The Indomitable Heart - S1 E3
Sidejacking
by Himayath Khan
5 min read
Between the gloom and loss, humanity had to move on. Much like an unexpected shower of rain in September and unexpected roadside puddles that bring smiles to young children walking home from school and two-wheeled motorists scurry for cover, caught unprepared and facing a pleasant unpleasantness, a little moment of confusion at America First’s Bangalore call centre brought lightness to the atmosphere on the calling floor.
Rakesh, a newbie on the floor facing a few of his first calls, came up unprepared for a query from a customer. He requested a few moments from his customer before placing him on hold and shot up from his seat animatedly. Waving his arms like an inflatable yellow plastic wave man outside an American gas station, he asked for a shortcut to get to a particular page to help the customer process his payment online. Someone near him whispered back “F3” to him. Jumping back into his seat, he started pounding the F and 3 keys on his keyboard. After a few loud, frustrating attempts that grabbed his team leader’s attention, and again, like the yellow inflatable rearing up for its next wave, he shot back up from his seat, hands even more animated, calling for dear desperate attention–
“F and 3 aren’t working for me! Nothing works! What do I do?” he shouted out to his team leader.
“What were you trying to do?” asked his team leader.
“I’m trying to process the payment online by pressing F and 3,” Rakesh replied.
“Hmm, why do you say F and 3?”
“That’s the shortcut, right? To process payments?” His eyebrows had all but touched the ceiling in bewilderment.
“We don’t need the ‘and,’ Rakesh,” his team leader replied, bending over Rakesh’s console to get to the keyboard. “Here, this ‘function’ key, the ‘F3’ key, not the letter F and number 3 keys, is what you had to press,” he said, clicking the correct key for Rakesh.
“Wow!” replied Rakesh. “Do we use those keys?” he asked, his jaw widened.
“Yes, Rakesh,” the team leader replied. The F3 key is also part of the keyboard, and we certainly use that row of keys as well.” He smiled. “Get back to your customer now, will you?” he said, walking away.
With an emphasis on the word multitasking, multitasking between their calls and the discussion, there wasn’t a soul left on the call floor who had yet to witness this conversation. Most were chuckling or giggling silently as they went about servicing the customers. Rakesh would be called by his nickname– F3, even years after being promoted to managing teams of his own.
The instant messenger on Arhan’s screen popped up with a request for a meeting. Priyanka, a call quality expert, requested a half-hour meeting.
“Sure, where do I need to come?” typed Arhan.
“No. I’ll be coming to your seat location,” the message continued. Make sure your telephone set is an Avaya. I’ll need to side-jack you for a while.”
Arhan stood from his seat to look for his all-knowing guide and buddy. He saw Avaneesh two rows away from him. After drawing his attention, “Look... at... your... screen,” Arhan mouthed silently, signalling first to his eyes and then drawing a rectangle in the air. Avaneesh signalled back a thumbs up with his hand.
“What da Machan?” Popped up on Arhan’s messenger.
“Next time, just write here. You don’t need to stand up and do the circus act before chatting,” wrote Avaneesh.
“Oops! replied Arhan. “I guess because of the need for human connection,” he continued. “I suppose like our customers wanting to talk to us instead of interacting with the Voice Recording system.”
"Ooo, Mahaan aatma... What did you want?” Avaneesh chimed in.
“What’s an Avaya?”
“...” Three dots continued to blink on the messenger chat while Avaneesh continued typing during his call, multitasking.
“It’s the phone you are using. Look for a logo with that name,” responded Vineesh.
“O, OK, thanks. And, what is sidejack?”
“Sidejacking is when a call quality expert attaches their headset to your telephone while you speak with your customer.”
“...” the dots continued blinking.
“Why? Isn’t remote working for them? Avaneesh added.
“Remote?”
“That’s when they listen to you without approaching your desk.”
“I don’t know. I got a message saying one will come to sidejack me.”
“...”
Anyway, I understand now, Avi. Thanks for the help.”
“Anytime, bud. Peace!”
Arhan had requested a time-out, meaning a 5-minute bathroom break.
Half-whistling, walking back to his seat, he rechecked to see if his desk was in order, wiping his screen for dust, setting his seat in an upright position from the one like an F1 Formula car driver, slid under the desk to stretch his legs out and help Arhan maintain his cool-looker quotient at an optimum level– even if it meant it’d be terrible for his spine. Adjusting a clip that came loose from pulling a sheet up to look at one below it for his long list of cheat codes to help jump between screens for various processes, he wouldn’t be caught slacking in his first month on the job, especially from a colleague from the quality department. He thought the word quality would translate to all parts of one’s life, so over-compensating on looks would be OK for first-time meetings.
“Thank you for calling America First. My name is Jake Steele; how may I help you today?” Arhan answered like clockwork as his telephone and headset came alive with another troubled customer. He went about reassuring the customer and solving their query, and like every task done without thought, as it becomes effortless from repetition, he turned his seat back down and slid back to his F1 Formula car position.
“My name,” he asked again, almost toward the end of the call.
“It’s Jake Steele, sir.” He paused.
“Yes, with an extra ‘e’ at the end,” he added, smiling.
“Nice day to you, too,” he replied on the call.
He reached his cursor to turn his availability to a green for go.
“Switch to the unavailable mode, Mr. Steele, will you?” he heard a voice behind him.
Leaning over his seat, she smiled–
“I’m curious; why Jake Steele?”
Arhan was always nervous around the fairer sex, and when he looked up from his seat and, visibly stunned by who he saw, he tried getting up, forgetting he was still under the desk, and tipped over on his back, falling. Priyanka couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
Like an old-fashioned tape being rewound to begin from the start of Side A, Arhan’s expressions dialled back to a familiar place in time—a time when he fell for a girl’s looks. Warm, mushy, childlike, wide-eyed, woozy stomach, and a mouth that failed to find words to subtitle Arhan’s dumbstruck emotions.
Arhan’s phone began to ring with the next caller. At the same time, Arhan juggled between his headset, which had come off from his fall, and tried to reach the button to pass the call to another customer service representative. Priyanka continued laughing curiously, her smile growing wider.
“Take your time, Mr Steele,” she said.
If you liked what you read, please consider buying me a coffee. :)
SCAN or CLICK
Subscribe to the newsletter
Work
Join our quarterly newsletter community to stay updated on the latest news, exclusive content, and upcoming Himayath Khan and Khanate Publishing events.
© Copyright 2023, Himayath Khan for Khanate Publishing. All rights reserved.