Virtual World

In today’s high – tech world, virtual jobs are very popular and sought after. Whether you are taking classes online, ordering pizza, making a reservation, etc., many times you will be speaking to someone working from the comfort of their home. While it may seem like the ideal job to work from your home, in your pajamas if you wanted to, however as with any job there are benefits as well as disadvantages. One of the biggest disadvantages encountered is communication, or lack thereof (http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/ltv.htm). In an environment where you cannot speak with someone face to face, communication is very important. Sending an email, or leaving a voicemail and not receiving an answer in a timely manner can be very frustrating. When you are trying to do your job and the information is not there, it can be quite a challenge. Another big concern is the virtual chat room, unfortunately what someone types may not always be perceived how they intended it to sound. It is also important for agents to be able to receive feedback on how they are performing. However, this is something that almost does not seem to exist within virtual environments. It is hard to understand as to why since call monitoring is done on a constant basis. If the evaluator scores the call under 100% you will receive feedback, but not if the call was scored at 100%. Interesting enough in an article composed by J. Lodge (http://www.jlodge.com/advantages-of-a-virtual-employee/) it actually states that virtual agents are generally more satisfied with their jobs and that the turnover rate is actually lower than those who work in a traditional work environment. In the virtual call center environment I have found that companies use a shift bid for their agents schedules (http://www.avaya.com/usa/resource/assets/brochures/workforce%20management%20brochure%20-%20gcc2990-01.pdf). Every 3 months agents are sent a list of schedules that are available. However the problem here is that it is based on...