would you think about me, a black woman? You're just letting me know what you're all about.

Call center employees take their share of abuse and I'm pretty sure those from foreign call centers get it worse. That just adds to the widespread belief overseas that Americans are selfish, arrogant, and rude. How many of those call center employees go home with horror stories about the intolerant Americans they've talked to all day?

If you're not happy with outsourcing, that's fine, but it's not the call center advisor's fault. They're trying to earn a living just like you. Write to the company you get your services through. If they refuse to change, take your business elsewhere. Just don't make your grievances a personal attack on someone who's just trying to do their job.

Technology In Lieu of Common Sense

"Uh-I don't know what happened. I left the keys in the car and I shut the door and it locked.  The car's not supposed to do that."

In my secret non-author identity as a call center advisor, this is my most common call. Be it a dealer or customer, they're always shocked that the car would have the sheer audacity to lock them out. After decades of human evolution when it comes to automobiles and locking the keys inside, you would think that we would have learned, but such is not the case. These so-called smart keys that are supposed to prevent such a situation have spoiled us.

Shockingly, most times they never blame themselves for locking the keys in the car or in the trunk. They're angry and disgruntled, the victim of some form of trickery that the car has played on them. I even had one admit to pulling off on the highway to take a smoke and getting locked out.

Sometimes I just want to ask: What were you doing to get your keys locked in the car? Having a car that doesn't have a smart key, I'm paranoid about getting locked out. I'm always aware of where my keys are when I get out of the car. And if it ever happens, I have a family member with an extra set, just in case. Maybe I'm crazy, but even with technology, I wouldn't want to rely on a machine to save my butt in a jam.

Are we being dumbed down by technology, leaving common sense and our brains by the wayside?
 Are we getting too lazy to think, instead relying on Apps and computers to do it for us?

My grandmother used to carry an address book the size of a Yellow Pages in her purse, which she kept with her until the day she had her final stroke. Everyone from distant relative to close neighbor was listed in that book and she even kept a backup at home. Nowadays all our contacts are stored in our handy dandy smartphones. If your smartphone crashed, would you be able to remember your emergency contacts?

The same goes for driving. I've seen people pitch a fit because their GPS isn't working. I know of people who get directions everyday for their commute. What happens when you can't get directions?
What about something as simple as shopping? Do I really need to whip out my smartphone's calculator to figure out what my discount at Macy's will be?

I'm definitely not against technology, obviously it's there for a reason. But every so often, maybe you might want to warm up those brain cells just to make sure they're working right. It may save you a long wait for roadside because you locked your keys in your car.

Whatever Happens to You, You Deserve It

The other night there was an especially upsetting episode of Sons of Anarchy. A person close to the main character, Jax, was killed off in an extremely brutal fashion. If you’re not familiar with the show, it centers around an outlaw biker gang and all the devious deeds they do. The show is supposedly an adaptation of Hamlet, where the biker club stands in for the kingdom.

Though in any other story he would be the villain, Jax’s character could be described as an antihero; a popular term for a bad guy we want to root for. During the six years the series has been running, we’ve seen Jax commit multiple murders, hurt people and even inject his son’s mother with drugs so she would have no hope in getting custody of him. Even though he commits these crimes, he claims to be a devoted husband and father to his two young sons who may be destined to repeat his mistakes. The viewer is supposed to sympathize with Jax, despite the heinous things he does because he is the center of the show.

Early in the episode he was warned by one of his friends that the troubles he may be having in his personal life, may be the result of his evil deeds in the past. Jax is shocked by this revelation. Why would his past deeds reflect on his current situation? Needless to say, the death of his loved one is the direct result of seeds he'd sown earlier in the season. What he did in the past eventually caught up to him, costing a woman her life.

Though it may be just a tv show, this is actually a situation I've seen over and over in real life. How many times have we seen the news story about the husband who kills the wife so he could be with his mistress and thinks he should get away with murder? Or the nutcase who makes it her point to go after another woman's husband? How many people do we hear of lying, cheating, and stealing to get what they want no matter the cost? They have the attitude that they're entitled to the happily ever after.

The thing that surprises me is their genuine shock  when God comes to collect or karma comes back to slap them in the face. Did you really think you could do all this damage and you wouldn't pay for it? Even people who do everything right and treat everyone kindly have trials in their lives.

Be careful what you do because it just might come back to bite you.

Don't Waste Your Gift!

This week, we're preparing to release the third book in our drama/romance/mystery/paranormal series The Body Hunters. Our book release goes hand in hand with the giddy Christmas Day feeling you get with any great accomplishment. The road has been paved with challenges, both personal and book related for myself, Von and our editor, but this is the payoff.

Writing is what we love. Conjuring up drama and putting our characters through hell is what we were born to do. It took us a while to discover our gifts, but when we found it, it flourished. Sometimes the writing process can be the most frustrating thing in the word, but I wouldn't trade my gift for anything.

If you have a gift or that special talent, use it. No more procrastinating, lying to yourself that you'll get started eventually. If you're a runner, go do that marathon you've always put of running. If you're a chef, what's stopping you from submitting that recipe? Writers, stop killing time going over the same material over and over again. Get that book published.

Don't let anything stop you from fulfilling your dream.

Kids Grow Up

I am an adult child of divorce. I was about sixteen when my parents decided to end things. To make a long story short, my father wanted to do what he wanted and my mother wasn't having it.

I watched as my mother, a housewife for eighteen years, pulled out the newspaper the day after he left and went to work the next day. She worked jobs she shouldn't trying to put food on the table.  Recycling plant, cleaning toilets, construction; it didn't matter, if the money was green she took the job. We may have had utilities off from time to time, but there was always food on the table, even though it may not be the gourmet cuisine you wanted. We learned how to make food last on a limited budget and we were never on any public assistance. The struggle bonded us deeply.

Now my father on the other hand was living the life he wanted with no responsibilities to tie him down. He went and married the woman he was seeing while he was married to my mother, about two months after the divorce was final. He went and bought that brand new red Mustang, not the type of car you would expect from someone with three kids. He wouldn't call to check on us, but to brag about where he'd been on his vacation. He couldn't come for his scheduled visits but he made sure we saw his shiny new sports car. He could care less that his kids were hurt, scarred and traumatized, it was all about him.

The same could be said for his parents. We were their only grand children, so on Christmas they doted on us with the huge gift boxes from Hudson's. My grandmother would go all out with the beautiful hand knit sweaters and name brand items for kids. After my parents split, that was it. No Christmas gifts, no birthday wishes, nothing. As we struggled, no one called to see if the kids had shoes, coats, or even food. We were cut off completely, even though they only lived eight minutes away from us.

Now, the time in the hour glass is in our favor. We're stable adults now, no drug use, no illegitimate children, my brother had his growing pains as a young black male growing up in Detroit, but these days he's a workaholic and he's fine. We're as close to Mom as we've ever been.

Mr. Sherman on the other hand is another story. Having worked for Ford since he was eighteen, he makes a nice salary, but you can never tell. His life is a never ending spiral of dysfunction. The divorce from wife number three was final a couple months ago, so I know he's looking for his next flavor of the month. He has no choice but to flit from woman to woman because he has no bond with his children and has to assimilate himself into their family. He's the type who likes to rewrite history, like he was Cliff Huxtable; I have no problem reminding him what a terrible father he was.
Our relationship with him is awkward, like we're operating at two different frequencies. When we talk he makes juvenile jokes, like he doesn't realize we're grown adults now. He doesn't know me. He can't tell you my favorite food or color. He's even clueless about me being a writer, which I plan on keeping that way. Whatever he is, I'm stuck with him.

The 'accessories' are optional. We eventually reconnected with my grandparents a when we learned after about fifteen years when we learned my grandmother was dying of cancer. We visited the hospital a couple times, but I felt the coldness, like I'd wandered into some random stranger's hospital room. How pathetic is it when your own grandparents have to ask if you have any children? After a knockdown drag out debate with my brother and sister, we attended the funeral and started visiting with my widowed grandfather again.

Every week or every other week, we'd visit, go out to dinner or a movie. We even invited him over to dinner a couple times and my sister called him every day. A couple years later, a few of her daily calls went unanswered and he called back when he felt like it. He had a new woman in his life and little by little we could feel that chasm opening up again. My sister trying to be nice tried to give him another shot, but the writing was on the wall for me. Dear old sweet granddad used us as placeholders to keep from being lonely until he found another wife. After that I was done with the Sherman family completely. It's been about two and a half years and I haven't looked back.

Which brings us to the very reason I'm so pissed today. Sunday my father calls with his normal chit chat which results in him holding the phone in silence and me trying to come up with conversation because he doesn't know what to say. Before he ends the call, he tells me to call my grandfather on Tuesday, cause it's his birthday. Huh?

Today I had a missed call from my father and I know what he wants. If I didn't know what he wanted, the text with my grandfather's phone number is a clue.

I'm not calling him. Call me cold, callous, heartless, whatever, I'm done with these people. I'm not a toy you can take out of the box and play with whenever some one feels the need. My grandfather has kicked us to the curb twice; once as children and once again as adults, after we gave him a second chance. This isn't the Oprah show where the long lost relative is hiding behind the curtain. Fake isn't in me, so I'm not doing the loving granddaughter routine, pretending every thing is fine and make him feel better. I don't think so.

People need to know that kids aren't stupid. They may be little and defenseless and can't do anything when you break promises or break their hearts. But they grow up. Be careful what you throw away.

Accepting Imperfection

This week I started reading through our debut novel The Body Hunters for the first time in nearly a year. Come to think of it, I just realized this is the anniversary of the day we published it, weird. We've been working on a script adapted from our book, so I needed to read through it again and make the necessary changes as far as the adaptation was concerned. In a script, you can't have paragraphs explaining what's going on, that's something that has to be discussed between characters or otherwise shown in the film. There's no need for flowery prose in a script, all that has to be streamlined, leaving the skeleton of the story. Though we've gotten good reviews and positive feedback from those who've read our first book, some of the mistakes we made as first time authors stuck out to me.

With the script it's been sort of a Body Hunter 2.0. Now with a fresh pair of experienced author's eyes, I've gone in and changed what never should have been, including one reality television subplot that never really went anywhere. In the screenplay, there's a better introduction to our hero, Aiden Stone and the villain is even more of a monster, if that is at all possible. And like our latest works, the voices of Von and I assimilate into one and you can't tell where my writing starts and hers begins. Still, looking behind me, I'm tempted to pull a George Lucas and go back and make changes to the first novel to satisfy that egotistical author in me who's looking for perfection. But I know I can't do that. If I'm stuck looking back at the past, how can I concentrate on the future?

Every mistake we make with any project, not just our first is an opportunity to grow and learn as writers. Sure being an artist, you want it to be perfect, so you change this word and that, and you spend hours editing trying to get it just right. But sometimes that search for perfection does more harm than good. You stall and procrastinate, obsessing over the littlest thing, moving paragraphs around until you've done nothing but made yourself crazy. That is something our editor, Reggie, told us from the start. She forced us to make a deadline and stick with it, which is a policy we still go by nearly four novels and a year later. We're only human, so we have to accept that we can't be perfect all the time.

Leave Me Out of That Drama!

"Yeah, I don't know why she stopped talking to me all of a sudden. Now every time I walk past she rolls her eyes and turns her back."
"Oh, I don't know anything about that. She didn't say anything to me."

I nod my head understandingly, lying through my teeth the entire time. You see I know exactly why Ms. G has a beef with Ms. V, but I'm not opening my big mouth.

I learned early on in my career to stay out of drama. My very first job was a store where 98% of the employees were women. I don't know what it is about women, but if you get too many in the same place at the same time there's bound to be some issues. Somebody doesn't like somebody else and this woman is talking behind the back of this woman. It doesn't make sense because you can get two guys who have a knock out, drag out, punching match and by the end of the night they're having beers and watching the football game. What is it about women that we can't get along?

There's a feud going on with the women in my department. You see, last week, Ms. G overheard Ms. J talking about her with Ms. K. Feeling outraged, Ms. G told off Ms. J, who proceeded to call Ms. K on her off day and tell her what happened. Now both Ms. K and Ms. J are totally ignoring Ms. G who could care less. Now Ms. G went to our supervisor with an account that Ms. V was supposed to be working on, but she messed it up. Now our supervisor has warned Ms. V that Ms. G is sharpening her axe behind her back.

I don't know if everybody is PMS-ing at the same time or what. All I know is that we had a weekly lottery pool going then all of a sudden I get a text from Ms. G that she wasn't participating anymore. I asked some stupid questions about what was going on and found myself in the center of a possible cat fight.

Now I'm in the awkward position of being approached by the women who are feuding who want to rest their troubles on my shoulders. I'm the type to get along with everybody, so I'm still talking and interacting with these women, despite the visible friction. I make a point of not saying anything negative about the other parties involved, instead I offer neutral words of support, mindful of not committing to any side in this arms race. Like my mother says; A dog that brings a bone will carry a bone. In other words if they bring you info on someone, they'll take what you say to the other party. I don't want anyone saying that I said anything about any body so I took myself out of the equation.

As women, we have a lot of issues to deal with, which makes it even sadder that we can't stick together. Hopefully the cooler fall temperatures will chill the tempers in my department and things will go back to normal. Whatever these women decide to do about their situation, I know one thing is true; I'm staying my behind out of all that drama.