| May 15, 2006 |
| Opinions |
--"Wipe them out, all of them." --Darth Sidious
Boy, what a mean thing to say first thing in the morning. That's how I feel the call center I work at is doing to our CSRs. There should be no surprises. Everyone knew this day would come.
The call center I work at was set up to support the enrollment into the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. The deadline to enroll into a plan is today. If we don't hear from the officials in Medicare by end of the business day, no more calls will come into the call center. The contract we've had with Medicare will end. If there's no contract, there's no money to pay the CSR's. End result? About 500 Customer Service Reps will be out of a job by the end of today. My job is secured. Blue Cross will pay to keep management staff in place until new work begins. The CSRs are temporary employees which makes it easier for them to be let go. I'm glad I have a job, but my heart truly goes out to all the folks that has made this call center great. They've been here for 9 months with the hope of hired on permanent by Blue Cross.
Now, don't go blaming Blue Cross. They don't have anything to do with this. Blame the officials at Medicare. As of right now, they still haven't given us any indication if today will be the last day or if they need us to take a few more calls this week. Blame Congress. They are the ones that dictate what Medicare will do. Blame the President. (I like the man, but I think he was wrong on this issue) President Bush kept vetoing bill after bill that would extend the enrollment deadline. The Drug program through Medicare is better than what most ederly people currently have which is nothing. A lot of wrong information or impressions were given at the out. A lot of people who need help will not get it or they've been misled to think that everyone must have this plan. It was only in the last few weeks that positive reports were making it into the news.
There are a lot of things I've learned about Medicare in the past months. The Medicare program needs to be re-tooled and redeveloped. The people that make these decisions are the same ones that each year vote to increase their pay check. However, when it comes to programs that actually benefit society, they gut the budget. The saying "borrow from Peter to pay Paul" fits in this situation. Sometimes you need to just leave Peter be.
I usually don't have this strong opinion about matters as such. When it affects the people I've gotten to know and encouraged, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Good thing is there is new work coming to the call center, but it won't be effective until September. I might end up working on a contract from Blue Cross of Alabama. The deal is pretty much final, and I volunteered to be one of the Quality Assurance Analyst. Like I said. My job is secured. There are other contracts the call center will go after. When there are no reps here, I'll be helping with the proposals and other issues related to new business. When the work comes, we'll call all the good phone reps back. Until then, wipe them out. |
posted by Dare @ 6:19 AM  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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I'm with you on this. I like President Bush, but I really think that not extending the deadline was a big mistake. Pure stubbornness. The people that are most affected are the seniors who still don't understand all the plans and options out there. Now we are going to penalize them for not understanding the plans or for being mislead by people who didn't know what they were talking about. Having a deadline made sense...refusing to discuss extending it to help out the elderly is ridiculous!
I also feel for the CSRs I wish the other contracts could have come in soon enough to save their jobs. I am angry for them...I am glad that Blue Cross/Pinnacle Business is doing so much to try and help those who decided to stay until the end. I am also excited about the possiblity for them to be given full-time jobs as soon as the company can secure private contracts.
Hang in there and keep fighting for the little guys. They are the ones that keep our country running...not the big wigs in Washington!
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Name: Dare
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I'm with you on this. I like President Bush, but I really think that not extending the deadline was a big mistake. Pure stubbornness. The people that are most affected are the seniors who still don't understand all the plans and options out there. Now we are going to penalize them for not understanding the plans or for being mislead by people who didn't know what they were talking about. Having a deadline made sense...refusing to discuss extending it to help out the elderly is ridiculous!
I also feel for the CSRs I wish the other contracts could have come in soon enough to save their jobs. I am angry for them...I am glad that Blue Cross/Pinnacle Business is doing so much to try and help those who decided to stay until the end. I am also excited about the possiblity for them to be given full-time jobs as soon as the company can secure private contracts.
Hang in there and keep fighting for the little guys. They are the ones that keep our country running...not the big wigs in Washington!