Call center rant

This is Canada and in this country there are two official languages: English and French. My beef is with some of these big businesses, that have people in their call centers that answer the telephones who are not fluent enough in either language to be in that position.

I know a lot of these businesses hire immigrants and I have nothing against that.  They need jobs too.  It’s just that when you have to call a company to deal with something or get a new product or service, your interaction with the company is the person at the other end of the call. If that person that answers the telephone can’t understand what you are calling about, or can’t give you an answer that you can understand because of the communication then it complicates things. 

 Here is what I mean. This was either on Friday or Saturday of last week. The telephone started ringing so I answered it.  When I did, the person started talking, but all I could make out it was a person from Bell Canada asking me to accept a long distance call.  Unfortunately, she could not tell me where the call was from, or pronounce the name of the person who was calling. I just hung up on her. I know it’s not too polite to do that, but I figured that it would not hurt her feelings so much as me getting mad at her and giving her hell for doing the work that she was not prepared (language wise), to do.

I don’t blame that person for that, her abilities are her own.  But the person that hired her and put her in that position is responsible for getting the most out of the position. Perhaps Bell does not care whether people understand their phone operators.  That is a bad business model, but it is also their choice.  As it was my choice not to take the long distance call, and deny Bell the money from that call.  

Most immigrants are hard workers and for them to be put in that kind of position shows a disregard for those people’s feelings, because the one responsible for putting that person in that position, must have known darn well the problems that this person would encounter from the customers, especially a customer of a telephone company.

Just remember people, if you call a business and an immigrant answers and has problems explaining or understanding you, it’s not their fault. These people are working at whatever they can get and are doing their best to do the job that they have been given.

That’s my beef for today.

McGuinty resigning

See ya, Dalton.

Ontario premier McGuinty resigning is the best news I've read about so far this year. The other thing I would like to hear is if he would take his troops with him.  Now  that would be some thing to read about. I used to live in Ontario and I moved not by choice but to avoid giving all my pension for rent.

Now the province might have a chance of becoming a have province instead of a have not.  There might be a chance of OHIP coming back like it was instead of the money going somewhere else. I wonder how many Liberal lovers will have nightmares as a result of McGuinty's announcement? Sorry to say I feel for those Liberal lovers but I can’t reach their level of disappointment.

Come on folks, now is your chance to do away with that party.  Don’t take a chance of another McGuinty  appearing on the scene.  Give yourselves a break.

Liberals used to be good at one time but that time was lost because of being to greedy. I don’t like them and never will and its weird how things change. Now the province of Ontario has a chance to recover and Québec will be going down with this PLQ government they have now because of the language issue. I say bilingualism should be done away with and to each his own.

I myself am French and I don’t believe in forcing people to learn what they don’t want to learn or can’t learn. And jobs should be open to anyone - it doesn’t matter what language they speak as long as it's understandable and Canadian..

That’s all I can say for now. Well, only one more thing: I will have a good sleep tonight and think about moving back to Ontario where I was born.

For those who don’t like the Liberals. Sweet dreams.

Animosity

From what I’ve been reading and listening to lately, the animosity against the French, especially from the Ottawa side of the river, seems to be getting worse. I would not be surprised that if things don’t change there will come a time when the employers in Ontario will decide not to hire any French person whether they be from Quebec or Ontario will not make any difference. I also think that it will be their way of saying we are tired of complaints from the French because we don’t speak their language. Can you imagine if this was to happen?

My fearless Quebec election prediction

The language situation in Quebec is very possibly going to be the cause of a revolution. I hope it never happens, but by electing someone like PQ leader Pauline Marois, as the premiere of Quebec is doubling the chances of it happening. We in Quebec were screwed for 4 years with a Liberal government and now we will be screwed even worse if she is elected as Premier of Quebec.

I understand that Quebec is a French province and people like her are scared that the French language will disappear. If she is elected as Premier, whatever businesses that profit the province in the form of business taxes and jobs, will move out. Extremism in any form is not attractive to business. Difficult rules, language rules in this case, are not attractive to business either. Businesses will leave. In the end, there will be nothing here but small businesses that won’t be any great help to the growth of the province.