I have always been a firm believer that you should take pride in your work, and that you should work for a company that strives to make a difference in the community. If you don't, then at least make that a goal. Until recently, I had not had the opportunity to work for a company who wanted to provide services to help the community.
When I worked for Brink's Home Security, they did offer to match your contribution to any foundation of your choice. However, not everyone has extra cash laying around to donate. I know I really don't, especially with the way the economy has been lately. But at least the company tried to do something to help the community.
When I worked for Gold's Gym, they did support the JDRF (juvenile diabetes research foundation) which is close to my heart cause of the fact that I am Type 1 Diabetic. But the effort was only once a year, and it kind of was negated when I saw how their customers are treated. In most cases, at the call center, we were trained to be polite to the customers even when they were yelling at us (which was most times than not). When it came to their money, though, they were sure quick to take it. And in some cases I believe it was done without legal authorization. But I'm not going to go much into that. I just knew when I saw how the business was ran, I needed to find something better, more meaningful, and fast.
Which my decision to leave Gold's Gym brings me to where I am today with AccuConference. I had a feeling that when I started with this company it would be a good move. I didn't know everything the job would entail or how the business was ran. I knew after my first interview, it was a small company. It was definitely much smaller than what I'm used to. My husband and I were a little skeptical on if this was the right move for me. I had a secure job at Gold's Gym. I was promised a promotion in a matter of months with a raise to go with it. I had been there for eight months and had already impressed my managers with my ability to handle situations in a call center and to provide outstanding customer service without ever working in a call center before.
My second interview with AccuConference boosted my confidence that this move would be the right one. The VP was interested in my ability to do reports since I had worked as an analyst with Brink's and was familiar with Excel, Access, and SQL. He offered me a salary and benefits package I couldn't refuse. There was no way Gold's Gym could have beat the offer. And I was right. When I told the Director of Customer Operations that I was giving my two week's notice, she immediately asked where I was going, what I was going to be paid, and what they were offering me. When I told her everything, I could see the tears in her eyes welling up. She knew that she just lost a really good employee. It wasn't really her fault, though, she was a good boss to me. It was the principles of the company itself that drove me away from having a long-standing tenure.
So, now I just surpassed my fifth month of being with AccuConference, and each day I'm loving the job and the people more and more. What really gave me a sense of pride with my job was learning about one of our customers and how they use our services to help the community. At AccuConference, we provide conference lines for businesses, non-profit organizations, hospitals, government agencies, and educational facilities to hold conference call meetings. It saves our customers money on travel expenses and still allows them to communicate with their participants about whatever important event is going on.
One of our customers is a local university. They use our services quite often and not just for conference calls. They also use us to transcribe their conferences for their records. Being the well-adapted individual that I am, I had learned the transcription process after being with the company for almost 3 months. I then created a very good tracking system for these transcriptions to make sure that these customers are receiving them in a timely manner and that we are billing them correspondingly. I noticed that this university was submitting dozens of transcriptions at a time and that their billing for these transcriptions alone was starting to pile up.
I was having a conversation with a co-worker of mine who is really good at networking with our customers. She decided to contact this university and see if she could meet with them. She was able to do so today and got a little more information as to why their transcriptions are piling up. This university has a program that helps children who have had significant trauma in their history overcome their issues and become adopted. They use the conference line to interview the prospective adoptive parents, the children in the program, and social workers. The university, when speaking with my co-worker, stated that we were apart of this program as well with the services we provide. They said that without us, the research wouldn't be considered as legit and the program might not have received the kind of response it has today.
After I heard that, I felt a great sense of pride with the company I work for, the people I work with, and the job that I do. Knowing that the transcriptions I provide might have helped a child find a good home and live a close to normal life, that feeling itself outweighs any monetary benefits I could ever receive. I believe that is how work should be, I should be able to say every now and then, that I am proud of the work I do.
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