Broker Bank-- Because I am Rich, Bitch!

it's already May... I only posted once in April. I am not tired of whining, I have just been too lazy to do it.

Yesterday, one of our not-that- regular, one-shipment-every-2-months customer called about two containers that I cleared for them 2 weeks before.

"Uh.... My customer was supposed to pick up this container, but they forgot to do it, they didn't know they have to go to the terminal by a certain date. now there is demurrage. so they called the terminal and got the demurrage charge for only one container. they didn't realize the demurrage charge is per container. so now they are trying to pick up the containers. Can you cut a check for my customer, it's only 700 dollars and send your express messenger."

That is so thick-skinned!! Would you say this to your hairdresser? "Hi! I don't know you that well, but can you loan me some money and make sure you deliver the money as soon as possible?"

My boss told me to charge those guys $75 for express messenger. so i guess it's not as bad.

this phone call came at 4:50 PM by the way, so I could not verify with the terminal who the check is payable to. Not to mention the dumbass customer who sent the check did not tell the terminal how to apply the money they sent. I ended up writing a long explanation to the terminal, please apply our $ to container X, but if X is paid, apply the $ to Y... blah blah blah.

The point of the story is that the broker always gets treated like the bank. When your customer is in a bind, and sends their trucker to pick up the freight without checking for demurrage or availability, they are always like... "oh pay this and that for me" and often, they do not pay us back, or their accounting department will call us back and say "what is this charge?"-- and you say, "demurrage", and they get irate and say "why did my shipment go on storage .. blah blah" "because so and so from your company asked us to cut this charge blah blah"


Publish Post

absent but not forgotten

I can't believe my last post was in March. Don't get me wrong, it's not as though I have suddenly began to love my job and there has been nothing to complain about. Quite the contrary, I have worked long, long hours the last two weeks, so by the time I get home, it's pretty much time to eat and sleep, and that's it. However, I have a collection of complaints- the more hours I spend at work, the more the material for me to bitch about. hopefully, work will be more under control in the next few weeks, and I will have more time to elaborate my complaints.
Here is a preview (and a reminder to myself) the topics for the next few blogs:

1. Broker is an operator, messenger service

2. Idiots that ask for status but do not provide important point of reference.

3. Importers that expect you to do EVERYTHING for them.

4. Silly, picky, and anal rejections.

5. Importers that disappear after you have cleared the goods for them and their 30000 dollar duty is due tomorrow!

6. Importer that call the office at 7 PM, you are the only one in the office, and you are stuck helping them because they insist that you help them and they cannot wait until tomorrow.

How to cope with these dreadful phone calls...

As a broker, I have always been inundated with phone calls. The volume of phone calls used to not bother me as much the first few years in this industry, but now when I hear the phone ring, I just squirm. It's similar to the anticipation of something painful is about to come, like waiting for that needle to touch your skin at the doctor's office. In fact, I am so sick and tired of phone calls I hardly talk to friends on the phone anymore. I sure as hell don't answer the land line at home.

I feel sorry for those who work at customer service call centers who have to answer the phone all day long!

There is a little trick for dealing with this anxiety. If the phone call is from somebody you hate talking to, or if it's about something very unpleasant, I have here a little coping strategy:

Put that person on hold, step away from your desk, either to the bathroom or wherever there is good sound insulation from your colleagues, and let out a big, uninhibited scream!. This doesn't have to be a long scream, or even a loud one, but just scream and don't think about it.

"Arrrrrrrraaaaagh!"

Proceed back to your desk and answer the phone. I swear, you will be a lot less tense.

I think screaming allows you to breath, because you have to take a deep breath in order to scream your heart out, at the same time you are literally vocalizing your frustration, dislike, or even hatred, of whatever is bothering you about the person holding on the phone.

I think I scared the shit out of my coworkers today, but after the scream I was much nicer to my customer. So I encouraged my coworkers and everyone else to do the same.

I hate the person I have become.

I hate the person that I have become ever since entering into this profession. When I first started working as a broker, I have always wondered why most of the people I have spoken with on the phone sound either lifeless and fatigued or grumpy and irritable. I felt like those people hated their jobs and their job was nothing more than a job, something unpleasant but necessary, because of bills and responsibilities. A few years into the business and I hear myself sounding like all these descriptions on the phone.

Maybe I am just burning out. It is true, answering the phone is very exhausting, as is customer service. I now have profound empathy for those who work in customer service who have to talk to people all day on the phone.

I have allowed myself to be depressed, I have allowed myself to be impatient, irritable, frustrated, condescending, and even rude because I felt stressed and tired and bothered- because I could not work in peace. I know I have let myself reacted to those who make mistakes frequently, who have unpleasant temperament, and those who are just plain old annoying.
Maybe I have been working the same job for too long, and that I am getting complacent and unmotivated.

There is really no excuse for my becoming the depressed, grumpy misanthrope today. It is too easy to blame it on the job. I am sure anyone can blame his job for turning him into an asshole. I haven't paid attention to the way I have acted. I have let my "niceness" go- I have turned into an asshole. It's funny, when I was younger, it seemed so much easier to be a nice person. As I get older, it has become increasingly difficult to be nice, patient, civil, and forgiving. Isn't it so much easier just to be a jerk sometimes? As an adult, being nice and appreciative and happy takes so much effort and cultivation.

This is what I hate about myself. I have become bitter, angry, and I am disappointed at myself for this. I am looking for a way out- either accepting my career and try my very best to not let it turn me into a nasty person, or find a new career, something with meaning perhaps.

Drawbacks Suck!

Drawbacks take a long time and consignee just does not understand! Isn't the name "drawback" indicative of something negative?!
Again, this is about taking one for the team. I have to do it otherwise consignee gets pissed off and looks for another broker. Seriously!
I also don't get paid extra to do this. So if I have to do this after office hours (because office hours are reserved for making entries, answering phones, trouble shooting). Then I am really doing this like a volunteer service. I wish it was a meaningful project and doing this would make this world a better place. Sadly, doing drawbacks does not make this world a better place. They don't even really benefit my company- just the consignee... maybe...if they ever get their money from Customs.
Wasted moments of my life. Unappreciated by anyone, yet if I do not do this, I will sure get a nasty complaint from my customer to my boss.
More on drawbacks later!

Take one for the team!

Sometimes, being a broker is like being a contestant in a relay race, except the broker is almost always the last person who gets the baton. My analogy comes from those super-hot last minute, do-or-die shipments that need to be cleared right away so the shipment can delivered two hundred miles away the next morning.

This relay race becomes a real drag when the shipment arrives in the non-traditional office hours. Say there is a hot shipment of film equipment arriving from Europe that is required for filming a sporting event, but the people who shipped the goods took their time and the goods arrive here 5PM the night before for the event that will take place on the following morning at 8 AM. Better yet, this is a Carnet shipment where the hapless broker has to go to the airline at 8 PM to pick up the documents, return to the office to prepare the entry, and go back to customs to get the entry released (if Customs is in a good mood that night), and run the documents to the trucking company to get the freight picked up so the freight can arrive on time at the event next morning. Because you know without the shipment, someone is going to have a cardiac arrest and die!!?

This is the part that pisses me off about being in the end of the relay race. It is as if the first few people of the relay race took their time, and got really behind. So the lucky broker, being almost at the end of the relay, has to make up for the lost time by running at warp speed-- doing so often means working nights and weekends if the freight arrived late or on a weekend.

Then, why is this about "taking one for the team"? Because the owners and upper management of a custom brokerage will always never be the one driving to the airline 8 PM on a Friday night to pick up the carnet, because the owners and the upper management will always never be the one going to customs at 7 am on a Sunday morning, imploring the customs officer to release the"hot item". I might add that most of these brokers working these extra, odd hours are on salary (of course).

Then why do we do this? Because we love our customer so much? I don't think so. Because we are afraid of disappointing our customers? maybe. It's really about keeping our customers-- so they think they are special and keep coming back for more special service, and making our customers happy consequently making our bosses happy. Who lost minutes of valuable time that he or she will never get back, ever? the broker, of course. It's all about taking one for the team...

What would you do if you only have a few months to live?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2271329759182712042&q=randy+pausch+speech&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Would you continue to be a broker?

Would you drop everything and start to do what you wanted to do with your life with no regrets?

Depressing question, but hits the core!