Return of the duck lady...
Yesterday I had another appointment with the back-to-work people. I did see the mad duck woman last week, but she seemed to have completely forgotten about me, and spent all our very short interview trying to palm me off on someone else.
However, this time, I saw the new person, who seemed to be quite sensible and on top of the job, but the duck woman insisted on both of them seeing me at once. Apparently, their company has only a couple of weeks to find me a job, but I don't have to stick with it, and they will help me find something more suitable afterwards. This I got from the sensible new woman, while the duck woman rang around to find me a call-centre job. She got me an interview withing 10 minutes - but unfortunately it was in Peterborough*. Since I refused point blank to do any cold-calling, but don't mind taking (or trying to take) incoming customer service calls, she then went on to try and find me something else, while I continued to talk to the sensible woman, who seemed to actually listen to what I was saying. After another 1 minutes or so, it emerged that the duck woman was asking for work with "incoming cold calls", which was understandably a bit hard to find. From the responses of her co-workers, I think I now have the duck woman placed. She is the office liability, the person who shouldn't really be doing the job but who can't be got rid of. She has a fascinating combination of insane enthusiasm and complete incompetence.
Anyway, I'm off back there next week, with the possibility of a part-time call-centre job to encourage me.
Which is about 100 miles from where I live.
However, this time, I saw the new person, who seemed to be quite sensible and on top of the job, but the duck woman insisted on both of them seeing me at once. Apparently, their company has only a couple of weeks to find me a job, but I don't have to stick with it, and they will help me find something more suitable afterwards. This I got from the sensible new woman, while the duck woman rang around to find me a call-centre job. She got me an interview withing 10 minutes - but unfortunately it was in Peterborough*. Since I refused point blank to do any cold-calling, but don't mind taking (or trying to take) incoming customer service calls, she then went on to try and find me something else, while I continued to talk to the sensible woman, who seemed to actually listen to what I was saying. After another 1 minutes or so, it emerged that the duck woman was asking for work with "incoming cold calls", which was understandably a bit hard to find. From the responses of her co-workers, I think I now have the duck woman placed. She is the office liability, the person who shouldn't really be doing the job but who can't be got rid of. She has a fascinating combination of insane enthusiasm and complete incompetence.
Anyway, I'm off back there next week, with the possibility of a part-time call-centre job to encourage me.
Which is about 100 miles from where I live.