Life in a Call Center

I worked in an export processing zone in Cavite for almost four years. In those entire years, I barely bought the things (ex.gadgets) that I wanted. I used to take home 6,000 peso amount of salary that time, I think there are really much reasons why multinational companies should go to provinces like Cavite and Bulacan. That amount of salary partly supported our family debts, my sister's university studies, my everyday allowance, our foods, and other petty expenses. Well, I was kinda happy because I still have a job, however, I've never been satisfied because that kind of living was quite far from what I aspired after graduating from the university. Sa madaling salita, isang kahig isang tuka pa rin ang buhay namin sa Cavite. Sino nga ba naman ang matutuwa kapag wala ka man lamang nabili na Greenwich pizza o Crispy crème donuts sa sweldo mo?.
During that time, the call center industry was booming, many call center companies sprouted like mushrooms all over Metro Manila and in some provinces (of course, mas mataas and sweldo sa Metro Manila). Thinking that my English was just barok, I studied in a call center school. Then, I applied to different call centers in Mandaluyong and Makati, and luckily, I was hired. So, I felt proud to myself, to think that only small percentage of applicants can pass the call center screening. After several weeks, I started my job as a technical support representative. I passed the English, product, and tech trainings. So, after three months of intensive and brain damaging trainings, I started to take calls.
In my first months of employment, I was happy because I was able to get quite reasonable amount of salary every month that I never got when working in Cavite. 'Yun nga lang madalas puyat dahil sa graveyard shift. I also had a lot of friends especially in our team. Take note, our team was always number 1, always the best performing team in the entire tech department.
Sa call center ko rin nakita ang iba't ibang ugali ng mga tao, superiors and subordinates. There are nice and friendly, smart and not so smart, introverts and extroverts, smokers and non smokers, hypocrites and orocans, at marami pang iba. Meron na mabait kapag nagpeperform ka sa job, pero ipahihiya ka na kapag nagkakamali ka sa kalaunan. In my one year and nine month (to be exact) stay in the call center, I witnessed, and somehow experienced how these supervisors and managers handled people. Some managers and supervisors are understanding. On the other hand, some did not care about their employees, kaylangan itaas ang stats at mag OT lagi kahit wala ka nang tulog. After 8 hours of work, you have to stay in the company for uptrainings, endless pep talks, QA feedbacks (bugbog ka sa criticisms)and a lot more. Yung mga performing agents lang ang kilala nila, kapag sumasablay ka, bahala ka sa buhay mo. Some supervisors don't mind kung ipahiya ka nila sa harapan ng mga co-workers mo, mahilig silang sumigaw, which for me, is an act of unprofessionalism. Sa isang call center, ang mababang stats ay pwedeng itaas, subalit ang kahihiyan ng isang tao ay hindi.