Sinong bespren mo dun?

7:30PM na
Nasa office parin ako
Pakshet
Inaantok nako
Tapos yung tyan ko nakikigulo pa
GUTOM NAKO
Ayaw na gumana utak ko
To borrow a quote from chuchay - "sakit sa head"
Hindi lang nga head eh
Pati likod, batok, tyan

STRESS, bestfriend ko sha ngayon
AHA, kaya pala ako pini-pimple
POTEK
Kung kelan ako tumanda saka ako pinimple

Feeling close si STRESS saken
Kasama ko sha dito sa work
Tapos pag nasa mall ako, nakakasalubong ko rin sha
Sumasama rin sha sa bahay
Kahit matutulog na lang ako, kinukulit pa nya ako eh
Haayy...STRESS

Osha, tama na nga 'to
Parang wala pa naman shang balak tantanan ako eh

SHYET
GUTOM NAKO
INAANTOK
MASAKIT NA KATAWAN KO
PAGOD NAKO!

WAAAHHH!

Busy Friday

I look forward to Fridays. Who doesn't, right? So yesterday, I came to the office feeling happy and at the same time relieved, because it was the last day of the week and I get to not think about work for 2 days. I even had "yey, friday" as my status message in YM. I usually use this status after a toxic week at work.

I spoke too soon. It was a not-so-yey-Friday after all.

Working on a Friday is like a mortal sin. Come on, who wants to work on a Friday? What's even worse is, if you have to work overtime! I mean, sure, we go to the office, check our emails, finish whatever we can finish for the day, and then party (or go home and get some sleep)! That's it, not so much pressure. But when you're suddenly asked to finish a task by the end of the day (read: was asked a few minutes before lunch break (12PM); deadline: 6PM or EOD), it's a different ballgame. I hate when this happens, but of course, I'm just an employee! I need to do what I'm asked, even if it's like almost Saturday already! Aargh!

Well, there's a bit of a good side to this story. I am taking on a new role. Technically, it took effect last October 1, but haven't really started yet with the work per se. ('Though, the one I was asked to do is kinda part of my new role na.) I'm still doing a lot of reading/researching, have some more con-call trainings left and will have to do some "shadowing". Definitely, the new role requires me to have more responsibilities. It also means I have to be more effective in time management. I welcome the challenge but I'm also apprehensive because I'm not really sure if I fit the role to a T. This is totally new for me and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll have an easier, happier time when I'm over and done with the 'ackward' stage already.

So does this mean I'll have to say bye-bye to happy Fridays? Of course not! ;-)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of happy Fridays, I was dead set on going to the NU Rockathon gig at Malate last night. A lot(?) of bands were to perform, including, Markus Highway, Pupil, Sandwich, just to name a few. I've psyched myself up that I'd be less shy and friendlier, so I could meet up with my fellow Circus listers,(members of the Eraserheads Mailing list) and go to the venue with them. But unfortunately, I had to work overtime. I left the office around 8:30PM and since Malate is not such a 'friendly' place, I decided not to go (by myself) anymore. My tropang wasak is not really into the "rock & roll band scene" so it was hard to convince them to go to the gig with me. But still, I had a blast last night. Thanks to my office friends! What will I do without you guys? Naks! :)

No more ym - that's what they think!

When I got back from lunch today, our IT guy told me that he needed to uninstall the yahoo messenger from my computer. I was like "Ha? Bakeeettt?!?" which was then followed by another question. "As in now na?" He didn't really need to answer my second question coz he was already infront of my helpless pc and was doing his thing (it sounds dirty, but you know what I mean :P). While he was robbing me off my "life," our IT guy told me the reason behind the "robbery." I didn't absorb it though. When he was done, I told him "hindi ako magte-thank you!" and he laughed. I usually say thanks whenever he does something on my pc and that was one thing I didn't appreciate. But hey, life goes on. :-)

Actually, I can still log on to my ym even if it was already deleted from my pc. Ako pa! Hehe! I'm not going to re-install it, there's another way. Hehe! And besides, bawal lang naman pag nahuli eh. Haha!

Bored

Tic-tac, tic-tac.

Am just waiting for the clock to strike six and I'm outta here.

Sooo bored.

Singing a different tune

I never really got to blog about my last day in West...so allow me.

I came to work an hour and a half late I think. Took some calls and then spaced out most of the time. A caller wanted some favor and told him it wasn't possible, so he asked for a supe. Be my guest. Get the picture? That was one day I was really excited about going to work; coz I wouldn't be working. I couldn't care less even if I kept on hearing my name being called out since i've been on ACW for 5 minutes or so. The hell with stats. I took all my time and it felt great.

Then my friends and I went to The Providence Tower near La Salle after our shift. We sang and danced the whole day, and I mean the whole day. It was a blast.

I love you guys and I will miss you all.

---

Five entries ago, I wrote that I don't wanna work in a call center anymore and that's true. I wanted to go back to Usability testing and be good on that. But I'm really having a difficult time looking for a job. The only job I can find is, what else, Call Center Rep. Well, there are openings for IT or for programmers. But c'mon, who am I kidding? I'm not cut-out to be a programmer. All those I learned from school are --- hmm....what did I learn from school?

So, here I am, back in the call center industry.

To be honest, from the time I resigned from West upto this time, I have not sent out any applications to any company. But my friends did, and they submitted it to a call center in the same building where West is located. Yup, just a few floors below my old office. Haha! I didn't really like to show up for the interview and all. But again, here's an opportunity for me to earn moolah (which I badly need, lol!), so I went and got the job. I know I'm singing a different tune right now and I'm probably misreading the sign again (like what happened with West), but I still accepted the job. I'm not saying that I found my niche in this industry. I'm just here for the money like everybody else. Damn! it's not even that much. Oh well, shoot me for not having a clear mind.

Anyhow, tonight is actually my second day of training and it'll run for 2 weeks. After that, provided I pass the training, will be the real thing.

Call me names. Hate me for not keeping my word/promise. Who knows, I might change my mind (again). Haha!

Pathetic

This company really sucks! Big time.

What I hate most about this company are the people who are not doing their job. These people are being paid a big amount of money for doing nothing. Fuck! So unfair.

What they used to do was to pull out agents to do the work for them. These friggin supervisors were saying that their hands were full. Full with what? Bull.

This time around, they can't pull any agents out since the queue is so high that they can't afford someone not to take calls. Fair. But then again, if an agent unfortunately gets a caller who asks for a supe right away, the agent can only do so much right?! Of course, the agent would ask a supe to take the call whether or not he/she was able to pull up the account. And what do they do? They refuse to take the call, which is so not right.

I did get 3 calls today which asked for a supe but I was able to de-escalate them. It's just so pathetic coz the customer actually has the right to talk to a supe. Oh well...

Sorry. I just had to let it out.

I can't wait to get outta here!

Free at last

That's how I feel right now...

After 48 years (ok, I'm exaggerating...but it feels like it), I finally decided to leave. I submitted my resignation letter today. I wanted it to be effective on Feb 4th, but my PTL told me that it should be a two-week-notice thingy. Fine. I'll have to stay until the 11th.

It wasn't easy though. One thing, no replacement yet. I haven't even started looking for a new job. The only thing I'm certain is I don't wanna work in a call center anymore. Been there, done that. One year is enough. Tried it and didn't really like it. I actually commend myself for having lasted this long.

Then there's the much-awaited promotion. To be honest, one of the reasons I accepted this job is the opportunity it promised. I'm a part of batch 1, a pioneer. I clearly remember this guy telling all of us that they would prioritize our batch when it comes to promotions. Of course, it's a given that you should be qualified and all. But what now? There were peeps who got promoted even if they have been on the floor for just about a month or two. I don't have anything against them. For all I know, they probably have met all the qualifications. I just think the management is not fair. I'm mad at myself for believing this monster (forgive me for lack of a better term). Sorry. Ass-kissing is not one of my competencies. I wanna elaborate on this one, but I think I'll pass. Ok, ok. I'll stop this now. Lest, i'll be accused of sourgraping and bad-mouthing the company.

Lastly, my friends. They are the ones holding me back. I enjoy every minute that I spend with these guys. They actually wanted for us to leave all at the same time. They wanted for us to find a replacement first before resigning. Working in another call center is one of their options. Not for me. I'm pretty determined not to work in another call center. I will surely miss all of you, my friends, but we have to move on. Go our separate ways. Who knows? We might bump into each other again sometime. We might not spend much time together, but I really hope that we will all still keep in touch.

In the meantime, wish me luck that I'll soon find a job.

Happy 2005!

Finally!

I have so many things to blog about but so little time. I don't even know where to start. But since it's a new year, I decided my first blog for 2005 would be about the significant and not-so-significant events (?) that have happened in the last 12 months.

Okay, I think this is gonna be long... :-)

January
Not-so-Happy-New-Year
It was the first day of the year and I was not so thrilled! I texted TheOne and greeted him a happy new year but he didn't freakin reply. As in Ni-ha, Ni-ho, Wala! There was no way he didn't get the message coz I was 100% sure that it was sent. There were some friends who didn't text back, but it was different. He was different. He was the first one who texted me last Christmas and I texted him back. So I figured, I would greet him first on new year's day and I did! But why, oh why, did he not reply? I honestly don't have any freakin clue. Fuck! He certainly picked the best date to ignore me. Thank you very much.

Welcome to the world
I have a new nephew and his name is Galo. He's so cute. I think all babies are. :-)

New year, new job
Exactly a month after I resigned from my previous work, I got a text message from the headhunter that I got the job. It happened so fast. I haven't even tried looking for a job yet, but somehow, this headhunter had me in their old files. They called me up on January 16th, took the exam on the 19th and had the final interview on the 21st. That same day, I got the message that I passed. It's funny coz at that time, I told myself that I'm not gonna work in a call center anymore. Flashback: was accepted in a call center and started work Oct 27th. Almost 2 months after, Dec 21st, I tendered my resignation. It was my first time to work in a call center and I was not happy with it. I figured I was not meant for this kind of job. But things do happen for a reason. I was not looking for a job but the opportunity presented itself. It must have meant something right? Fast forward to 2005: a few more days and I'll be celebrating my 1 year with the company - and I still haven't figured out the meaning of all these. Darn! Am I that stupid or shall I blame it on my lack of sleep?

New year, old friends
I got the surprise of my life when I got a text message from Lhet, one of my close friends in college. She went abroad and I didn't know that she was back. Since it has been a while when we last saw each other, as well as the rest of the barkada, we decided to have a get-together. Though we missed Caieh and Jhoan, it was still fun. It was nice seeing old friends again, this time, together with their kids and hubbies. It was only Tere and I who don't have our own families yet. Omigod! Lhet has 2 kids now and I'm still single. Girls, wait for me. :-)

It's good to make new friends, but it's even better if you keep the old ones. Ohh...I just miss these old good friends so much! :-)

February
Guinea pigs
Nothing much happened in Feb except that I started working for West. We first had training and had Americans for trainers. They were nice - well, they should be! After 2 weeks, we started taking calls. The first day was toxic. Most of us didn't even want to go to work the next day. Imagine getting calls about issues you didn't even discuss in training. Some of the trainers were no help at all. Pathetic.

to be continued....hehe!

Not again

We were supposed to go to Puerto Galera tomorrow to have our long-delayed team building but because of our "factory-worker salary" plans have again changed. Arrgh!

I'm not happy. I'm getting frustrated.

When will we ever have a "real" team building?

A day in the life of ...

I didn't go to work last Friday. Though it was my second day, I'm not like the other girls who grimace in pain everytime they have their period. I was not really sick or anything, I just didn't feel like going to work. I figured I still have four more Sick Leaves (SL) left, so why not take advantage of it. Right? Right.

Team Bali
I'll definitely miss my team once I decide to leave (that is, if the company doesn't find any reason to force me to resign first). I love Bali - that's my team's name. We're like the trend-setters in the company. We were first to have team meetings once a week, sometimes even twice/thrice a week. We even complained that it was too much and we were telling each other that how come the other teams are not doing it (of course, this was behind our sup's back; but she eventually knew about it coz we told her so since the team was that open and we were all friends). We were also the first to check our everyday stats after shift. We had our own team chat room that the others were surprised to find out about. And we were also the first to conduct a team building activity. The others just followed suit.

End-shifters
Our shift is at 3am-12pm. That's the last shift for the CSRs. Since a lot of 'em are coming in, they cannot accommodate us all at the 29th floor (for CSRs). End-shifters take calls first at the 27th (TSRs) or at the training rooms at the 28th (HR Ofc). This is the price we have to pay for being the pioneers, not to have permanent seats! If we're taking calls at the 28th, some sup would joke and ask their own team to occupy another room since they wouldn't want us to set (bad) examples (especially to the newbies). Then around 5 or 6am, we are asked to go up since the earlier shift would be going home. Everytime we'd go up, we'd always hear comments like "nandyan na ang bali, maingay na naman eh!" or "sabi na nga ba nandyan na ang bali eh!" Admittedly, we talk a lot and we just can't seem to stop. The only problem is we talk in the vernacular. Tagalog kung tagalog ito - and that's not allowed. Yup, loud and proud. Offense #1.

Happy team
Not one of us is excited to take calls and talk to irate customers, especially if we weren't able to get enough sleep. It's a stressful job. But still, we look forward to going to work everyday coz we don't want to miss the fun of being with friends. My team is a talented bunch - great conversationalists, great dancers, great singers. So even if we're really pissed off and we're having a bad day, we still know how to turn things around. We joke around, make fun of each other, tell stories, sing and dance. All these we do on the floor, even if someone is in a middle of a call. Laughter would soon follow. The funny part is, we all have this weird way of laughing and that would just make us laugh even more. Next thing we know, we're being told to hush it by the sups on the floor. Offense #2.

(Over) breaks
We are a tight team. Everyday, we would take our two 15-minute breaks and lunch together. I think we were also the first to do that; you know, have team breaks together. We can't seem to get enough of each other that even our rest room breaks are synched. We have noticed that the breakers have been trying to give us different scheds. They can't break us apart. If some of us were given an earlier time, we would try to get another call and then would log out a lil late. Or we would just take it at the given time and then extend our breaks. A good 15-minute break would be extended to 20, 25 or even 30 minutes. That goes for our lunch too and for our rest room breaks as well. We are only allowed 10 minutes the whole day. Hellur! Paano kung balisaw-sawin kami?! We couldn't care less. We just want to spend our breaks together and have a lil fun. Offense #3.

ACW
In the call center world, aftercall work or ACW is the time allowed for an agent to document his call. This is only for 30 seconds and after that the agent must log in again to take another call. It doesn't matter how short or long the call is, you still have just 30-second to make notes. Aside from our legal breaks, that precious 30-sec is the only freakin break we are allowed to get once we log in. It's not even a "break" break since we have to document the call. And I tell you, that is so not freakin enough! Naturally, we would exceed the 30-sec limit. Come on, who doesn't?! Even if we're done with our notes, we would space out or just have some time off. They would have to understand that we know this is our job and it's a part of it. But they also have to understand that it's really tiring and mind-draining. Sorry, but sometimes we don't really care about those stats.

There was also this time that Cherry cried coz Rich and Eric were ganging up on her. Alex, the man of a few words told us to click on "make busy" so that we wouldn't get any call and initiated a group hug. That was so sweet. It didn't last long coz one of the sups shouted "Aftercall!" Offense #4.

Irate agents
Offense #5. Yup, we all lose patience and we do raise our voice and we do curse. The last one, we make sure that we hit on the Mute button first. We can't help but be irate coz almost all the customers are being difficult, unreasonable and racist. Not to mention those stupid ones. Others are even threatening to sue us. Go ahead, make our day!

Pasaway
I'm sure they would always find faults in us. And they would also find ways to commend us. We don't really care if they call us "mga pasaway" coz we know we are. I, myself, can be a certified pain in the ass. And I don't deny that. But don't get me wrong. We can be cooperative. We know how to compromise. We appreciate the things the company is doing for us. It's just that we don't think it's enough. So don't blame us. I'm not saying that being "pasaway" is the right way to get our point across. But if it'd make any difference, I'd be pasaway anytime.

Bad day, sad day

I hate this job! This is really a very bad day. One of my friends here in the office was forced to resign. Fuck! That is so freakin unfair! She was asked to resign coz she was caught cursing over the phone. What makes it so unfair is she was not cursing anyone, not even that stupid customer she was talkin to. I don't wanna elaborate anymore since this is really difficult for me. All I know is my friend made an honest mistake. That's all there is to it! Fuck 'em all!

I am now 10 minutes overbreak and counting. Hell I care!

Clueless

Six months. Six long months. It's official! I am now a regular employee in a Call Center here in Makati. I never thought I would last this long. My friends even predicted that I would stay for 2-3 months and then I am OUT! Well, they are sooo wrong!

This is actually my second time to work in a Call Center and my friends had their reason for making that prediction. I only stayed for almost 2 months on the first one. I live in Paranaque and my office was in Ortigas. I had an 11pm-8am sched, a stuck-up dude for a coach, teammates who had worlds of their own and tools that would not work when you need 'em the most. Not to mention, I didn't really like the way the company manages it's people. I worked as a Technical Support Representative (TSR) and I must admit, I am no techie! There were times that I would say to myself "How would I freakin' solve your problem? I don't even know what you're talkin' about!" Imagine taking calls for almost 8 hours trying to solve the computer problems of not-so-friendly customers. There was really no time for me to space out. Add the fact that I was always feeling dizzy everyday. I went to the doctor and she said that I had low blood pressure and that I was anemic. It was too much for me. I felt so exhausted. So go figure!

It was easy. Don't get me wrong - I've made some friends! I had fun with my Accent Training and Product Training teammates, but most of them were from the morning shift when we started Operations. It was really different with my new team. I didn't feel the "vibes" (whatever that is!) I wanted to give it time but I was just so lazy. I wanted OUT!

I decided that I would never work in a Call Center anymore. It wasn't much of a happy experience for me. So you can just imagine the reactions of my family and friends when they found out that I accepted a job offer from another Call Center, exactly a month after I resigned from the first one. They advised me to get some rest first and to ponder on what I really want to do with my life. And then they made bets! Haha! That really made me laugh.

So what made me accept the job? I don't really know. I am not even sure why I am still here. Give me six months. Let's see if I'll be able to figure it out.