First Work Experience

I've been quite depressed lately. The main reason I feel so down is because I quit my job because I really felt that I would have a new job by now, but then... No. It just doesn't happen that way. Again, my divination failed me.

Last Monday (not this past Monday), while supping, I felt that I really really don't feel like going to work at all. I don't want to answer a call, even if I believe I could resolve most of the requests of the callers. I don't like the work and I could just go ahead and find a new one. Of course, my problem is my status as a student or as a graduate, but I just thought that there would be companies who would understand, and even if I could not get to "graduate" (PLEASE LORD, DON'T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN) if I just prove to them that I am an asset then they could forget about it. But I don't want to go to work.

So as I was eating, I blurted out, "Ma, ayaw kong pumasok."

She just said, "O sige." She already had an idea about my growing dissatisfaction with my work.

Another thing about the work is that it's so routinized that I really feel like a robot, even if I tell myself that I am not and that I shouldn't be. The last day I worked, my voice was so soft and so monotonous as compared to my first day it really got me depressed. I don't want to go and work just because I had to work. I know that even if I did not study it in UP. A company could do better than to have a workforce that are like robots, and live only during their breaks and lunch times.

And this got me thinking about several things.

First off, my mother has been working in the industry for seven years. In fact, for just one company. Five or six years spent as an agent, answering calls and requests and trying to resolve issues of people. And now I know that the sacrifices were bigger than what people thought. I felt pity and shame, and I was really resolved to find a job, get a high salary, and save my mom from this cruel industry.

Another is of course, the business process outsourcing industry, specifically the call centers as they are called. I remember this was supposed to be the industry for our BA 129 paper. Sayang, ang hirap kasing kumuha ng data, maraming hindi publicly listed at hindi magiging reliable ang data kung hindi namin ma-t-track lahat ng companies.

The industry, as I said, is cruel – in some fashion. The way I see it, it's basically composed of voice services – those that involve voice, having to talk to the consumers themselves; and non-voice – working without having to talk to people and be stressed over their snide comments about you. Both has its good and oh-dear-save-me-from-this-industry characteristics. And, based on what I observed, most of the companies that do off-shoring are those from the United States or Europe – those with a very high market share which means larger concerns and/or complains about their product/service.

Non-voice, since I don't really have an idea about it (I was in the industry for just a month and a half, you know, so all this is just based on what I gathered in those months, plus what stories my mom would spare), I just see it as kind of a backstage type of industry. You don't have to talk to customers, so what it might be doing is try to check on accounts, update the system especially those that have many information and the cleaning process is not a priority of the system so that people had to do it manually... Something like that. So, in some ways and mostly better, it's more preferable than the voice functions. However, I think the work is also routinized that you'd soon get bored with it. Also, since it does not really require as much multitasking as a voice agent has to do, I guess it has a lower salary range than voice (when in the same company).

Voice agents, hands up to them, guys. They have to answer (if it's inbound type) or call (if it's outbound type) and have to talk to customers. If you think it's an easy job, PLEASE... No jobs are easy once you get to do it. Anyway, the reason it's so stressing is that you have to talk to people. That means communication, and it has to be effective. You have to deliver a message, and especially if it's outbound, you have to get a message in return (Communications people would explain this better than I do, just try to follow it). Once the other party does not understand the other, then it's really hard to achieve the goal. It's like you're not speaking the same language at all. And that's what makes it hard, especially if the customers you are talking to are half a world a way in terms of geography and culture.

On what I experienced, I've learned that Americans are quite hard to talk to (even if we were advised that most of the people we would be talking to are part of the richer parts of the society since the product and its service is quite expensive). Of course I am speaking because I have a different culture, so please forgive me for that, but I would also like to say that I'm not that naive and there are parts of our culture that I don't really understand or like as well. Anyway, most of them don't bother to try to find things out for themselves. I understand that, however, it is because they are really busy kinds of people and time is like always running away from them. But still, I think it reflects a lot on both cultures – mine and theirs. We Filipinos, even if we might be time-conscious (I wish to claim to be one, but I still am tardy half of the time), really regard time as kind of something that is always there, and we hate to hurry (and I hope we have our own good reasons for it, like, we wouldn't enjoy life as it is if we hurry so much, stuff like that); Americans, on the other hand, want to do as much as they could from the time given them.

But of course, I really haven't worked that long to be able to have a greater idea about Americans, so please don't use this as some kind of “Oh, Americans are like that and like this blah blah” because I've only talked to Americans for three weeks. And I might just be grumbling because I hated that kind of work. But I really did hate it when the customers started blaming me for the system. I mean, I could put notes that they complained about the system, but why complain on ME, or complain OF ME? I don't have more idea on the system of receiving and rerouting their calls than they have...

By Friday night, I went to hand in my resignation letter. I didn't feel heavy at all, and I know that, maybe this might be the right thing.

I'm doubting that since the interview I was counting on, and the job offer I was counting on hopefully, was postponed until February. Well, I believe God has a reason, and whatever that reason may be, I won't give up on it.