Mga Dakilang Manggagawa

Hi everyone! I hope my readers are in good shape and is not greatly affected by typhoon Ondoy. If you happen to be a victim, I'm sorry for you loss but I pray you'll be able to fully recover from this tragedy soon. I pray that God would comft you and give you the desires of your heart very soon.

Fortunately for me and my family, we were spared of Ondoy's rage. Though my mom is living in Montalban Rizal which is one of the most greatly affected areas - our village is safe as it is situated on an almost vertically inclined hill. My dad who is living in Sta Mesa Manila was also spared as they are also living in a higher part of the area. Our house, located in Proj. 8 QC was also not affected. Maybe because we were situated inside a compound on a higher ground. The tropical storm Ondoy did not really made an adverse effect on our properties, in fact, I was able to manager to go to work Saturday night, the night when almost 80% of the whole Manila area was submerged in flood.

Only 3 of us - Sam, Ice and I - were present the night it all happened. Out of 11 people, only 3 of us was able to find courage to make sure we can still go on our shift. There were rumors early that night that the site would close down at 12 mn but that did not transpired. The company gave us 2 full meals as a thank you gift for showing up for work and for making an effort to go to the office. Here are some of our pics taken @ the office the night Ortigas became a ghost town due to Ondoy's flood.

sam- taga PATEROS, naligtas

MIMI - taga MUNOZ, ligtas at ICE - taga BINANGONAN, lubog na lahat ng daraanan sa tubig pumasok pa rin tsk tsk

walang pumasok, empty workstations...

lumabas kami para magpahangin...walang katao tao sa used to be crowded place sa tapat ng building...

uwian na! ice di alam kung pano uuwi kaya humihikbi...nakauwi naman daw sya sa Binangonan after 5 hours

Sam, Ice and I are very fortunate to make it to the office safely - but the rest of our teammates were really hit by the storm really hard. I just hope they could manage to go on with their lives and have enough drive to start again. There's indeed a higher purpose behind all this and though were not able to grasp the reason why it happened, I know in due time it will made known to us. To those people who did not experience such tragedy, there is a reason why we were spared by the storm. Most of the people I know were affected by the flood and I know that the Philippines would never be the same after Ondoy. It made us realize so many things that we took for granted for the longest time.

My Stress Relievers

Lately, me and my friends are discussing about how to relieve stress. My friend Ice finds happiness through "facebook". After our shift, she would normally log on to facebook through her celphone so she would still be updated by the latest chicka even she's on the bus on the way home. Another friend Melai, finds "tagged" enjoyable and never fails to log on to it and chat with her prospects. LOL. So I think to myself, what are the things that usually do after my shift which makes me forget about work and helps me relax? Haha! I think I have three in my list. Just recently, I again got into the habbit of reading books. Right after I changed clothes from my office attire to "pambahay" - I would normally lie down in bed and read a book for about an hour. Pampaantok lang. Right after that I would take a one hour nap. I normally go home at around 9 am so I'm usually awake at around 11 am. Lunch is usually served at 12 and while eating our lunch, we would normally watch my favorite telenovela "Miss No Good". Yup, after HOUSE series, we again are hooked up to koreanovela and this time, its a feel good one and watching Miss No Good would be the second in my stress reliever list. Lunch would be my bonding time with my hubby , you will always find us laughing and enjoying our lunch in front of the television while watching our favorite tv series. Right after lunch, around 12:30 pm...I would normally log on to my computer to work for my blogs. I work online as well so it would take about an hour and a half of my time. At around 2 PM, I with my hubby would have our Bible Reading right before I sleep. That would take the third slot of my list. Reading the bible, a verse or two everyday with my love one is the greatest stress reliever I have. Discussing God's word, talking to each other about what God wants us to do and just feeling God's presence is a great feeling. Makes me feel I am doing the right thing. We would normally ask God for what direction He wants us to take and ask for guidance so we could do whatever things that would please Him.

This is what I usually do during weekdays right after my shift. These things helps me keep my sanity in tact. Haha. How about you? How do you fight stress?

Balancing Work and Family

By: Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero

Importante sa buhay natin ang ating pamilya at trabaho. Sila ang nagbibigay sa atin ng dahilan upang tayo’y magsumikap sa ating gawain. Ngunit madalas, nahihirapan tayong balansehin ang dalawang aspetong itong ating buhay.

Work and family are often opposite forces: the difficulty of your work sometimes spreads into family life. At the same time, duties at home create problems in doing well at your job.

Balancing work and family roles can be tough. Sometimes you think there’s no other option but to serve both. Ngunit may mga pagkakataon kung saan hindi nagtutugma ang mga tungkulin natin. For instance, we may think of ways to increase our family’s finances during office hours – this affects our work productivity. It is important to remember that our family should be our motivation rather than a distraction. And, on the other hand, our job should provide the resources we need to support our family.

Attitudes and expectations are important in dealing with work-family issues. A lot of times, these form ideas about the way things should be done. Many of us have high expectations and we try to be perfect. But, even “supermen” or “superwomen” can burn out and become irritable. We need to understand that sometimes the more we want to be superheroes, the more our responsibilities are affected.

Setting priorities and effective time management is key in balancing work and family roles. Sometimes we do things right but we don’t do the right things. Minsan, hindi na tayo nakakapagplano ng mga gawain na makatutulong sa pag-abot ng ating mga pangarap.

The ability to quickly switch roles and knowing what it means to be in control are good talents to master. Many times we feel we have more control if we do everything ourselves. However, this can keep us from reaching our real goals; a lot of times, the best way to be effective is to let go of one role when you’re doing the other. This way you’ll be focused on whatever you’re doing.

Think about dividing work to accomplish your priorities. Let go of your superhero thinking and understand that no matter how much you try to do both things at the same time, you can never do it effectively.

Allocate time for both roles and know your boundaries – you might be allotting most of your time for your work but your relationship with your family is suffering. Balance things out and weigh your priorities.

Another Sad Farewell...

Hi everyone! Sorry I wasn’t able to post any new article here as I’ve been so busy with my full time work. Well, it’s been a sad week for me because one of my teammate/friend again bid farewell to the company. What’s sad is that its so sudden and nobody expected it to happen. My friend immediately gave her resignation letter and since she want it immediate, the day she passed the letter means that was also her last day in the office. It’s just so unfortunate that I was absent the day she had her last shift. It’s a coincidence that when my bestfriend resigned – I was also absent. Maybe God doesn’t want me to witness those things coz He knows how I value friendship so much... he knows I would cry a river seeing someone so dear leave. I know this thing did not happen in vain- there is a great purpose above all these. One thing I’ve learned from those is that you need to know your priorities. I know that though we are earning a lot through this job – there are still some things that we want to achieve and we don’t want to stay working in a call center for the rest of your lives, but we must also know the right strategy on how to achieve our personal goal. My friend just recently got a scholarship from TESDA to study foreign Language – specifically Japanese. Her boyfriend is working in Japan and she wants to know the language as a preparation for the future. But it’s just so happen that the school was in Taguig which is so far from where our office is located. The schedule was from 8 am to 12 nn and our shift was from 10pm to 7am. The travel time from the office to her school was tentatively 1 hour and from school. You could tell Dara was pressured, stressed and tired. The training will run for a month and it’s only been two weeks since the class started and I could tell Dara is falling apart. She needs to make some changes she needs to make a decision right away. She applied for LOA (leave of absence) for a whole month but our coach said if won’t be available till the end of August. It’s not feasible. I can tell that Dara is having a hard time. She told us that she is only getting 2 hours of sleep daily. She is most of the time irritable and lacks energy. Sometimes - when pressure is so high – call center people tend to do stupid things just to go with the flow… like releasing a call, listening to a conversation on the phone when you've already transferred the call or just doing some things on the phone just to avoid answering calls. Unfortunately that’s not the best option. I would not elaborate on this as this is not my story, I just posted this so that other call center professionals would learn from her mistake. The mistake that my friend committed was discovered by our coach and she was given an option either to resign immediately or be terminated. Of course, my friend took the first option though it would mean not being able to get a separation pay and other company perks. Lesson learned: if you need to do something, makes sure that it won't affect your work and if it would, make sure you know your priorities well. I hope my friend would be able to finish her Japanese Language Class soon and be able to fly to Japan to work. When God closes a door, he opens a window – and I know that there would be thousand of windows that would often for a pretty smart and lovable girl like my friend.

VGH GIMIK!

Wow! I really can't believe it! Almost everyday na this week, I've been having "tomaan sessions" with my bekis after naming magVGH (Voluntary Go Home). Since our TL approved the idea of letting us file for VGH if our scorecard is passing and if we are not late - I've been filing for one almost everyday na...and most of the time, naaapprove ang VGH ko 3 hours after my shift. Yahoo! For the longest time, we we're deprived of having VGH because of the call volume on our previous shift which is the last shift for the DSL LOB. Most of the time, Ice- my officemate/friend for the longest time was my usual companion.

Anyways, the first time it happened was last Friday, July 17. At exactly 12:30 am - SLT sent a chat message telling me that I could now go home! Believe me, that was the best chat session I've had since last year. I'm not used to get such a good news early on my shift and if I'll gonna do the mat, I only spent 2.5 hours working in the office. Ice also was sent home so what we did is we went to Banchetto (since it's already Saturday early morning) and decided to have a drink @ Gerry's Grill. We'll just gonna wait for the rest of the gang till 3:00 am (our usual lunch time) so we can still bond with them. We also saw Khim, our former teammate and had a pic taken with him as well. Check on our photos and see how happy we were to be given the time to bond like this. Alien!

hmmm...ano kaya ang iinumin ko?

San Mig Light na nga lang

My toma buddy - Nora

Pakalat kalat din si Khimbash sa Banchetto

With the team, makikipose lang sa Gerrys

PS:
I was kinda disappointed lang kasi I forgot the Lechon Kawali I purchased @ one of the stalls in Banchetto. Parang sobrang mahal din ng bill namin sa Gerrys P520 considering we only got 2 bottles of SMB, 2 rice and a sisig plate for P170. Hay, di bale na nga, sobrang nagenjoy naman kami. My hubby fetched me @ 4:30 am. Check for more after VGH gimik on my next posts...

UNDECIDED

Well, I came to the office at around 3am and I've seen no familiar faces at all. Most likely because I do have the earliest shift in the team which starts at 3:15 am. I just sat on the first available station I've found and got ready to take calls. I was surprised to know that there are is about 15 mins avail time. Wow! I really miss those times when we had ample avail to still have time to chat and bond with our friends thru quickcomm. It's just so happen that lately, things are getting complicated at the office. As I mentioned on my previous posts - the company requires us to comply with all the rules they had recently organized (which most are really not feasible) and would immediately give you DA's if you don't comply. For me, they should have at least asked their employees what they feel regarding such issues before they implement it. There should be at least a dialogue between employees and management to straighten things up. I don't know, I guess we really have no choice. It's the price we have to pay for beeing at the end of the "corporate food chain". Well, I have 2 more years left to endure being an employee and after that - I'm outa here! Hopefully I can manage to save at least ten thousand pesos a month beginning next month so I could finally say goodbye to the corporate world and be my own boss. If it's God's will - it would be done. I hope it would be sooner.

What A Week!

Things are really getting crazy @ the office nowadays. To be honest with you - inspite of my promotion as Senior Tech Specialist and an increase in salary - I am not completely happy at all. Things are really getting tough @ the office. There are a lot of implementations that are really not feasible. For the first time, I felt as if the management are not listening to their employee's sentiments. I just hope there would be some changes that would happen to the way management run the company. I intend to stay till 2012 - 3 years from now so I could get my retirement benefit which I would use as a start up capital to a business - but I am now having second thoughts. I hope I could endure all the pressures I am experiencing right now and I pray things would be better in the next couple of days. The company is indeed the "Largest Call Center in the Philippines" today - I hope they would remember what brought them to the top...their employess. I know they would...I hope they would...

CALL CENTER DO'S AND DONT'S

1) You're having any problems, don't bring them to work. It's easy to get stressed out on a normal day at a call center, but if there's problems at home you'll find yourself treating customers poorly, so try not to stew on personal problems.

2) Always arrive a little bit early, this way you can gauge what the call volume will be like that day and prepare yourself if it's going to be busy.

3) Keep a pen and some paper nearby. Write down everything that isn't sensitive information. This way you won't have to ask customers to repeat themselves, and you can also reference this information even after the customer is gone. This helps eliminate customer hostility and keep you from having to call the customer back.

4) Walk the fine line between friendliness and professionalism. Always adhere to your companies guidelines for professionalism, but try and add personal touches to your call like using the customer's first name.

5) Avoid dead air when you have a customer on the line. Dead air often makes people uncomfortable, and this will make your job harder.

6) Relax, if you have a bad call close your eyes, breath, and calm yourself down. Don't ruin your next call because of a difficult customer.

7) Remember that you wouldn't have a job without customers, try to avoid complaining
about them and instead focus on why you need them.

I Passed my May Scorecard!

I am so happy as I was able to pass my scorecard for May. I received the good news at around 8:30 AM today from my friend Ice. She said I passed with flying colors and God knows how thankful I am for this miracle. For almost two weeks since I received a failing survey, I have always been striving to get a good one and to pass all the other metrics in my scorecard such as AHT (Average Handling Time) and FCR (First Call Resolution). You see, in the call center industry, you need to pass those metrics for you to get a passing scorecard at the end of the month. Failure to pass the scorecard for 3 consecutive months would qualify you for an ADP (Agent Development Plan) in which you need to pass 3 consecutive scorecards else there is a possibility of getting fired or dismissed from your job due to poor performance. Yup, that's the CALL CENTER LIFE. Actually, it's not one of my worries. Since I already passed my 5 consecutive scorecards, failing this month would mean not being eligible for any Internal Job position as the company requires us to pass 3 of your previous SCs befoer you could apply for any internal job openings. I am so happy that I still have a chance to be a part of CISCO - an account in our company that provides ADMIN jobs to their agents. Though it's a TIER 1 account as opposed to the TIER 2 account that I currenty handle, the benefits, tenure and the salary would still be the same. I don't care if I would not be a Tech Support anymore, all I want is to get an ADMIN work with the salary I am getting. I hope God would open a door for me to work for CISCO in the future. Thank you Lord for this wonderful gift and I offer you everything that I have in my life now and forever. Amen.

Introducing: PAUL'S TEETH

Hi everyone! I would like to introduce to you our team - PAUL'S PROPHETS! Actually, it's really not the "formal" name of our team. Our TL hates that name! Hahaha! But he can't do anything about it as majority of us decided to use that name for our team. This picture was taken at Chef De Angelo in Robinson's Galleria. It's a very rare chance for us to spend time with our TL out of the office for some reasons we do understand. Let me introduce my teammates aka dabarkads: Clockwise: Sam, Ice, Me, Melai, Mitch, Imee, Mamu, Dianne and our TL Paul. It's been a tradition on our team that we would spend lunch with each other every after payday and I am happy that our TL was able to make it this time. I am looking forward for more bonding moments with Paul's Teeth!

A Change Of Heart - An Introduction

Believe me, I promised myself I will never work in a call center after I resigned from my previous local call center job. The experience I had from that company was so tragic that I can't help but smile just thinking I am already out of the company. Well, don't get me wrong. I love the company, it's the biggest telecommunications company in the Philippines today and the compensations are superb! I am proud being a part of that company and I will always will. But - it's the job I hate! I don't know, it's not the job I thought it would be. I resigned from my first job (though my Supervisor already offered a me a TL position) because I thought it would be better for me to work in a different company with a different job description and not the routinary paperwork job that I used to have...but my dream of getting a better job had turned into dismay and I can't recall a day in which I did'nt wish to resign. I really felt that I am not mentally challenged with the job and I told myself that I will not go back in the call center industry...but here I am. Almost 3 years working as a tech support in one of the leading call center company here in the Philippines. Why? Well, I would have to let you see for yourself. I would let you take a peek through my daily experiences with the company, with my co workers, with my superiors... and hopefully through that - you will find the answer why I am still working as a call center girl and why I again took the job I once dreaded so much.

Enjoy!