CHAPTER 13
The First Weeks at Comcast
When starting a new job, most people typically experience a honeymoon or transition period. This is the perfect time to build connections within an organization and increase your own understanding of how the business operates. Prior to my working at Comcast, a large portion of my career had been spent in the financial services realm, so this was a totally new experience for me. I underestimated the depth of the challenges that lay ahead. I joined Comcast’s national Customer Service team to manage the executive complaint department. In the weeks leading to the job, my excitement about the possibilities of creating change in the organization and improving the overall performance for Comcast’s Customers and shareholders grew. The organization was also growing tremendously and we were preparing to move to beautiful new headquarters in Center City, Philadelphia.
My own expectations waned substantially almost immediately after I started. I learned that the process that my team used was basically taking a message and forwarding this message to the field for handling. The crash course in Comcast operations was fast and furious. A few days after I started, my time listening to calls had to come to an end and immediate action was needed. Bob Garfield posted his blog post “Comcast Must Die” on Adage’s website. We had to respond but quickly needed to figure out how. The field was working to correct the trouble that Bob was having. Our PR team wanted us ...
