Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Week Eight


At Dial America, some hazards that could possibly injure employees could be not cleaning up a spill on the floor and someone slips and breaks a hip. Or someone could trip over an unseen cord on the floor and twist their leg or foot. If people aren't responsible for cleaning up after themselves or looking out for potential hazards, others could be the ones to suffer by getting injured for careless people.

After looking at the OSHA website for safety issues that apply to workplaces and my particular workplace are the mandatory OSHA publications that must be displayed in Spanish. In order to have everyone completely informed of regulations and emergency policies, having OSHA posters translated into Spanish and a toll free number with Spanish speaking operators are the best way to ensure that everyone is properly informed. Even if a Spanish speaking person understands pretty good English, if there are even one or two words that are not understood, this could result in misunderstandings.

So far in my job at Dial America, I have learned to project my voice to sound pleasing and friendly over the phone and to improve my customer assistance. What I have learned about working with the people at Dial America is that they are always willing to help and all they want to do is help the customer. If you have a question, people at Dial America always have the answer because they have most likely worked on that program for a couple of years and have taken thousands of calls on it.

So far I have had a few negative experiences on the job because I have little old ladies trying to buy wigs and they get mad at me when they have a question that I can't answer. I tell them that I have to transfer them to customer service and the get huffy and take my name sand inform me that when I transfer them they will tell customer service about me. But then again, I do come across some very understanding and patient ladies who tell me that they appreciate my assistance and wish me a good day. What I look forward to in the coming weeks is learning the programs better and being able to perform at my job more efficiently. My learning style is an asset to me in this career because I am a hands-on learner and I learn best by actually doing something. With taking phone calls, you have to learn alot on you own. There is only so much your trainer can teach you.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Week 7

One skill that I posess that I think is unique to me is that I am nearly fluent in the Spanish language. I think that by using this skill it will be useful in the career path that I would like to pursue. I am interested in the medical field and would like to become a Paramedic and some day a doctor. If I had fluent Spanish speaking skills I believe that that would be very useful to the field, myself and to the community. In my daily life I will continue to study Spanish and try to make myself as diverse as possible so that I may make myself useful to my employer and to the community that I want to help. As long as I study hard and work hard to achieve my goals I will aquire many skills that I will be able to add to my resume.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Week Five











The personality type that I discovered today in my career search does relate to my service learning placement. I am a social personality type and that means that I like to give information and help people. When working at Jittery Joe's I help people by making coffee and assisting in completing orders. I also give people information about the products at the store like food and what types of coffee we have. This job fits into alot of my social personality of wanting to help people.


In the coming weeks I look forward to getting more customer service and coffee shop experience. The last few weeks of my placement at Jittery Joe's, I have had more positive experiences than negitive. The times that I expected people to get mad they were actually very nice and patient with me. Then the times that I am doing good with a customer they of course are fine and not snotty.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Week Six

Time Saving Tips
  1. Prepare things like outfits, and the next day's lunch at night so that when you wake up in the morning, you can get ready without worrying about rushing around trying to prepare lunch and what clothes you want to put on.
  2. If it can be done at night, do it at night. Anything you can do to prepare yourself for the next day the night before, do it. Obviously you can't put on make up and get dressed the night before, but you can lay your clothes out.
  3. In the mornings, I have a two minute rule. If it can be done in less than two minutes, do it. This keeps my dawdling down to a minimum.
  4. At night, I put my books and purse close to the front door so I wont have to look for them when I leave, I can just grab and go.
  5. I like to set my alarm clock an extra 10 minutes early, this way I can use them any way that I want, I can snooze through them, accomplish a quick chore, or watch TV before I leave for the day.

If I were to become overwhelmed with obligations I imagine myself being a little stressed out but trying to remain positive. Even if I was overwhelmed with obligations, I would try to keep my day as organized as possible so that everything would run smoothly. There will be times in life when things will be overwhelming but them important thing is to work through it and try to remain on schedule and focused. My strategy would be staying on schedule and staying organized.