Is my job really that bad?
I'm a fraud prevention specialist for a big retailer. That means that when you order something off our website certain things might flag it as being suspicious and it'll get sent to me to go over and decide if it's legit or fraud. On the best days it's a monotonous job and on the worst it's one of the most stressful things I can imagine. They give us a bunch of tools to work with in judging the order, like what IP addresses the account has used in the past or if they're using the same device etc. If we see enough good things we let the order go. If not we're supposed to cancel it. Problem is, orders that we would be able to tell were good right off the bat aren't the kinds that get sent to us. We get orders from brand new accounts with unverifiable addresses for high risk items like iPads and game consoles and there's never enough information to actually make a decision about it. It could be good or it could be bad. When we get an order like that we escalate it for someone to call the customer for more information. But our bosses give us a quota of sixteen completed orders per hour and escalations don't count. What's more, the escalations department only has to work if we escalate orders so they'll whine if we actually make them earn their paychecks. That means that just to meet our numbers we'll have to start either accepting or denying orders without actually knowing if they're good or bad, which hurts our accuracy. Every order we get wrong lowers our weekly accuracy and the bare minimum we're allowed to score without getting into trouble is 98.5%. And then the managers will be like "Fraudsters are ordering iPads under other people's names and having it delivered to that person's actual address and then stealing it off their porch, so keep that in mind on iPad orders!" We'll say "But real customers are ordering iPads too so how do we tell the difference?" And they'll say "I dunno."
I've said before that it's like flipping a coin and having to guess how it'll land and every time you get it wrong you're one step closer to getting fired. Thing is nobody else seems to mind it like I do. I've heard a couple people complain about the number of escalations they have to do but nobody but me seems to be struggling to meet their quota like I am. Is this an aspie thing? Like can NTs just use their intuition to decide if an order is good or not in a way I can't? Or am I just super bad at my job?
Not really. It sounds like you are the "fall guy". There is no way for you to win, so go with the flow and don't worry. My advice for anyone is to have another job ready for applications or to move into. Hopefully it will be more reality based than your current one.
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When I lose an obsession, I feel lost until I find another.
Aspie score: 155 of 200
NT score: 49 of 200
I've said before that it's like flipping a coin and having to guess how it'll land and every time you get it wrong you're one step closer to getting fired. Thing is nobody else seems to mind it like I do. I've heard a couple people complain about the number of escalations they have to do but nobody but me seems to be struggling to meet their quota like I am. Is this an aspie thing? Like can NTs just use their intuition to decide if an order is good or not in a way I can't? Or am I just super bad at my job?
Your company is poorly managed in this regard. Your supervisors expect you to do the impossible and do not care to provide any solutions to a problem they are responsible for. For me, this would be an indication to find a job with a different company.
Concerning the escalation department "whining" about having to do work, they are there to do work so I would never feel bad about giving them work to do.
It actually sounds like a good job, to me. You need to re-define your involvement to just what your job title says it is. Let the escalation workers make final decisions. You make preliminary judgments based on the criteria you've been given. Don't take it personally if the escalation department is annoyed, and don't take it personally if the company feels they have too many or too fraud reports. Just do your job as defined, and stop worrying about the other stuff.
If you feel you've been unjustly accused of anything, discuss it with your direct supervisor. They may have some insight you don't have, on the big picture.
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A finger in every pie.
If you feel you've been unjustly accused of anything, discuss it with your direct supervisor. They may have some insight you don't have, on the big picture.
That's just it. My job *IS* is to make final decisions. Escalations is supposed to be a last resort for orders that we can't figure out on our own. Management just underestimates how many of those orders there are.
Oh, I'm sorry. I misread your original post. Well, maybe your job IS that bad. With vague criteria, you are supposed to make judgment calls, and if you don't meet an arbitrary standard (your numbers), you are in trouble or your job is in jeopardy.
I'll bet there are other positions in this retail company you could transfer to, so you might look into that. I once had a job in customer sales and support, I excelled at accuracy, and seldom got into any trouble. Such a job might be at a lower pay grade than where you are now, but the stress might be less, too.
Good luck.
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A finger in every pie.
What's even worse is my boss has decided to single me out for breaking rules everyone breaks. On the rare occaision that I'm caught up on my numbers I might take two or three minutes to hop of Facebook or something. This is something that LITERALLY EVERYONE does, but I'm the only one who keeps getting called out on it. Seriously they don't even try to hide it. My manager did this to me today and I stood up and started pointed to everyone else who was on Facebook, Amazon, Youtube, whatever, and he just shrugged and said "This isn't about them" and then went back to his desk without saying anything to any of them.
If you don't want to get fired, stop using the Internet for ANY personal surfing. I know it's hard, especially when you are caught up on your work, but it sounds like you are on thin ice, so don't give that boss any ammunition.
It's too bad having a job requires these kinds of maneuvers, but that's reality.
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A finger in every pie.
That would constitute workplace bullying in my state and if they fire you for internet use and you can prove you were being singled out and internet use was an accepted part of company culture, then you would have a case for wrongful dismissal. You might actually consider talking to an employment attorney to see how to protect yourself.
In fact, being your bosses have put you in a fairly impossible situation, and are singling you out over personal internet usage, has it occurred to you that they might be trying to get rid of you?
That would constitute workplace bullying in my state and if they fire you for internet use and you can prove you were being singled out and internet use was an accepted part of company culture, then you would have a case for wrongful dismissal. You might actually consider talking to an employment attorney to see how to protect yourself.
In fact, being your bosses have put you in a fairly impossible situation, and are singling you out over personal internet usage, has it occurred to you that they might be trying to get rid of you?
Yep, that's occurred to me. But I love in a right to work state so if they decided to fire me there's not much I can do.
That would constitute workplace bullying in my state and if they fire you for internet use and you can prove you were being singled out and internet use was an accepted part of company culture, then you would have a case for wrongful dismissal. You might actually consider talking to an employment attorney to see how to protect yourself.
In fact, being your bosses have put you in a fairly impossible situation, and are singling you out over personal internet usage, has it occurred to you that they might be trying to get rid of you?
Yep, that's occurred to me. But I love in a right to work state so if they decided to fire me there's not much I can do.
I would run it by an attorney just to be sure.