Customer Care Center

Our agency went through a huge change.  Most people were moved to different areas of the building to accommodate our services to make it easier for our customers.  Soon after I started, my supervisor urged me to apply for a "worker" position -- a promotion.  That way, when I want to move to another county or another state, I would be more valuable to the new agency.  As a worker, they maintain food stamp or medicaid cases. It sounds to be very stressful.

My official title is office assistant/call center representative.  Now that we are now settled in to the call center, we will soon be classified as a "worker."  The title seems to be "eligibility worker."  I will be handed the "promotion" without having to apply for it.  Our call center consists of the two of us from the previous call center and the the five others are medicaid or food stamp workers.  Our area has been working together and they are helping us to answer questions.  We are helping each other and it seems we all get along great.

Last Friday, the "workers" that joined our call center had a chance to learn the phone system and how to answer questions, etc.  We have to be ready to go on Monday.  We will need the medicaid workers help with answering the medicaid line.  The food stamp line is always the busiest and thankfully we will have a food stamp worker in our area now.  She will be helping us with that line.

Since the workers are transferred into the call center, they still have cases that they are trying to finish up to hand off to the department that will take them over.  Since they will still be working on their cases, they will also help answer the medicaid line. 

There are high hopes for the call center and our director is really excited.  We are a part of the the "customer care center."  We are the call center and the other area is the main window that people will go to for quick things, such as dropping of things for their worker, leaving a message for their worker, etc.  Essentially, the "customer care center" will be "workers" to help the other workers focus on their cases.  We will help people update their cases over the phone.  We will soon be able to print things off for them and mail them to out to the customer, and do many more things for people. 

I am more excited for the "promotion" without the pay...  I have been told that we will be classified as "eligibility workers" and we may be re-evaluated for the raise in pay.  I am really not concerned with the pay.  As soon as I have the title, I will be updating my resume to reflect the change. 

New houseplants

I went a little crazy over the last few weeks and bought new houseplants.  I found two at Walmart that were the healthiest.  Every other plant at Walmart was dead, droopy or just looked like they were going to die.  The two that I found happened to be ones that I really wanted.  One of them I had before but sadly had to get rid of.  I now have Pothos Marble Queen and Philodendron Brasil.

I also bought two different types of spider plants on ebay.  I bought a curly spider plant, which I had before but had to get rid off.  I also bought miniature spider plants.  I was sent 3 babies! 

I now have two plants at work with me.  I keep my Pothos Marble Queen and one of my miniature spider plants on my desk! 

Working on my credit

This week, I received my new credit card!   I have been browsing a few online stores (Kohl's and JC Penney) here and there for sales.  I am on their email mailing list so they send me at least 3 emails a week with sales and discounts they have going. 

About a month ago, I bought new clothes at JC Penney because when I tried shopping on Kohl's website, it would always redirect me to yahoo.  I took it as a sign that I need to shop elsewhere.

Unfortunately, when I went to shop on Kohl's website again, it redirected me again!  I decided to go to JC Penney's website instead.

All of the clothes I bought were on clearance and I had a special coupon code to use which helped me save even more!  I bought a pair of casual flats, pants, two tops and a pair of jeans!  I can easily wear the jeans on "casual Friday." 

I used my new credit card to make my purchase.  

New pajamas and tops

I am slowing building my work wardrobe and building my non-work clothes.  The current clothes I wear on the weekends are tops that I bought a few years ago at Walmart.  They are needing to be replaced, so I am slowing buying colorful tops.  Today, we stopped at Hanes outlet store and I bought two tops that are suitable for casual Friday as well as on the weekends.  I also bought two pajamas sets.  They contains a long sleeved top, and pajama pants and shorts. 

Credit Card

Last week, I applied for a credit card with my credit union.  I was notified today that I was not going to be approved because of a credit card balance I have in collections. 

Since I hate being told that I cannot do something or have something, I decided to apply for a credit card with Capital One.  I am trying to rebuild my credit! 

The application process took less than 3 minutes to complete and I was approved within 30 seconds or so!  My credit limit is $1000 but I plan on making small purchases here and there and paying it off as soon as I can.