Youngblood : Losing connection
By: Scott James Roxas / Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 03:56:00 07/04/2009
Filed Under: Employment
If you check my Friendster account, you will find a testimonial courtesy of a very good friend of mine telling the Worldwide Web that both of us are dying to be call center agents in the future.
He wrote it way back when the local business process outsourcing industry was still in its infancy and being a call center agent was considered one of the coolest jobs around. I was still in college at that time and had no clear post-college plans.
Now, several years later, I find myself sitting in the office and looking at the phone which indicates that there are about a hundred calls waiting, some of which I’m supposed to attend to. You would think I am delirious with joy over the fact that I am now a bona fide call center representative. But I am not.
A very irate customer has just shouted at me over the phone after realizing that he was so stupid as to have booked the wrong flights. He assumed that I had to take the blame for his mistake.
By the end of the shift, as the sun slowly peeks between the towering buildings of Makati, I will be giddy with excitement to get out of the office, but I still have to fix a major flight schedule change involving airlines no one has ever heard of before. I can go on and on, but I am sure you get the picture. I have been here for almost two years and I am this close to hurling the Avaya phone across the floor before rushing out of the place.
You may be wondering why I’m still here, still trying to make out what the Chinese girl is saying on the other line, still dragging myself to work each working day, still struggling to keep my numbers up, still missing family parties and dates, and still sporting heavy eye luggage. The truth is, I am not sure what keeps me from resigning. Like many other employees out there, I have been planning to get out for the longest time. Yet, for some reason, I never get to do so.
For some people, this job may be an answer to a calling (pun not intended), while for the rest of us, it’s a career limbo. Somewhere between graduating from college (or not) and figuring out which career direction to take, being a call center agent provides a worthwhile option that may just help one realize his potentials as a professional, tax-paying citizen. It’s something everyone from different educational backgrounds must try. Along the way, some may realize that arranging honeymoon trips and summer vacations to Europe may be more fulfilling than tending to sick people in that continent. You just wouldn’t know. Whether it’s an industry you intend to be a part of for the rest of your professional life or something temporary, I guess the important thing is that you are making the most of your time—and by this I don’t just mean consuming as much local, Hollywood and/or office “chismis” (gossip) during free time.
My friend and I must have been thinking that this job only requires her to speak in English in front of the computer while she twirls her hair around her finger and stares blankly into space. But apparently, being a customer care representative in my travel account is more challenging than that. You have to speak in English in front of the computer while twirling your hair around your finger, and stare blankly into space even during Christmas and New Year’s Eve! Oh, and you also have to sound as if you are actually smiling while being verbally attacked by a customer.
Seriously though, a day at work is no stroll in the park. Physical, mental and sometimes spiritual strength are vital in getting the job done. It’s not brain surgery, but it certainly involves a lot of thought processes.
Imagine waking up to the last sunset of the year and you are all alone while the rest of your clan is in the province preparing for a festive New Year shebang. You go through the motions and head to work just the way you do every day. Lacking sleep and wishing you are somewhere else, you get a call from a screaming lady who is about to lose her mind because her flight is 15 minutes delayed.
Love it or hate it, whether it’s something you do for the time being or it is going to be a long-time affair, being a call center agent is an experience worth trying. At the end of the day, we owe it to ourselves to make each second count through heavy queues and long call-free periods.
God knows how long I will manage to stay, but until I start pursuing greater passions, let me enjoy long “avail times,” short calls, great friends and colleagues, and rest days.
(Scott James Roxas, 22, is a journalism graduate of West Visayas State University. He works as a call center representative in Makati.)
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