Cross Your Fingers

Deepest apologies for not posting in a million years.

I've had nothing but deadlines and the occasional lunch with friends and have simply not had anything fun or entertaining to tell you. Either of you.

But! Now I do.

Last Thursday, it was announced that a decades old call centre (for a major international retailer that may start with an "S" and end with an "Ears"), would be shutting it's doors to the Regina centre come September, thus putting 250 employees out of work.

(Thank you, J. for being a loyal and attentive News Talk Radio Listener and alerting me to this development.)

Because my mantra is "Wait Not", I immediately set to work using my highly sophistocated research techniques (read: Google) to find out exactly who I could contact at the major international retailer to help with outplacement services on a local level. Well. Turns out, Sears isn't so forthcoming in offering this information to the public.

But that's ok. Because I started out my career as a receptionist, and later as an EA, I know exactly how to get through the tangle of switchboard operators, receptionists and Executive Assistants whose JOB IT IS to keep people like me from getting through to the Importants. (Importants: Important People Who Are Much Too Busy With Terribly Important Things To Be Bothered With Little Companies Like Mine.)

The first thing you have to have when calling is a NAME. You can't just ask for "the Director of So and So" or they KNOW you're soliciting. The only name I could find was the person quoted in the press release announcing the call centre closure. So, I called the main number. Got the switchboard. Switchboard put me through to an EA in the Executive Office. And she? Seemed none too pleased that I had the nerve to cause her telephone to ring. Wanted to know why I was calling HER. Ummm, because the switchboard put me through to you? That seemed to placate her. She asked WHY I was calling. I told her it was pertaining to the announcement earlier in the day regarding the mass layoffs in Regina, and also Bellville Ontario. What Layoffs? She said. There has not been an annoucement, and there has not been any layoffs.

Uh oh.

(Because EA's are famously proud of knowing the intricate ins and outs of their place of work, there's nothing an EA hates more than to learn of major company goings on through a random chick who had the nerve to cause their telephones to ring.)

Indeed, the announcement was made this morning. Would you like me to send the link?

(At this point, I am internally shrieking "Get her to transfer you! She's about to BLOW!)

Listen, if you wouldn't mind, I really need to get in touch with Mr. National Director of Communications, and if I could get his contact info from you, I'll be out of your hair and you can go investigate this further...

Heh. Did I not say I was a pro at getting through the rotweillers?

I dial the number she gave me, not knowing if it's the number to the office of the National Director of Communications, or his direct line - and as I am readying myself for another rotweiller, I get the PERSONAL VOICE MAIL FOR THE NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR SEARS CANADA.

Perfect!

I left him a message. A really nice message. How do I know it was nice? Because HE TOLD ME SO when he returned my call not 15 minutes later.

The man came from retail. He knows customer service.

The National Director of Communications couldn't have been a) more polite, b) more accommodating, or c) more lovely to talk to.

He said he appreciated my call. But he probably wasn't the exact right person to talk to. He then proceeded to give me the contact information for the NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES.

I could hardly believe my good fortune. I thanked him (and meant it) for returning my call.

So now, after leaving a message from the National Director of Human Resources at Sears Canada, and him returning my call (I missed it. It was at 6am. Damned Time Zones!) and leaving another message on his voice mail, I am now waiting to hear back from HIM.

In his message to me, he said "although we do have something lined up in terms of outplacement services, I would still like to talk to you about what you do"

HOLY SHIT.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that: Life loves nothing more than when you grab it by the lapels and say "Let's do it!"

Cross your fingers for me, would you?

Lise Merle
Intertwine Design + Communications
hello@intertwine.ca