…and before you ask, no I’m not hocking it despite scoring my other one last week. It’s an early birthday present to Somara since she chose to sell the 1.0 model she got in a raffle.
What was the occasion, etc?
I was a recipient in the bi-annual awards ceremony we have at work to celebrate, acknowledge and highlight the achievements of my numerous co-workers in AppleCare. It’s quite a nice gathering. Like the high school pep rallies I remembered in the Eighties but better, seriously. Due to my team being dwarfed (Enterprise and Professional Applications) by the larger consumer-oriented groups, we are often overshadowed, kind of a footnote in the festivities. I don’t mind though. Anonymity often has its upside.
Due to the other pair of Senior Specialists being engaged with training the new recruits, I attended to help show the Enterprise flag symbolically. I initially thought it was impractical because staffing the phones should come first yet the boss said I had to go, represent Enterprise. At least he gave me a rebuttal if co-workers complained, he took the decision out of my hands.
The overall ceremony was rather funny this go round. It had a camping theme which proved more amusing than I anticipated, namely the build-a-pop-tent race. Then came the awards. Here, I’m accustomed to applauding for the people I work alongside and names I recognize. As for winning anything, the role I’ve had for the past couple years keeps me out of the running; there aren’t many Senior Specialists and they vary too much to have consistent performance measurements. It doesn’t bother me, the job’s day-to-day tasks are what I enjoy most.
After the performance awards are issued, the special customer satisfaction round comes up. These matter an awful lot. Getting a high score is formidable. It takes a good number of surveys to qualify and then math does the rest to knock someone out should a negative response appear; AppleCare has a pretty high goal. For example, a bad survey needs at least nine positives to negate it. With this level of award, try 20 or more to get the desired effect.
Anyway, the customer satisfaction portion is happening, the winners receive brief introductions on why/how they’re chosen. The MC starts to talk about someone for Enterprise. I thought, oh cool, who is it thinking again, can’t be me, I’ve only received eight surveys the whole year, thus is must be a tier-one person with 50-plus under the belt. It’s going to be great to see all the recognition this rep achieved. The MC continues, says more details which were getting suspiciously close to describing the work I had done, yet I remained skeptical. Then my name was called. Holy buckets!
What exactly did I win? A new iPad 2 (32GB with 3G). I had to decide at the prize table, no chance of mulling it over. Money is nice yet having the bitchin’, must-own gadget of the last couple years which you can in turn give your wife for her birthday…much better.