(no subject)
I still have forgotten to upload any pictures of the dog. Oh yes, I'm forgetful.
So I did my taxes on Saturday, and so far things look to be as good as they are every year. In the last decade or more of doing tax returns, I have never had to make any payments to the government for any issues. Since I started working at Advantage, the call center for my tech support gig, I've also been dumping extra money into taxes and such every paycheck to ensure that when tax season did roll around I would be extra safe from any payments.
According to the results from the forms, in the last year I've made only over eighteen thousand dollars. I'm above the poverty line, yeah, but... Eh. It's not really that impressive, is it?
The return that's coming to me, though, is a nice and hefty chunk. I'm supposed to get back approximately $1112 for the tax refund, and I'm also entitled to $378 dollars in HST/GST tax which'll be paid out every three months over the next year.
So yes. My family thinks that I should dump the entire thing into my student loan that I'm paying off to try and take a large chunk off the interest. I'm not too happy with this idea, as one... I need a car, and with that refund it'll push me to over $2200 in savings. With that amount I should be able to find a nice car that'll work for around the city, and then I won't be stuck relying on my mother's car for transportation.
As well, I want to try and get savings built up for when my parents move away. This would be either late this year or sometime next year, at which point I'll have to set up in my own apartment. And considering I only made about eighteen thousand in total last year, I'm thinking I'll have to save up if I want to stay afloat. Bah.
I would really like my own car, mostly. Oh, that'd be nice...
While taxes may not be screwing me over, though, my job appears to be.
On Friday, I was talking with another one of the Tier1 agents, Josh. Evidently he wanted to know how much I was making, which matched the amount that he was making... $11.05 an hour. The starting rate we both began with was $10.75, so this was after the raise we got in January that gave an extra thirty cents.
However, for the last two months we've been training new classes of agents. We're currently on class #4... The first three classes have finished, the third one had the agents just hit the phones full time this week. But evidently... The new trainees have all been starting at rates of $11.10/hour.
That is bullshit.
I've been here over 13 months, and people on the floor on their first week are making more than I do after a raise. I've discussed it with a few other agents, and we all feel like we should at least be entitled to $11.40. I mean, c'mon. It's only fair. Josh was speaking with the branch manager about it, and he was informed that the hiring for the new trainees is different thatn it was for us... Evidently new trainees aren't gettign 1000 hour reviews for raises. So what, none of the new people are getting raises? Ever? Please, I find that kind of hard to believe... And even if it does, I have a year of seniority over them. Josh has a year and a half. Ashley, another TIer1 agent who worked in TIer2 in the past, has almost 3 years.
It's lame. So lame. Evidently the branch manager said she was going to mail the CEO and ask for clarification/what to do, so now we're just waiting to hear back on that.
More work gripes! This time about Ray, one of the dumbass new trainees. He's a bloated moron who has to have the most simple things explained to him multiple times, and gets really excitable and 'friendly' over the stupidest shit. He's annoying as hell. Someone I don't want to make the cut and hope they'll can soon, but considering he's making sales alright so far I doubt the greedy bastards will do us a favor and can his ass.
His very first call he took as a Tier1 agent, he had a customer who wanted to transfer 4 domain names. In the process, the customer agreed to purchase domain privacy for each domain. Roland, who was the supervisor on call at the time, had went out for a smoke break and left me to walk the floor in his absence... Floor walking generally means just staying off calls and answering any questions any of the other agents might have, which with all the new agents and the 1-2 supervisors that are only around to cover them means it's something I've been asked to do a lot in the past couple weeks. I love it. It keeps me off the calls and I get to feel smart and knowledgeable.
So while Roland was out on his smoke break, Ray raises his hand up. I walk over to his desk to ask what he needs help with to close the sale, but at the same time Roland is walking back into the center... Ray sees this, and though I'm standing right next to him asking what he needs, Ray is like "No, no, that's okay, I'll wait for him! I just want someone who knows what they're doing, you know?"
My response could be summed up with "..."
Although I should have summed it up with "I've been here for over a year. I get asked to walk the floor and answer questions for you because I know what I'm doing. I certainly know how to purchase multiple domain privacies at once... Whereas you, you fat sack of retarded shit, barely even know how to purchase one. So how can I help you?"
But, no. The supervisor was standing by us at this point, and I didn't want to say anything even faintly rude with him there. I was kind of too shocked to really even say anything at all. I just walked back to my desk and sat down to take the next call.
I later on found out that Ray is making sales because he is a fucking LIAR, to boot. When he's pitching domain privacy to users, he explains that the service protects your information from spammers, telemarketers, and people trying to hack your account. This is bullshit. Domain Privacy covers up your email, address and phone number off the public WHOIS registry for domain names, which is again a public registry that anyone can look up. Having your phone number or email hidden means it can't be datamined to add to telemarketing or spamming lists, but it does practically NOTHING for hackers. But he keeps pitching that as a bonus for the product. This is after supervisors told him that was incorrect.
Douche.
On Friday, I went out to the movies with Roz, April, Jeremy and Al. We went to see Watchmen, which I will say is a freaking outstanding movie. It's not as good as the comic book, most people say, but I never read the comic book. I do know the story behind it and the plot, and from what I saw of the movie itself it was a really faithful retelling of the story. Of course the book is still likely better... There's plots and nuances that they'd have time for in the comics that just couldn't be crammed into an already long and jampacked movie.
I was dismayed that they did wind up including about twenty minutes of glowing blue dong. Wow, thanks. That was a faithful story aspect I coulda gone without.
The others liked the movie, but not as much as me. I think they were a little left behind by the amount of story in it, and had trouble keeping up. It's one of those films you could watch again to keep abreast of, but the story is also full of so many visuals and just so absolutely GORGEOUS to look at that I wouldn't mind repeat viewings myself. Also, Billy Krudup's Dr. Manhattan voice was so tranquil and soothing that I would watch it again just to hear him talk. The origin part of the movie for him was just beautiful in every fashion.
Afterwards we went over to April's place for a couple hours before I came home, and then I went out with them on Saturday morning to go to the farmer's market and get breakfast/snacks. So it was nice to be social, and considering that many of the new trainees these days are taking dedicated evening shifts, it almost guarantees me morning shifts each week. So I can hopefully continue to hang out during afternoons and such without having work get in the way too often.
I think I'm out of updates. And my lunch break is almost over, so nice timing.
(I typed this over the last 5 hours, not the last 30. I'm not that fast a typist.)
So I did my taxes on Saturday, and so far things look to be as good as they are every year. In the last decade or more of doing tax returns, I have never had to make any payments to the government for any issues. Since I started working at Advantage, the call center for my tech support gig, I've also been dumping extra money into taxes and such every paycheck to ensure that when tax season did roll around I would be extra safe from any payments.
According to the results from the forms, in the last year I've made only over eighteen thousand dollars. I'm above the poverty line, yeah, but... Eh. It's not really that impressive, is it?
The return that's coming to me, though, is a nice and hefty chunk. I'm supposed to get back approximately $1112 for the tax refund, and I'm also entitled to $378 dollars in HST/GST tax which'll be paid out every three months over the next year.
So yes. My family thinks that I should dump the entire thing into my student loan that I'm paying off to try and take a large chunk off the interest. I'm not too happy with this idea, as one... I need a car, and with that refund it'll push me to over $2200 in savings. With that amount I should be able to find a nice car that'll work for around the city, and then I won't be stuck relying on my mother's car for transportation.
As well, I want to try and get savings built up for when my parents move away. This would be either late this year or sometime next year, at which point I'll have to set up in my own apartment. And considering I only made about eighteen thousand in total last year, I'm thinking I'll have to save up if I want to stay afloat. Bah.
I would really like my own car, mostly. Oh, that'd be nice...
While taxes may not be screwing me over, though, my job appears to be.
On Friday, I was talking with another one of the Tier1 agents, Josh. Evidently he wanted to know how much I was making, which matched the amount that he was making... $11.05 an hour. The starting rate we both began with was $10.75, so this was after the raise we got in January that gave an extra thirty cents.
However, for the last two months we've been training new classes of agents. We're currently on class #4... The first three classes have finished, the third one had the agents just hit the phones full time this week. But evidently... The new trainees have all been starting at rates of $11.10/hour.
That is bullshit.
I've been here over 13 months, and people on the floor on their first week are making more than I do after a raise. I've discussed it with a few other agents, and we all feel like we should at least be entitled to $11.40. I mean, c'mon. It's only fair. Josh was speaking with the branch manager about it, and he was informed that the hiring for the new trainees is different thatn it was for us... Evidently new trainees aren't gettign 1000 hour reviews for raises. So what, none of the new people are getting raises? Ever? Please, I find that kind of hard to believe... And even if it does, I have a year of seniority over them. Josh has a year and a half. Ashley, another TIer1 agent who worked in TIer2 in the past, has almost 3 years.
It's lame. So lame. Evidently the branch manager said she was going to mail the CEO and ask for clarification/what to do, so now we're just waiting to hear back on that.
More work gripes! This time about Ray, one of the dumbass new trainees. He's a bloated moron who has to have the most simple things explained to him multiple times, and gets really excitable and 'friendly' over the stupidest shit. He's annoying as hell. Someone I don't want to make the cut and hope they'll can soon, but considering he's making sales alright so far I doubt the greedy bastards will do us a favor and can his ass.
His very first call he took as a Tier1 agent, he had a customer who wanted to transfer 4 domain names. In the process, the customer agreed to purchase domain privacy for each domain. Roland, who was the supervisor on call at the time, had went out for a smoke break and left me to walk the floor in his absence... Floor walking generally means just staying off calls and answering any questions any of the other agents might have, which with all the new agents and the 1-2 supervisors that are only around to cover them means it's something I've been asked to do a lot in the past couple weeks. I love it. It keeps me off the calls and I get to feel smart and knowledgeable.
So while Roland was out on his smoke break, Ray raises his hand up. I walk over to his desk to ask what he needs help with to close the sale, but at the same time Roland is walking back into the center... Ray sees this, and though I'm standing right next to him asking what he needs, Ray is like "No, no, that's okay, I'll wait for him! I just want someone who knows what they're doing, you know?"
My response could be summed up with "..."
Although I should have summed it up with "I've been here for over a year. I get asked to walk the floor and answer questions for you because I know what I'm doing. I certainly know how to purchase multiple domain privacies at once... Whereas you, you fat sack of retarded shit, barely even know how to purchase one. So how can I help you?"
But, no. The supervisor was standing by us at this point, and I didn't want to say anything even faintly rude with him there. I was kind of too shocked to really even say anything at all. I just walked back to my desk and sat down to take the next call.
I later on found out that Ray is making sales because he is a fucking LIAR, to boot. When he's pitching domain privacy to users, he explains that the service protects your information from spammers, telemarketers, and people trying to hack your account. This is bullshit. Domain Privacy covers up your email, address and phone number off the public WHOIS registry for domain names, which is again a public registry that anyone can look up. Having your phone number or email hidden means it can't be datamined to add to telemarketing or spamming lists, but it does practically NOTHING for hackers. But he keeps pitching that as a bonus for the product. This is after supervisors told him that was incorrect.
Douche.
On Friday, I went out to the movies with Roz, April, Jeremy and Al. We went to see Watchmen, which I will say is a freaking outstanding movie. It's not as good as the comic book, most people say, but I never read the comic book. I do know the story behind it and the plot, and from what I saw of the movie itself it was a really faithful retelling of the story. Of course the book is still likely better... There's plots and nuances that they'd have time for in the comics that just couldn't be crammed into an already long and jampacked movie.
I was dismayed that they did wind up including about twenty minutes of glowing blue dong. Wow, thanks. That was a faithful story aspect I coulda gone without.
The others liked the movie, but not as much as me. I think they were a little left behind by the amount of story in it, and had trouble keeping up. It's one of those films you could watch again to keep abreast of, but the story is also full of so many visuals and just so absolutely GORGEOUS to look at that I wouldn't mind repeat viewings myself. Also, Billy Krudup's Dr. Manhattan voice was so tranquil and soothing that I would watch it again just to hear him talk. The origin part of the movie for him was just beautiful in every fashion.
Afterwards we went over to April's place for a couple hours before I came home, and then I went out with them on Saturday morning to go to the farmer's market and get breakfast/snacks. So it was nice to be social, and considering that many of the new trainees these days are taking dedicated evening shifts, it almost guarantees me morning shifts each week. So I can hopefully continue to hang out during afternoons and such without having work get in the way too often.
I think I'm out of updates. And my lunch break is almost over, so nice timing.
(I typed this over the last 5 hours, not the last 30. I'm not that fast a typist.)