The Cab, The Call Center Industry and the White Piece of Paper

Ten minutes ago, I was in the middle of deciding whether I go to sleep or writing a blog piece. I can see that you finally found out what I’ve decided to do, I am going to consume more electricity by switching on the lights, turning on the water heater to make myself a cup of coffee, turning on the electric fan and booting up the laptop. I just had this horrible thought that if I sleep, I might wake up in the evening and the beautiful day will just gone by. This is one of the things that we’re being robbed off by the call center companies - a long “normal sunny day”.

Yesterday was a busy day compared to what was going to happen now. Unlike today, I’m going to worry how the hell I’m going to clean this super duper messy house right after I finished writing. Yesterday was pushing my luck. I applied for a non-voice account.

I submitted resumes the day before through email and was asked for an appearance to two different companies. I turned down the first job offer because the salary was too low and decided to take a cab to reach my second destination. The driver, for the love of God (sorry for the blasphemy) was a chatterbox. How I love silence when riding a cab especially if your mind was in the process of constructing some sensible thoughts. Anyway, the driver started with an icebreaking questions as usual and didn’t get my I-don’t-want-to-talk-right-now answers. Soon enough I gave up my sensible thoughts construction and gave in for a “stranger conversation”. He was a graduate of Banking and Finance and was bored of the banking job and quit. He then pursued a travel agent career to a Korean company and learned different languages. The company closed so he decided to be a cab driver and be a tour guide as a racket. I will not tell you about his biography and how he became a “linguist”, instead I want to share with you some information that he told me during the Metro Manila ride.

There’s this American customer who came to ride on his cab. Imagine his chatter mouth and non-stop questions, he got his customer to talk. The American was an employee from a big company in the US and was deployed here in the Philippines to negotiate their business with a call center company. He was told that his company from the US was willing to give P25,000 as a basic salary for each of the employees but the call center company told them that P15,000 – P18,000 were enough to the Filipino employees. So what’s wrong with this picture? The people who are running the call center industries were selfish and idiots!

I will tell you what is wrong. I have been absent for two weeks already because I keep getting sick. I developed hypertension due to stress from irate callers. Our job is to sound friendly even if the customers are cursing you already. Part of the job is to multi-task. To be able to ignore the shouting curses from the customer’s dirty mouths while you do what has to be done even if they want you to perform a David Copperfield magic fiasco. I developed insomnia due to shifting schedules and I ruined my social life. Lately, I developed laryngitis that might kill me if I will not rest my voice. You see? That’s the reason why I’m looking for a non-voice account and I don’t think that P15,000 – P18,000 is enough motivation for me to work my ass off with the work schedule of 2:00 am – 1:00 pm. Ang cute nila, ‘di ba?

How can you not provide us something that is reasonable? The health benefit doesn’t work at all! Imagine where I could get the money for this lab test that the physician asked me to undergo if the health insurance doesn’t cover everything? You think the salary that you negotiated from them are enough?! Some of us have families to feed and bills to pay! Kalokohan! But we can’t do anything about it, right? It is better than being jobless. Like what the American told the driver, the decision is not with them but in the call center companies. Hay, bwisit!

So he dropped me off to this great building of this great company. I was asked to be seated at the lobby to fill out the information that’s already in my resume. The second page was composed of three essay questions. I was still answering the first question when I was herded to one of the rooms with the other applicants. We were asked to take a 2-hour exam. Only ten questions for the English and the rest are all about mathematics. Even the IQ test is number series. Ang hirap pare! We were given a calculator and I can’t even use it because I don’t know how to compute it. Grabe, it’s a nightmare! I really wanted to have the courage to stand up and tell the moderator that I don’t want to take the test anymore and leave the company premises. Well, the courage didn’t dawn upon me that afternoon but determination does. I just answered the paper ridiculously and leave most of the questions unanswered. I can’t even imagine how the other applicants get to answer the questionare with ties around their neck or blazers on. I am wearing jeans people with my Chucks on and that doesn’t make the exam easier. After the long exam, na-torta talaga utak ko and I do feel mentally violated. I was mentally harassed. I was mentally humiliated. Imagine, what is the answer to C (….) X? I was asked to answer the dotted line and the number of dots is the number of letters of the correct answer. Feel free to leave a comment on this blog entry if you happen to know the answer kasi ang bobo ko. I texted Germaine to pick me up immediately whether I get the chance to get the result or not because I was so convinced that I failed the exam. I don’t know what took Germaine so long but my name was called for the result. If you’re familiar with the call center recruitment procedure, you know that the piece of paper is a piece of failure. I didn’t bother to open the piece of paper. My “oh well’ feeling was nursed by a stick of cigarette. As I sat next to Germaine in her red Alto, I blabbed about the exam and how thirsty and stressed I was. I suddenly felt the appreciation of being employed to the company who took me in ten months ago and I vowed to be a good employee as soon as I resume to work. I don’t know what’s gotten into me but I bothered to open the white piece of paper and read.

Dear Mr./Ms. (My name here):

Thank you for your time in applying here at -------.

We are pleased to inform you that you have been short-listed and you are invited to attend an interview scheduled on January 19, 2010 at 3:30 pm.

Please proceed to the reception area and ask the Front Desk Associate to inform Mr. X of your arrival.

Thank you very much and we wish you all the best in you r career.

Sincerely,

The Recruitment Team

I was dumbfounded. Shocked I believe. There’s probably a mixed up on the exam papers or this is what you call a sheer damn luck. Yeah, it was luck alright.

On January 19, 2010, I will be on the same state of confusion again. There will be a self-debate if I will allow myself to be mentally harassed again because from the beginning of this piece I chose an option and resulted an outcome. I am eager to know what will happen for the next ten years resulting to the biggest decision I will take on Tuesday. Life offers a lot of options and I am always willing to grab one.