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!

Back to the Corporate World

Now that I’m done with the board exams, it’s back to my regular job. I asked for a month-long study leave for the exams and now I’m back.

Call center jobs are another uso in this country. It’s my bread-and-butter. I can’t say it’s a 9-to-5 since I work the ungodly hours of 12MN to 9AM. I train newly-hired agents in a call center a.k.a.  business process outsource (BPO) company. It’s very tough, yet rewarding. It is a bit more lucrative than, say, being a clerk at some daytime office.

One of my teachers way back in high school expected me to be a bohemian: an activist, a writer, or a musician. She never expected that I would go the corporate route, but I reminded her that I was already selling my writings and things back in high school. But then again, I never really left writing, or music, or serving the people.

A major part of what i do in both fields is teaching people. I have to constantly update myself with new methods, materials and theories. I also learn a lot from the people I work with. As the saying goes, “In learning, you will teach. In teaching, you will learn.”

On weekdays, I live in the corporate world of the BPO trainer. Although I enjoy my job, its simply my means of living, not life itself. I go back to earth by serving the poor as a volunteer midwife. In between this hectic schedule is life: I write, make music and hang out with my friends and family.  If I didn’t learn how to balance time, I wouldn’t have achieved this kind of balance.