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I guess we can all agree that this song is far from being brilliant, but hey, it does echo my sentiments when I was still in the call center industry. I don’t know about other call center agents (representatives, specialists, whatever), but I saw a call center job as a temporary thing. An oasis in the job hunting desert of the Philippines. An oasis I gladly left approximately one year ago.
Towards the end of 2005, I got frustrated with my first job, so I decided to quit and look for a better one. Why? Php8,000 per month didn’t really make my comics-reading, movies-seeing, and beer-chugging lifestyle happy. I just started browsing for job openings online when somebody from Convergys Alabang called me to hook me up with a job interview. I used to look down upon the call center industry and its boisterous agents. “Glorified answering machines” I used to call them. But hey, the job’s in Alabang, which is geographically acceptable for me since I live in Sta. Rosa, Laguna (where the magic is!). And people always say that call center pay is topnotch. So what the hell, right?
I was thinking “If I don’t get hired, no biggie. I’ll just continue looking for a computer science-related job. If I do get hired, then beer’s on me.” In my head, I didn’t give a shit if I’ll be hired or not. So, straight from an overnight date with Red Horse, I went to CVG Alabang for the initial interview. I swear, I think I used up half a bottle of perfume to mask my lovely beer smell. I was half-drunk and half-retarded during the interview, but apparently, alcohol improves my English. I got invited back for an exam and a final interview, which surprisingly led to a job offer. Success! I was officially given a few months to earn some cash while looking for my next “real” job. Since my heart wasn’t really into answering calls from irate Americans all night, I gave myself 2 months, tops. I ended up being a “call boy” for 9 expletive-filled months.
The first couple of months were spent in training. Girl-watching all night. Dicking around in the training room from PM to AM. Cigarette breaks spent making fun of gays, dudes who look like gays, and fat chicks. Drama inside and outside the company walls. Going to work drunk or with a wicked hangover. It was college all over again. I honestly had a blast with my co-trainees, and what made things more awesome was the fact that we were getting paid to have fun. And maybe to learn a few things. I practically forgot to continue hunting for another job.
The party atmosphere continued beyond the training months and into the production floor, and I told myself “Jeepers! Maybe I’ll stick around for a couple more months.” 4 months in and I was still having a fantastic work experience. On “The Floor”, I met more people to dick around with. More new friends. More hot chicks. And with them, more money for beer, movies, and comics. I was like “Okay, 6 months. Get regularized before ditching this place. Sounds like a plan. High five, self!” Yeah, I totally forgot the whole “temporary I-gotta-get-a-ComSci-job oasis” thing.
By the time I was regularized, I’ve already built strong and warm relationships with my teammates, my team lead, station-stealing assholes, smoke-puffing hotties, and other random CVG characters. Sure, the job itself was a mean hair-pulling stress machine (At least once a day, I say “FUCK IT! I SPENT 7 YEARS STUDYING COMPUTER SCIENCE IN UP FUCKING LB FOR THIS?!“) and it sometimes made me want to quit real bad, but said strong and warm relationships made it all worth it. So, yeah. Pay was good, people were good, location was good, s’all good. Until people started to leave. Dammit.
Shortly after my 7th month, things started to go to hell. Suddenly, talking to cussin’ rednecks and jive-talkin’ ghetto brothas became totally unbearable. I could’ve blamed office politics. I could’ve blamed the departure of several teammates, including my team lead, for greener and less stressful pastures. I could’ve blamed the decline in my social activities outside the CVG environment. I could’ve blamed my health-punishing EST body clock. But I didn’t blame anything or anyone. It was inevitable. The temporary nature I forced on my call center job was realized. As far as I was concerned, the oasis had dried up. It was time, finally, to move on.
Around this time last year, towards the end of my 9th month in Convergys, I quit. I felt that I’ve already had the best time I could possibly have in the company and it was all downhill from there. In a masochistic dumb way, I do miss taking in headache-inducing calls, pushing the mute button while shouting expletives, telling customers that my name is “Jimmy Santos” followed by a repulsive snicker, and hearing ear-shattering “GINO, MAGBENTA KA!!! (GINO, UPSELL!!!)” cries from my team lead, but the things I really miss the most are the good times with my CVG peeps. And the anonymous chicks who let me smell their hair.
The job may have been temporary, but the warm memories and retarded stories with awesome people are goddamn permanent.
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I need a hug.
But seriously, I feel exactly the same way you do about my first job. Spent almost 2 years with a dying company, but the people made it all worthwhile. And no job since then was ever the same.
I’m really fed up with my current company (you know what that is, no need to mention it). I seriously need a normal job.
@Pau: Yeah. It’s funny how people can make even the suckiest of jobs worthwhile.
@Ade: Quit as soon as you can dude. In the long run, nothing sucks more than having a job you don’t really love.
Group hug, guys! No holding hands, though. That’s gay.
I can’t blame people who decided to leave. hay… Miss na kita Ginobebe! (–,) TL nako,SS na si James. kita mo nga naman…
Then go look for the job that you want. No harm in being jobless for a while.
You said it brother. I for one feel miserable for having an unhealthy lifestyle and doing sucky tasks. But it all boils down to the monies. And the chicks. And helping people fix their computers. Not really.
Surprisingly enough, the name Jimmy Santos befits you.
@Chel: He congrats! And congrats to James too! Painom kayo! Hehe.
@Steel: Yes to Jimmy Santos. I actually spokening like him in the call center job street. My closing spiel was “I lab yuuu… twee tiiimes… a daaay.”
hello gino,
have not been by in a while.
decided to check and see how my baddie is doing. (again with the bretis)
i have not gone deeper into the months i have missed.
so, did you finally get a job be-fitting your education?
did i?
as it is, laba, luto, linis pa rin ako.
stay in pa.
but it pays the bills. :)
enjoyed your call-boy post.
best,
chesca
i probab;y understan where you’re coming from, working in a call centre. especially if you have a caller like me he he he
@Chesca: Don’t worry, you didn’t really miss anything. Heh. Actually, I’ll be celebrating my first year in my awesome ComSci-friendly job soon. So that’s an achievement. Heh. Hope to hear more from you!
@blogOloco: Some of the most rattling callers I talked to were Pinoys. Heh.
I hope I can stay longer than a year in this goddamn industry.