The world has been on a compulsory break for almost a week now due to the now-famous pandemic which first broke out in Wuhan, China.

This unforeseen turn of event has seen several countries across the world take drastic and strict measures to curb the pandemic.

Endless praises are being showered on the medical team worldwide, who have been relentlessly ensuring this pandemic doesn’t get completely out of hands.

However, there are certain sets of people who deserve as many praises as the medical team.

They’re the call center agents at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Zikoko reached out to Joke, a call center agent who shares how her life has changed since Coronavirus was first announced and what she looks forward to the most after this is over.

MONDAY:
I stand up from bed by 5 am today. I say “stand up” because it’s not voluntary. I prepare my kids for school, cook their breakfast and pack their lunch boxes. My husband drops the children at school, while I prepare for work. All this happens before 8 am, which is my resumption time.

There was a time I was sure of closing by 4 pm, but since the outbreak of Covid-19, I get off work by 8 pm and I still take work home. I now work round the clock. This means that even when I get home, I still receive messages from people on the night shift asking for help in sieving calls from work. I have to prioritize and ask for further clarification from each caller, before determining whether to escalate the issue to the people on the field or not. So, I get off work physically by 8 pm, but I just replace it with working from home.



Today is a rollercoaster because we are working hard to keep up with the number of calls. My colleague who worked the Sunday shift hasn’t been able to go home because his conscience can’t stand leaving us with such a large workload. So, somehow, he stays to support us and ends up working a 48-hour shift. This would have been strange to us in the past, but we are living in strange times.

When I get home, my husband has cooked for the children and I am thankful for that. I am one of the lucky ones who has a husband who is understanding. During this period, he has been extremely supportive and I don’t know how I would cope if he wasn’t. All I do is prepare stew for the week and he cooks and takes care of the children before I get back from work.

I am too tired to eat. I just want whatever sleep I can get. If I go to bed now, at least when someone at work calls me by 10 pm, I would have gotten 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

TUESDAY:
Every job has its ups and downs. It’s easy to envy other jobs from afar but if they tell you what their job entails, it wouldn’t look so glamorous. I studied Microbiology in university; I was looking for a job relevant to my field of study and that’s why I took this job.

This job gives you a thick skin. In a day, you can get up to 40 calls with people just calling to ask if the number is working. Today, I got a call where the person on the other end of the line was quiet. The person listened to me talk without saying anything. Another person called and said: “So, the line is even working. Una well done.”

Continue reading: https://gistcandy.com/coronavirus-call-centre-agent-at-ncdc-narrates-her-unending-schedule-since-the-pandemic/

I thought Schools have been Closed! How did Joke kids go to School

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Righteousness89:
I thought Schools have been Closed! How did Joke kids go to School

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I can relate, it can't be that easy at that end right now.

NCDC suppose to get more hands in their call center unit for now.

Please do your work without complaining...What do we do about those years you all had nothing to do...