21 Haziran 2009 Pazar

10 Rules of Agency

I start my article by wishing everybody days with many ships and so much income. As I always emphasized, work never stops anyway. We go on playing our role like the players whose screen never closes down. Is this situation same for every country?
As we can travel abroad because of our job, there is
a possibility to assess how every thing has been done there.
We witness that people abroad do not give much
importance to working like us, as we have a continuous connection
with the agencies out of Turkey.
Generally, nobody in a country in the world, especially in Europe,
is obsessed with the subject of working like us. Is it because that
we are workaholics or they are senseless on this subject? I don’t
know... I have never known either. Are they more hardworking
than us so they do not leave any work to do for the weekend and is
it a mystery that nobody leaves work to do after 5 o’clock in the
afternoon? I don’t know this either. If there is someone who
knows, we want to learn it. The thing I know is both the shipowner
and the agents do not want to come to work at the weekends. Only
our citizens do not care about it. He doesn’t care whether it is
morning or evening. He works without protesting whenever he has
to work. Nevertheless everybody isn’t like us.
I had an unlucky experience to understand this when I called the
shipowner on Saturday to inform that the ship will arrive. As it
was a nice and shiny summer day, I had begun to open my e-mails
by planning that I am going to go out of the city and swim in the
sea in the afternoon.(Rule 1: You will never think. You will learn
to live whatever comes up to you). While I was looking whether
there was any important issue, a different ship name took my
attention. I had never met a name like this. When I opened the
e-mail by wondering about it, I saw that it was a message sent
after one hour we had left the office yesterday. (Rule 2: You will
never sleep without looking at your messages. If there is, the object
named as blackberry won’t be too much far away from you. I don’t
know why shipowners think that we have been dealing with the
computers for 24 hours).
Alas and Alas!! The tanker would come on Monday. By the way, it
was good news but the problem was how much cargo she would
carry and which port she would call. The receiver of the cargo
hasn’t been known yet. I couldn’t find any little detail related to
this tanker all through the week although I searched it in my brain.
We were the agent. We had to thank just now, everything was fine
but on the other hand the required information on the work we
have to deal with was still absent. (Rule 3: OK! Although you do
not know anything, you will learn to find by smelling your handful.)
So I had to move on by calling everywhere. But you all know well
that how sensitive those kinds of researches are. You have to be
very careful while making a research if there is someone carrying
the same kind of goods continuously. In short, you can’t ask
anyone in this way: “Do these cargoes which weigh up such tons
and that kind belong to you?” Then you have the risk of expressing
your commercial secrets. However a good agent has to be secretive
and never gives the information about its customers out. Then
what...??? You can’t do this, you can’t do that. How will the
receiver of these cargoes be found? (Rule 4: Ooo! You will know
this. Whenever there is a problem, everybody will be leave holding
the bag on the agency. I advise to read the famous poet ‘Call the
agent’. Remembering the poet will help you to show an attentive
approach to the situation.) Then what remained to be done?
Unfortunately; because of the time differences between the
countries the time elapsing will be waited for, thanks goodness that
the details should be asked to the person who wrote his phone
number and sent the message, will be called. (Rule 5: The proverb
“the one who asks has one side of his face dark; the one who
refuses to give has both sides” does not work out here. He gives it
or not, it is his choice. You are the one who will find the
information wherever it is. Because you are the agency!)
- Hello I am the person who is nominated as the agency about ...
tanker in Mersin. I want to ask...
I told but I could not find the opportunity to complete my words.
The person on the phone repeated the thing I know before with a
depressed tone by making me shut up:
- Today is Saturday!
I could not understand what he really meant. So I tried to go on by
repeating the same thing. (Rule 6: A good agency should know to
assess the psychological situation of the person he is in relation
with and to show the required behavior in this manner.)
- Yes, today is Saturday. The weather is nice here.
I told this with a smiling face. But the person on the phone didn’t
even smile, furthermore it was clear that he wanted to end this
phone call as short as he can.
- I am also talking about this madam. Today is Saturday and I do
not work on Saturdays!
(While I was talking on the phone in my office by walking around
the office I looked at my friends who were working as it was the
first day of the week although it was Saturday.)
I stopped speaking as I had to control my anger although my
nerves came upwards. Of course the shipowner was always right.
Especially when he was not right. (Rule 7: You won’t react
whether you are right or not and be like meat without nerves and
also whether he made you very upset.)
- You are right! It is also an off-day in Turkey but as you know job
doesn’t wait.
I went on with an increasing courage as I heard no voice.
- Thanks for giving the agency to us. We are just moving on. But
we do not have enough information to start the required
procedures and we have only one or two hour’s time. (Rule 8: You
will explain everything without making anybody scared although
the required information is your natural right as in the condition of
a missing information you will be marked as “Untalented Agency”
whether it is your fault or not.)
The person on the phone recognized the reality. But the
information I needed would not reach to me before Monday.
Because our dear shipowner was outside the city for a holiday. As
he was far away from the city, unfortunately he would not be able
to give the information I needed. Luckily I succeeded in taking the
satellite phone number of the captain in this whole noisy situation.
(Rule 9: You will know to work out in emergency situations and
benefit the advantages of technology.)
Then you will ask what did we do? If I try to explain this it will be
a waste of time for you? I am sure that my every agent friend
reading this essay can’t sleep well without arranging all the work
in this situation.
I am glad that all mobile phones, blackberry devices, fax
machines, computers and also our satellite phones that enable us
to communicate with the captains are all here and with us. I don’t
know what we could do if there was not an advanced technology
like this. What were people doing in the past when these were
absent? How can I know? I was too young to be included in this
job in the previous years. The best enjoying activity I had been in
the office was to mix up the telex machine bands and to cause my
father get angry with me and yell at me as “ What did you do?”.
As our subject includes in two different jobs like giving service and
agency, it is absolute that it both hard and enjoying. The tenth and
last rule will be “You should love your job to be successful”.
Otherwise would it be possible to bear up with all these?
With my lovely and nice wishes

Patricia Muradi