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Why didn't you call? (long)

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  • Why didn't you call? (long)

    It's been 3 years since I posted last time, and that's when I said to myself that I would continue posting stories of fun customers, or in my case, students.

    A little background first. I'm an English teacher in Japan, and have been doing it for 10 years now, though that's coming to an end next year. I am considered one of the dependable, trustworthy veterans, and apparently every school's manager knows who I am. I was recently offered a promotion to management, but I turned it down because it really didn't pay much more than I earn now, and I'd be working 50+ hours per week. No thanks. I'd rather deal with the little things at my schools. Such as this...

    Last year, there was a big snowstorm in the area I live in. That's quite rare, because we get about 1 or 2 cm of snow each winter. But on this particular day, we had 30 cm. There are no snow plows. There hasn't been a snowfall like this in decades. It effectively shut down the streets, buses, and trains. We had no way of getting to work. This was a Saturday, and they tend to be quite busy.

    My boss emailed all of us and said that we were to wait at home until we were given the go ahead to go to work. All trains were stopped, so there was no way anyone could get to their schools. We were later notified to go to work (at about 10:30 am), because schools would open at 12:30 pm. So, I went out to the bus stop where a man in a sports car told us the buses were canceled. He was stuck, as were many other cars. So, I had to walk the 2.4 km to the train station. I thought that wouldn't be a big problem, but it turned out most of the streets were like 20 cm deep rivers. The snow in this area is always very wet. I was only 3 minutes from my home, and my feet were already soaked.

    Normally, the walk would take 25 minutes, but it took me an hour. I finally got to the station, took the train, and got to work at 12 pm. My manager wasn't there, but another manager (actually, the manager's boss) had arrived and opened the school for us. The other teachers arrived shortly.

    My first student was absent. Her class was for 11:40 am and 12:30 pm. The 11:40 class was canceled because schools were closed. However, I later learned from our manager, who arrived at 3 pm because she couldn't even get out of her city (50 cm of snow stopped the trains there much longer), that this particular student's mother had called.

    The student was an 18 year old high school student. She walked to the school, and she found it closed. She left and went home. Her mother called the school and demanded to know why we didn't call her to let her know we weren't open. She was incredibly angry. Here are the reasons why we didn't call her:

    1. There was no one at the school.
    2. Everyone was trying to get to the school, successfully and unsuccessfully.
    3. Teachers don't have access to personal information, such as phone numbers.
    4. Managers have access, but not at home.
    5. It's illegal to have confidential customer information at staff's home.

    So, there was absolutely no way we could call. And why didn't someone from head office call? Well, they have limited resources and personnel, and I bet most didn't make it into work. They could not call 200-300 people.

    Makes me wonder if she was even thinking about what we were going through trying to get to work. My feet were soaking wet!

  • #2
    Somewhat unrelated, I'll be in Japan in September and October this year for an immersion study. I dunno how close you are to Shibuya, but that's where my school is.

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    • #3
      Don't know how big the school is, but if it were big enough this might be worth implementing:

      Each school must have student records (including contact phone numbers) stored. I'm assuming multiple schools, since you mention "head office". These are probably kept on a computer.

      It should be a fairly simple matter to program a "bot" that will run through the list of student records and deliver a prerecorded message to each. Naturally, there needs to be serious authentication checking in order to start the "bot".

      For each school, a designated manager (or someone from head office) calls in to set up the "bot" (record the message to be sent out, select which student groups it is to be sent to). "Bot" then proceeds to make the calls. Since the confidential customer information is at the school ("bot" reads the database from the school's computer), it doesn't run afoul of the law. Since it takes one call to set things up to get the "bot" to do the work, it doesn't overwhelm the head office resources to call a few hundred students.
      Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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      • #4
        Our school district has a robo-dialer that does the calling and when the phone or answering machine picks up, plays a pre-recorded message that explains the situation and what is being done or not done. It rings up the phone numbers listed on a student's records (which are now digital) and it run by a computer at the superintendent's office. It was a blessing when we had all our snow days this school year.

        Also, the district uses social media to try and reach the most parents and students they can, but they still get idiot parents who call up complaining that they didn't call THEM, and when asked the phone number, rattles off one not remotely like the one on the child's records, with the excuse of, "Well, we had that one disconnected earlier this year..." And you didn't have it changed WHY?!
        If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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        • #5
          Wasn't there a weather report predicting a certain amount of snow accumulation? I would think the parent who griped about her kid not getting called should have been able to learn from news reports that people might have trouble getting around. Do they report on school closings and things like that?
          When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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          • #6
            We have a school closure line on the TV that scrolls across the bottom of the screen on the local channels, the local radio stations announce the school closure list, the public schools have a robodialer that calls all the listed home phone numbers of the students and teachers and the college kids get texts sent to their cell phones.
            Figers are vicious I tell ya. They crawl up your leg and steal your belly button lint.

            I'm a case study.

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            • #7
              Most all of our school systems have the 'robo-caller' now. It's called OneCall and each year, when the students bring home all of their paperwork (lunch forms, emergency contacts, out of district agreements, etc) there is a form for you to list all of the numbers you want included on the OneCall calls. We get calls regarding delays, homework due, past due lunch accounts, meetings, school events, etc. Hardly ever miss anything happening with the school. Ours even has a nifty feature where I can call it back and play the last 5 messages sent out.

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              • #8
                I forgot to reply. Well, my school isn't a public school, it's an English conversation school. It's a business. If no one is able to go to work, there's no way to contact people. Our students range from 3 years old to over 80. We expect the adults to use common sense. Usually, it's no problem.

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