I am working as a technical support representative in a call center here in the Philippines. You can see that on my profile. Anyway, the company I am working for is not that new in Manila but very much a baby here in Baguio. It was a great opportunity to work in a call center located in the northern part of the Philippines. Why? There's no place like home. You work at a job you are adept of (I have call center experience) and at your hometown. You don't have to go to Manila and look for a job and while the pay there is great, so are the expenses. You won't even feel that you are earning P18,000/month.
So here I am working 9 hours a day, 5 days a week troubleshooting online issues from American customers who are too stupid or too lazy to fix their own problems. It is easier for them to call up tech support and curse at them blaming their ISP for their problems that are as simple as not knowing their password to having one of the cables from the modem unplugged.
This job is kind of different and requires more to be more professional than my former job (where you only sell online yellow pages and pick a fight with the customer whenever you feel like it...ahhh, the freedoms of outbound calls). Plus, it requires you to use your brain, which is a relief to know. A little technical knowledge wouldn't hurt either. If you have loads of tech knowledge then you are a tech geek, a PS (product specialist not play station), or an owner of a computer shop (like kuya Alvin Tandoc, aka Baby Buckner). Basically, this is a much more difficult job because troubleshooting connectivity issues requires knowledge, skills and a very. very long patience.
I am an irate agent even in my former job I have the tendency to yell at the customer on the other. How I still survive in this job is beyond me.
The company I am working for is much better than the former job I have. But like any other company we have problems. First the management doesn't know how to take care of us mere employees. One instance is their system of scheduling is so unstable that I feel disoriented on what day of the month it is. You see our schedule is being changed every week which should not be the case since this would destroy your body clock. Damn can't they see that?
Second ever since I started working I heard nothing except payroll disputes. Even if this was fixed there are still disputes all around. Most of my co-workers resigned because of this, my best bud Ice resigned because of her 25 hour overtime that was not reflected on her payslip (paycheck for Westerners) and had a row with one of the supervisors here implying that she is lying about her overtime pay...what a bitch to be honest.
So she left and I thought I might as well join her. Because of this, we had the most outrageous adventure in our lives when we went to Manila and did some job hunting. She managed to be accepted in a very nice call center in Ortigas and I ended up with uncertainty. When I got back home, they called me one by one.
Result? The first one sent me an email with the usual crap of while your qualifications are good blah....blah...blah...but there are people much more qualified than you are. The second one, I turned down their final interview since it is soooo late in the evening (who ever heard of a 10pm interview?! And in Makati of all places!). When the same company called me here in Baguio I told them that I am back home and the guy (some idiot HR personnel I'm sure) said thank you and let the phone go. The third which I ended waiting for the entire night was a waste of time and effort (not to mention of sleep) because in the end I wasn't accepted. The fourth one well, almost but not quite since this company and the one back home are at odds with each other since they have the same program or client from the US. There goes my chances of working in Manila once again.
But when I got back, I decided to stay. You might think ARE YA NUTS?! But I did. Not only because there is no place like home but also because in some weird reason I still believe that someday things would change for the company.
In a way it did since I suddenly find myself a recipient of some sum of money (not that big of an amount but money nevertheless) because of a very good survey from several customers and had recently got a 2-day grandslam for customer satisfaction, which I got a lollipop I guess. Gee, I am avoiding sweets since we have diabetes in the family. Food rewards come and while we're grateful for being fed, money is much better.
Rewards? Candies and cookies. Why don't they add a glass of milk as well? Too bad there is no fireplace in the office for Santa Claus to drop by.
But the company is relatively young (at least here in Baguio) but that is not an excuse to mess with their employees. They do that, they lose people. People who are not leaving the company stayed because either they have no choice or because it is not easy to find work these days since Philippines has very high unemployment rate. So there goes the enjoyment of the job.
If you're not happy with your job quit already or it will kill you one day.
Told you this is inconsistent.
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