Friday, February 24, 2012

Annual Appraisal

Yesterday we had our annual salary appraisal. It's a monumental event for all of us because we will be appraised and will be judged according to our performance. The higher the rating, the higher your salary increase will become. When my supervisor coached me about my performance, I am really anticipating a high rating. I only failed two scorecards so I feel I would get at least a ten percent appraisal. To my dismay, I only got 5%. Well, he said it's because somehow, we are having issues with the budget and that the highest rating anyone could get in our cluster would be 6%. To be honest with you, though I'm really grateful, I feel I deserve more. Maybe I feel the pressure of getting a higher salary because I now would be paying the amortization of my new house. Oh well, 5% of my current salary is not low at all. Maybe I just expected too much. At least my salary is still a thousand less of the ceiling salary of a senior specialist so I guess I can live with it.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Obama on Call Center Industry Offshore

"it's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas..." - OBAMA

Just watching Obama's presscon in Capitol Hill and to be honest with you...it scares me. Thousands of call center professionals would lose their jobs if this would happen. Foreign companies who put up call centers here in the Philippines would definitely be affected by this. If they move their companies back to the US and hire locals, what would happen to Filipino call center professionals. I can't and don't want to imagine. Call center industry has been my bread and butter for more than five years and I don't know if I would like to go a different way other than this. It pays well and it's the industry that provides food on our table. If this thing will happen and call center professionals would be out of their jobs, I doubt if the government could provide same amount of jobs to people as what the call center industry provides. I understand his dilemma but I also believe that those companies who invested here in the offshore are really helping not just millions of people worldwide but are also helping themselves survive. They are saving millions if not billions of dollars by getting cheap labor. Outsourcing jobs to cheaper providers abroad allowed American companies to stay globally cost competitive. I hope Obama can see not just the negative aspect of getting offshore jobs. My heart is heavy as I listen to his speech. God your will be done.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Best Religion Essay

Are you a student who finds it hard to complete an assignment especially when it comes to essay writing? I could tell as I used to be a student too! Whenever my professor gives us an assignment that would require us to research and give our personal opinion about a certain topic...it takes me a long time to finish it. Good thing, there is a site the helps students and even professionals with their essay needs. Best Essay Help is a site that provides 100% plagarism free articles depending on your essay needs. I once had an assignment about religion before and it took me one week to finish such essay. With bestessayhelp, you can get a neat and professionally written religion essays. They do even provide free religion essay examples. This is really a great help especially for college students. For you to be able to get a clear understanding on how their website works, check on their free papers sample for more information.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Philippine Call Center versus India Call Center

Just stumbled upon this video on you tube and I totally agree with the speaker. If you'll gonna compare India vs. Philippines when it comes to call center skills, I would go for the Philippines. We have been under US Colony for nearly 50 years and almost everyone here speaks English. I really don't have anything against Indian agents but since I've been with the call center industry for more than five years now, I can say that I myself rarely understands their accent. Maybe because they weren't born having English as their second language unlike in the Philippines wherein English was being taught to children as young as 3 years old. Check this video to see why Call Center in the Philippines are better than Indian Call Centers.



Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Call Center Prank

I stumbled upon this video from the Facebook page of my officemate and just to be honest with you...I felt bad. First, because I feel bad for the caller and secondly, I know this is not a usual scenario in a call center. We do value our customers and we don't usually make a practical joke with them because we try to be as professional as possible. It breaks my heart to see anybody degrading our profession by making prank jokes with their caller. I do value my job, I find dignity on it. It's the sole source of my income. It gives me a comfortable life and I was able to help my family because of it. I really feel bad knowing one person can change the perception of so many people about how call center operates.

I admit, at first I thought it was funny. Imagine a Filipino call center agent asking five bogus security questions to an American client such as "how many bones do you have?", "who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" and "what is the biggest bird?" Good thing about the call is that the caller is not irate at all. He just laughed about it and didn't paid much attention to the questions. But then again, it's a NO-NO for call center agents to make such jokes even if the caller didn't mind. Some call centers also doesn't allow any electronic devices on the floor. I bet this agent would be given a disciplinary action if not terminated. I hope our US clients won't take this instance against us - call center professionals.