Confessions of a Call Center Agent

by: Silver

In an industry where hopping from one company to another is a subculture that's natural, working in one company is something that is admired, adored, amused and all the good words that goes along with it. I used to ask my mentors for reasons as to why they stay longer. Whatever the reasons were, it did not make an impact that time. It did not make sense. I mean, who wants to stay longer in a company for a long time. I just could not imagine it. Perhaps it was the millennial character in me that was kicking in. It diluted my appreciation of tenure and being anchored into a single place. Loyalty was not a word rubbing into me.

Here's my career summary. I started working right after graduation and that was 2007. So it has been 7 seven years since then. Seven years and I have been with seven companies. My shortest stay was three months and the longest is with the current company that I work for. I have been Claims Handler, Customer Service Rep, Hybrid Tech Support, Travel Specialist, Trainer, Team Lead, Universal Agent and a teacher.

So what made me stay?

The environment! Working in big call centers meant that you are a dot. Being able to mingle with the owners or the top executives of the companies is impossible. The distance between you and them is bigger than the pacific ocean. In eBusiness, you normally see the CEO going around and talking to employees. It's an everyday sight to see him asking the agents about their challenges. Sometimes if you did good you will find a note on your station from him with praises like: "Nice work king of sales!" eBusiness and the leadership team can mix the pressure and leisure of working.

The company! I know that I mentioned beforehand that the company looked small. With 70 FTE mostly doing telemarketing, it was small back then. That experience was humbling considering that I have not worked as a telemarketer. I was a good seller but for people who called in to inquire not me calling them and asking if they would want to buy something that they don't need. So I asked for them to let me start as an agent. I needed to get my bearings straight. Interacting with the agents that I will lead was worth it. Knowing their pain was something that numbers can't describe. But what really helped me was knowing that I did not belong to a team. I was part of a family who cared for each other. Everybody knows everybody. It was in here that I felt human. I was not a seat filler with an 034276 employee number. I felt my individuality amidst the conglomeration of everyone. The pain of adjustment that I normally feel when I start with something new was never felt. Having no relatives here in Cebu that time the company became my family.

Being young! Working for a young company meant that I have an environment with newbies from provinces around the Cebu or Mindanao. Other centers might consider this as dreadful. But I actually felt good and as part of the leadership it was better to work with them. Their concepts and ideas of the industry has not been tainted with the practices of veterans. Training and leading them is a challenge but they will always follow. It makes working easy because you know that they trust your every move or decision. Being with young minds also means being in the presence of people whose concept of the world is different. Their idealism and dreams makes leaders like me remember my college days. It challenges me to seek for better ways. Like them I am millennial but it is really helpful to lead characters like this. They learn from you and I learn from them.



My feet brought me one morning to a company located on the 15th floor of a building near Ayala. Their ad was on a corner of the Sunday paper that I borrowed from my friend. I was desperately looking for a job that time. I have to admit. When I saw the production area I was not thinking of staying for six months. I thought of making it as a stepping stone. The company was obviously small. My experience was shouting out so loud that I don't belong. But I wanted a job. Three years later, I'm the Operations Manager of eBusiness BPO. Looking back at my chaotic past I could not wish to change it. My failures were a potter's hands that made me the person that I am today.

NOT A HEAVENLY JOB: CALL CENTER AGENT

picture source: http://lifetimehealthtips.blogspot.com/2010/06/lifetime-health-problems-of-call-center.html

CALL CENTER JOB? You think it's the best? 

The revenue of the BPO industry in the Philippines is big. Most renowned is it's call center wing wherein it employs a lot of people. As a country who uses English naturally there is a lot of talent out there. Talents, that are eager to join. 

Philippines is a poor country. A third world country to be more descriptive. Inflation is jumping like a wild horse. The unemployment rate is horrible. A county whose record in the papers of economy is growing but in reality a suffering one. There is a perfect mix that is evident. Us being able to speak English and flexible if not exposed to the Western side of trend is concoction with a superb effect. Not only that, let us not forget that because of the current salary that regular people "enjoy" the average young "Juan" has two choices when he or she graduates. Number one, sell everything that your parents has. This is to pay for a placement fee to hopefully work abroad. I am emphasizing "HOPEFULLY". Number two, to those who has the "talent of the tongue". To those who can speak English, there is a clear path ahead - become a call center agent. Being a son of an OFW I selected the second path. I don't want to produce another one of me who spent my days (up to current) seeking for a father. 

Let me get this straight! This write up is not to discourage anyone who wants to join the industry. I write to let those who aspire think - clearly!

Here are my reasons:

1. SALARY:  Let me explain it in the best way that I can. If you work for a multi-million dollar call center you will get a lot. But if you work for a Small to Medium Enterprise it's a different case. A big company is like an expensive couch. It has a lot of cushion in it. For the other one though, it has enough to survive and make you comfortable. Here's the irony that you need to accept. Aiming for the big boys would be like passing through the eye of the needle. They have tough filters. So if you're new and is not too confident you might as well think of other options. Both of these companies though measures your salary depending on your skill on how well you glide your vowels during the interview. 

2. LANGUAGE SKILL: Not all call center academy gives you a key to the production floor. There is a possibility that some of these institutions are just driven by money, deals that they cut with some call centers with voiced accounts mostly. It's all about sending recruits that were "trained". It's all about the volume of people that they pass-along the pipeline. Motivations that lowers the quality of the people seeking their enlightenment that would help them get the piece of the action. So before you pay for training, think! Free training, is another lucrative way of positively scripting the real intention of the business. It's not free because in reality a partner center pays them and you must go there to apply. If you don't make it there, there are two possibilities. One, you're not ready because. Number two the training module is outdated and ineffective. Which is true to some extent. And there's another one which is, this path is not meant for you. My point? Nothing beats practice, practice and watching a lot of Hollywood movies. I swear it works. Oh, some call centers offer free training wherein you'll get a job once you passed. I think that's better. 

3. EXPERIENCE: Hopping from one call center to another is not the right way of gaining experience. Each company that you go to is not a scout badge that you can show around. The more centers that you've been to and have not stayed for at least a year is an anchor that would bring your dreams or career down. It's a way of making it worse for you. Trust me, I've been there and done that. It's a given, you will make that mistake to choose the wrong center. Now unless they are beating their employees suck it up and do your job. Again, trust me I know what I'm talking about. Learn as much as you can in as much as you can from where you are right now. Experience has a different view these days. It is. Number one, how much you learned. Number two, the training that you absorbed. Number three, how well you execute what you learned. Number four, how loyal you are. Number five, how you dealt with the adversities that you encountered. So quitting is not really gonna cut it for you! Let me say this again: "believe me, I know!" 

4. LEAVING: When to leave? I cannot tell you the exact time. Here's how I would prepare myself. One, think of it a lot times. If it is an incident that caused you to make the decision. Just breath out and breath in! Think - a lot of times. If you think you are not happy. Do something that would make you, during your rest days. Give it until the end of the year (so that you can get your thirteen month pay and possibly tax refund). OK? Make sure you smile a lot. And if you are manager or a team lead right now... I will make another article for you!

5. NBI Clearance: If you are not ready to spend long hours in a line that moves slower than a turtle don't change jobs! However, they said it's faster these days considering the online option. But honestly, I still haven't tried it. 

This job is for people who can suck it up when a Customer is shouting at you. Individuals who can still smile even if 90% of your sales calls is NOT INTERESTED. When you can still be motivated at every time you see your name at the bottom of 900+ agents. This job is not heavenly it's a lifestyle for a special breed!

That's it for now folks!

A Call Center Agent's solution to Job Burn Out

picture source: http://jobcontax.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/do-you-have-job-burnout/

by: Silver Cepeda

Made a quick survey over Facebook. I asked some of my friends who worked in call centers located in Manila and Cebu. The question was very simple. Who do you work for? Their answers were quick. Someone answered that he worked for Convergys, others Aegis People Support and another branding their company in all capital letters STREAM! Answers like, "I work for the big ten call center" was a bit off the grid. There were others who deemed to be silent with no answers at all. It would not be important then since whatever they may have said, it was not the answer that I was looking for. For me, they were all wrong no matter how they present it. Well, to go with the flow I work for EBusiness BPO. Unfortunately, this is also wrong!

There is a deadly disease in our industry - the call center! Fortunately it is not related to smoking! Nevertheless, it is still deadly because it kills the person, the agent who is the frontline of production.That disease is called Job Burn Out!

I read an article written by Dawn Rosenberg McKay a career planning professional. Let me summarize her point.

First, Rosenberg defines it as "exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration". It usually happens to people with people that works harder and longer hours to prove their worth. In addition it is also experienced by people who worked for something but then would not receive any gratitude for what they did.Concrete events are when there are no raise and no promotion. The third one that she mentioned as the cause of this is being in the wrong career. You can be in the right career but wrong job! 

In a call center set up the effects can be a lot let me discuss a few. It starts when you wake up. When your alarm clock rings! There are two reactions that instantly comes into your head. If its, "I don't want to face my boss or any colleague today so I'm gonna call in sick". That is the start! Next, you go to work and everything feels very heavy like as if the foundation of your twenty storey building is on your shoulder. Then it is starting to crawl up. You feel this way but you are not sick! In fact you just got back from your fake illness. Inbox piles up! The workload is mounting up. And then, you feel that you are not worth anything. The conclusion, is AWOL or resignation.  

The solution? Let me say this first. I am not a psychologist. In contrary I am a Philosophy graduate, poised to critically analyze any given situation. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I am not in authority. Hence, I write from my own experience. There  is a simple way to resolve this disease when it starts or before it does. Before,  I use to wonder why people who are married or with children stay longer in the company or those people who are the bread winners in the family. I happened to talk to one. She was a colleague of mine, a mother with no husband. She said, "I stay longer because of my child!" This conversation made me get the answer that I was looking for. I do not work for the company. Well, yeah I do! But the reason why I work long hours or at night is because of the people who love me. 

There is no glory when you think that you work for your company no matter how big the salary is. It is not the "primal cause". I used to answer irate calls from customers who are basically  pissed off about something. No matter how my supervisor would convince me to let it go - it does not! Someway or another it goes into my system. And just imagine answering to sixty in a day! But I will let you in to one of my secret. If such an event happen and I feel really down. I go to Jolibee with my daughter and buy spaghetti for her. Watching her devour the whole serving makes me smile and energizes me to answer a hundred and twenty irate callers. My point, think of those people who loves you. That is the secret! If you go to the office thinking that you are doing this because your grandmother asked for a Louis Vuitton handbag for Christmas it is worth it compared to, a reason of pleasing your handsome boss. Her smile is more precious than a pat in the back! Pleasing your boss is not a good goal if you want to stay in the company or in this case a call center. Believe me there will be someone who is or will be better than you. And his standard or the company's standard will definitely change through time specially in this industry. A better concept then is you want to be the best or a top seller becuase it pays high. When it pays high you and the person you love would live better. Always consider the primal cause because it will never change. It is something that you can get hold of. The company's metrics will change as the client's demand increases. So chasing it would cause you long hours, added pressure, and stress. Once you reach it then what's next? Job burn out, that's what's next!  Trust me I have done that with my previous jobs. Chase your ambition not because you want to be glorified but because you want to make the people who matters happy. I just want to say that it is all about the reason! Once you have the right one then it is not hard to work at all no matter what your manager wants from you.

Now, what if you are single? The answer to that is not to make your own family. I know that you have your own. And when I say family, I meant the Filipino concept of the word that includes grand parents, aunts and cousins. There is always someone who will show attention, gratitude and care in a constant manner. Once you found that someone. Share your achievements. Make it your goal to make yourself and that person happy. When that happens, your existence in the company has a reason and a higher pupose. Thus, you are motivated to work hard rather than be forced to do so!

So going back to Rosenberg's definition. With my method the agent take to himself/herself an inspiration from the people who loves him/her. Hence, experiencing gratitude with whatever he does. It does not matter now that your boss shouted at you before you logged out because your child's embrace can easily wipe it out. It does not matter if you fail to meet the metrics last month because your grand mother thinks your the best! Then be the best for next month. One cannot be exhausted of emotional strength if you have such a good support system. So change your focus from being company-centric to loved-one-centric for you to have a good output and longer service!

Hence, if I am asked as to who do I work for. I would say that I work for that person below. She is my daughter. Her name is Mishka Mikhaela Cepeda. She is the most beautiful girl in the world! And she is the reason why everyday I want to be a better supervisor.