Breaking the Call Center Stereotype

I start my day with a fish and gulay breakfast, light workout while listening to news on AM Radio http://dzmm.abs-cbnnews.com/.

I take pride that I have broken most BPO worker stereotypes. I don’t spend so much on gadgets, clothes or other luho. I listen to the news, have a relatively healthy lifestyle and have run-of-the-mill relationships. A lot less drama than I care to take in. 

Living in the night shift isolates us workers from what is happening in the country. I try to reconnect by keeping up to date via the radio. Recently, my coworkers lose sleep watching Senate hearings and have water-cooler chats around it. 

My mild (almost non-existent) social life actually works for me. The occasional drink comes around every three months, and usually just a tipple. I don’t smoke. I’m not into gossip or gimiks so much but I keep my few precious friends close. 

I had to quit volunteering, boxing and swimming due to an ankle injury but I plan to get back in the game soon. I’m starting with light exercise. All this extra weight is slowing me down, not to mention the healing process. 

My family and my relationships are quite vanilla. I wouldn’t say its boring. Every day with these wacky, spirited people takes work and loyalty. They’re all inspiring and challenging to love. Why add even more drama by complicating things?

I cannot say that I live the perfect life or I have the mildest temperament. I can be a real bitch when I lack sleep. The heat, humidity and my emotions affect my judgement at times. Sometimes, I let the pressures at work get to my head and I tend to snap at people. My blood is 30% coffee.

I still observe some behaviors among some BPO workers that outsiders tend to turn into generalizations about us. I don’t want to judge my coworkers who fit the stereotypes to some degree because I know and I understand some of their reasons. Some cases, I have to admit, are understandable but not acceptable. But to each his own, I guess.

I am just grateful that people who love me have helped me to cope with this crazy up-side down life. Living and working with BPO workers proves that most of them are just normal as anyone.

I still fit some of the stereotypes in the picture above. Try to guess which ones!

 

credits: thanks to a certain friend from the internet for the lovely cartoon!

New Link: Reluctant Stylista

Featured Blog: Reluctant Stylista 

I asked one cool Filipina to join my blogroll. She is a great inspiration for girls who are not of the cookie-cutter kind.

Check out her blog here.

Thanks, Alex, for sharing your adventures in fashion with us.

ToyCon Manila 2011

Arrived Day 2 at around 7PM so there wasn’t much to see. But here you go: Enjoy!

Stop

I have to stop being so honest.

RIP

My mom had a childhood friend who eventually became my brother’s godmother. She lives with her husband and kids a few streets from mine.

But this is not a story about the golden friendship between these two great women. That story needs a whole other page. This is about her son who died last Sunday.

We had a lot of fun playing RPG at the GM’s newly renovated place. Good friends, my good chili con carne, good game. We headed home at around 10:30 p.m. I was surprised that my mom wasn’t there. She and my brother were at the hospital.

In the morning, they told me the story.

He has been trapped in his parents’ home to avoid arrest for 4 years. Two years into the hiding, he attempts to go out and got beaten up by a rival gang. He was never close to me or my brothers, particularly because of his bad record.

He spent some time in the hospital. He recovered but could never go out again. He wants to work and go out with his old friends but he couldn’t.

He fell in love with the girl next door. She became his only glimmer of hope, and only connection with the outside world, besides his family.  This May, she ended the relationship as she plans to go to the U.S. and she does not believe in long-distance relationships.

Last Sunday, he died by hanging himself. An photo-album filled with his moments with his girlfriend was at his feet. He left a five-page farewell letter to his family. My mom went with his mom to the hospital. They tried to revive him for an hour but he was already brain dead… or maybe he just lost the will a long time ago. He was only 24, just a few months older than me.

I feel sorry for my mom’s friend.

Dolly Parton and Thalia

What do Dolly Parton and Thalia (aka Marimar) have in common? They (allegedly) had waist-reduction surgery by removing parts of their ribs.

If I had the money maybe I would.

If it would make more womanly and more like the girls my age.

It just sounds terrifying.

New Link: Hot Pink Joysticks

Because Ovaries Give a +2 Bonus to Charisma

and so fair Nateal Falk declares through her blog http://hotpinkjoysticks.wordpress.com/

I so love her blog that I added her to my Blogroll.

Viva La Female Gamers!

The I am Filipina Series…and more from Dash

All these and more from http://dashwearables.com

Paris Dragonfly Lana

Hello Lovely Ladies! (and Gents who love giving gifts … hint hint!)

The fashion-forward, figure-loving tops and dresses from Dashwearables.com ( http://dashwearables.com/main.html )can now also be found at the Cubao Shoe Expo.

You can still check out the site which has an online LookBook featuring 3 favorite cities: Manila, Paris and New York.  The pictures and the size-chart are excellent shopping tools. Prices ranges from Php 300-1000. Shipping anywhere in the Philippines is still FREE.

Paris

Dragonfly

Lana

Series One: Woman: Part 3

I am not a failure as a woman even though I can’t dress well… or even if I do.