DEFINITION OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Somehow whenever i read this article i remember a part of me and ponder if being a Filipino Sailor is really worth it. This article I've read is very neutral and doesn't really show or give the big picture of whats really happening on the maritime industry in the Philippines. Anyway my blog is based on the perspective of a Deck Cadet / Ordinary Seaman prospective.

They say here that the minimum base pay was 450 USD for the lowest rank, but when i got there i was earning only 305 USD based on the contract i signed, but the actual money i was being paid when i went working is just roughly 275 USD. Somehow i feel cheated and that the contract I signed was UNFAIR worst was that they kicked me out after enduring the maltreatment and serving them loyal.

Look closely and the article says there are around 280,000 who *graduate* (AMT and not BSMT) and the actually numbers of overall combined Filipino sailors from 1987 up to present are just 200,000 to 250,000 more or less. What I'm saying is that there is a huge discrepancy in the numbers of unemployment and that only a years number of *Graduating* students can easily overrun combined numbers of sailors of 25 years.

If you would go over the math , you can obviously see (even if your not a mathematician at all) that the numbers that actually get on board each years is something close to less than 20 percent each year and that the rest of the graduates are just languishing in unemployment or end up doing something not related. Those few who get accepted will face hardship of being overworked, underpaid and being harassed by fellow Filipino sailors.

Frankly speaking , being a Filipino Sailor sucks on some extent and sometimes i can't help but question my loyalty towards being a sailor. For the other people reading this , i guess its only up to you alone to judge for yourself' if my words contradicts other people idealism. Its my word against their's.....

This is the *Real* meaning of a Filipino Sailor based on an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia.


Link to the article is this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_seamen

Filipino seamen, also referred to as Filipino seafarers or Filipino sailors, are seamen, sailors, or seafarers from the Philippines. Although, in general, the term "Filipino seamen" may include personnel from the Philippine Navy or the Philippine Marine Corps, it specifically refers tooverseas Filipinos who are "sea-based migrant Filipino workers".^[1]

Filipino seaman throwing the ball of the mooring rope.

Contents   [hide]  1 Training and qualification 2 Statistics 2.1 On board Japanese ships 2.2 On board United States ships 2.3 On board FOC ships 2.4 Maritime incidents and casualties 3 Salary 4 Contribution to Philippine economy 5 Contribution to world trade 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

[edit]Training and qualification

Aspiring Filipino seamen are required to acquire degrees such as Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation and Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering from maritime schools. According to Miguel Angel Rocha, the vice-president for business development of CF Sharp Crew Management, Inc., one of the leading manning companies in the Philippines, there are around 80 to 100 maritime schools in the Philippines who offer these degrees. The courses had a three-year curriculum composed of classroom instruction and 12-months on-board training. After the course, the candidates will have to take the seaman’s state board exam.^[1]

In order to become a registered seaman in the Philippines, applicants should have a valid seaman's certificate from the Philippine Coast Guard, a document that proves that the applicant passed the minimum standard requirements as a licensed mariner for the seamanship profession and trade.^[2] The required seaman training certification is known as the Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW), and is in accordance with the rules and regulatons of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).^[3] Professional registration is done through the National Seamen Board (NSB) and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).^[2]

[edit]Statistics

There are around 280,000 students who graduate from maritime schools every year.^[1] There are around more than 200,000^[4] to 250,000^[5]Filipinos employed as seamen worldwide, more than any other nationality.^[5] According to an article in OFWGuide.com Salary Guide for Filipino Seamen one out of every five seamen in the world is a Filipino. The Philippines is one of the primary source of seamen in the global shipping and transport market. Filipino seamen are often recruited to man tankers and sea vessels from countries, including those from North America, South America, Europe and Asia,^[1] such as Japan, the United States, Panama, Liberia, Cyprus, Bahamas, Jamaica, Greece, Malta, Singapore, Norwayand the Republic of Germany. Their employment contract can be from seven to eight months on average.^[4]

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the Philippines is the world’s main supplier of seamen since 1987, making the Philippines the manning capital of the world. According to the Department of Labor and Employment of the Philippines, around 229,000 Filipino seamen were on board merchant shipping vessels around the world at any given time,^[1] The figure showed that Filipino seamen comprised more than 25 percent of 1.5 million mariners worldwide, the "single biggest nationality bloc" in the shipping industry.^[6] In 2007, according to the POEA, there were 1,157 seamen (869 in 2006) from the Philippines who had been employed by registered or accredited manning agencies.^[1]

In 2007, the figure of Filipino seamen overseas was 226,900. Included in the total - according to job function - 31,818 were designated or ranked as seamen; 19,491 as oilers; 17,355 as ordinary seamen; 7,810 as mess men; 7,778 as chief cooks; 7,737 as bosuns; 7,056 as third engineers; 6,599 third mates; and 6,388 as waiters.^[1] Based on the type of ship, 47,782 Filipino seamen were on board passenger-type vessels; 42,356 were on bulk carriers; 31,983 were on container ships; 25,011 were on tankers; 14, 462 were on oil or product tankers; 10,754 were on general cargo ships; 7,502 were on chemical tankers; 6,610 were on tugboats; 5,742 were on pure care carriers; and 3,471 were on gas tankers.^[1]

[edit]On board Japanese ships

In 2009, during the 28th joint meeting of the Japan-Philippines Economic Cooperation Committee senior adviser of Komatsu Ltd. Toshitaka Hagiwara declared that 70% of Japanese maritime operations were manned by Filipinos seamen. According to president and chief executive officer of Magsaysay Maritime Corporation Doris Magsaysay-Ho, there were more than 28,000 Filipino crewmembers on board Japanese ships. Although classified as “non-domiciled special members”, Filipino seamen comprised 55% of the membership of the All Japan Seaman’s Union.^[7]

[edit]On board United States ships

Filipino sailors of the US Navy met byPhilippine President Benigno Aquino III in the hangar bay aboard the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) on 14 May 2011.

In August 2007, according to Captain Rudy Lupton, commanding officer of the USS Blue Ridge (also known as LCC 19) – the command ship in the Pacific of the 7th fleet of the United States – around 120 (one-sixth) of the 650 seamen of the USS Blue Ridge was Filipino.^[7]

[edit]On board FOC ships

A substantial number of Filipino seamen worldwide were often employed by FOC ships or "sweatships", meaning ships that were registered in a country (flag of registry of FOR) other than the country of ownership where registration fees were cheap, taxes are low or non-existent, and there were lax restrictions on the employment of cheap labor.^[8] According to the ITF, there were about 20,906 FOC ships in 2003, including ships from Panama, Liberia, Cyprus, Malta, and the Bahamas. A third of Panamian-flagged ships were crewed by Filipino seamen, 12.8% of Liberian-flagged ships were crewed by Filipino seamen, 11% of Cypriot-flagged ships were crewed by Filipino seamen, 8.2% of Malta-flagged ships were crewed by Filipino seamen, 7.9% of Bahamas-flagged ships were crewed by Filipino seamen.^[8] Below is a table comparing figures of Filipino seamen on board FOC ships in 2002^[8] and in 2007, in order to show the statistical trend:^[1]

Table 1: Deployment/assignment of Filipino seamen

Flag/Country of registration	Number of Filipino seamen on board in 2007[1]	Number of Filipino seamen on board in 2002[8]
Panama	51,614	50,651
Bahamas	29,681	26,164
Liberia	21,966	18,653
Singapore	10,308	6,492
Marshall Islands	9,772	no data available
United Kingdom	8,172	6,382
Malta	7,513	8,614
Cyprus	7,052	9,324
The Netherlands	7,017	no data available
Norway	6,975	11,682
Greece	no data available	5,699
Japan	no data available	4,698

[edit]Maritime incidents and casualties

The shipping industry and seaman profession were not without incident or peril. There were maritime disasters that resulted in the loss of life of and injury to Filipino seamen. The following is a table showing some events in recent years that caused harm or death to seamen from the Philippines while on assignment abroad:^[8]

Table 2: Maritime incidents and Filipino seamen casualties^[8]

Date	Maritime case/incident	Location of case/incident	Name(s) of ship(s)	Type of ship	Flag of ship	Number of Filipino seamen affected	Description of casualties
20 November 1994	Ship caught fire	Off coast Norfolk, Virginia	Polydoros	Cargo ship	no information	1	Death
January 1995	Collision of ships while approaching port	Constanta, Romania	Paris and You Xin	no information	Malta and Hong Kong	23	Declared missing
February 1995	Ship leaked while transporting lumber	Sailing towards Koreawhile in waters ofJapan	Sun River II	Cargo ship	Panama	10	Drowned in freezing waters
21 August 1995	Explosion on ship due to bursting oxygen and acetylene tanks	no information	African Evergreen	Cargo ship	Liberia	7	3 deaths, 4 injuries
20 June 1986	Collision of ships	no information	Polydefkis and Anna Spiratou	no information	Cyprus and Greece	24	Declared missing
16 January 1998	Sinking of ship	Off the Newfoundlandcoast	The Flare	Bulk carrier	Cyprus	16	Death
22 July 1998	Sinking of ship	Off Kharg Island, Iran	Borvigilant	Tugboat	United Arab Emirates	9	6 deaths, 3 survivors
December 1998	Disappearance of ship	Taiwan Strait	Pixy Mario	Cargo ship	Panama	19	Declared missing
25 August 1999	Ship explosion	Mid-Atlantic	Karteria	Bulk carrier	Malta	3	2 deaths, 1 survivor with broken back and burns
2 November 1999	Capsizing of ship in calm seas	no information	Mighty Servant 2	Heavy load carrier	Netherlands Antilles	2	Death
24 March 2009	Sinking of ship	no information	Leader L	Bulk carrier	Panama	13	Death
1 November 2009	Sinking of ship	Off the coast ofTaiwan	Manila Spirit	Bulk carrier	Panama	12	Death
8 November 2009	Sinking of ship during a storm	Near Dansol,Pangasinan, Philippines	Ho Feng 8	Cargo ship	Panama	3	Survived after drifting at sea for 3 days
25 July 2002	Ship ran aground during a storm	Off the southwest coast of Japan	Co-op Venture	Bulk carrier	Panama	3	Drowned
9 December 2002	Explosion in ship due to high-pressure air leak	Off the coast ofNewcastle, Australia	The Golden Bridge	Bulk carrier	Panama	1	Death after sustaining head injuries
21 February 2003	Capsizing of ship in rough seas	Off a remote island in Japan	Pendora	Cargo ship	Panama	16	4 presumed dead, 12 survivors rescued

[edit]Salary

The salary of Filipino seamen varies according to their position and is dependent on the employer or the hiring company. Their entitlements included benefits such as medical insurance, standby pay for senior officers, and good performance bonus for officers.^[4] In the 1980s, the minimum pay set by the International Transport Workers' Federation for able-bodied (AB) seamen was around US$800 monthly, including fringe benefits, holiday pay, and overtime pay. Based on the bill by TUCP secretary general and former Philippine Senator Ernesto Herrera,^[1] the lowest pay for a Filipino seaman aboard foreign ships was US$450 monthly, which was based on the minimum pay of US$276 set by the International Labor Organization as the monthly base pay for an able-bodied seaman who is the lowest ranking crewmember of a ship.^[2]

According to Manolo I. Abella's Export of Filipino Manpower, the statistics from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) of the Philippines indicated that there were 18,293 Filipino marine engineers and 15,965 deck officers registered with the PRC in 1976. The registry of the National Seamen's Board (NSB) had 82,373 registrants during the beginning of July 1977. From the 82,373, 20.9% (17,255) were registered as qualified ship officers, the reset were registered as qualified crewmen.^[2]

[edit]Contribution to Philippine economy

Filipino seamen is a major segment of overseas Filipino workers who contributed to the Philippine economy. Filipino seamen had been a major source of US dollar remittances to the Philippines. In 2008, according to Doris Magsaysay-Ho, 28,000 Filipino seamen remitted US$3 billion to the Philippines from Japan alone.^[7] According to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the total of financial remittances sent to the Philippines by overseas Filipino seamen was US$2.501 billion during the first nine months of 2009 (US$2.393 billion in 2008).^[1]

[edit]Contribution to world trade

In 2010, according to the Business Monitor, Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, the secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) described Filipino seamen as sailors who were “unsung heroes” of an “unsung industry”, namely the shipping industry that carried “most of theworld trade in goods”. Mitropoulos further stated that the “international community should pay tribute to the Filipino seafarers” and to the Philippines for their contributions to the shipping and international seaborne trade.^[6] On a similar note, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon hoped that many Filipino youth would join the seamen's profession.^[6

CALLS AND TELEPHONE HANDLING

No ID cards were yet issued for our batch here in TRANSCOM and when I checked at the reception area in the fourth floor of the building I only get to see that only five of my co trainee's had been issued with an ID, the rest which includes me still have no  company I'd yet. The five co-trainee's of mine who had an ID was "Alan", "Dan" , "Jason", "Mark" and another one which I can't remember.

In other news

Most my co-trainees were terribly worried about our actual calls, "Mico" seems to be calm though she says that she will do her best on those calls , "Mcvin" was in Anxious and the same thing goes to "Gwen" and "Rose" , while me an "Jason" were not worried at all and was very calm probably because we knew that the QA is will not listening on this one and this is just some sort of Phone exercise.

At 11pm Norman (our trainer) told us to go to the 4th Floor production area to hear some live calls that agents are handling, We stayed there for about an hour and listened to the calls , Then after which we were ordered to go back to the "Palawan" training room to have our issued headsets given. 

There is nothing much to say about the head sets, Seriously and all I could comment is that the headset is somewhat not that as good and impressive as the "PLATRONICS" brand that I used way back in TELETECH Company.  For everyone's information the Headset brand , We were using is a "JABRA" brand.

A few minutes later after all of our headsets were given, Norman told us to go to the 5th floor production area (just right beside our training room) to our assigned stations and get our software tools ready. Minutes later we clicked in our "ready icon" on the soft phone and we were now "Live". I was expecting that there would be a flood of calls the moment I clicked the icon - To my surprise there was none and an hour pass not a single call came.

 Aside from getting bored waiting for a call , I was starting to feel that I need to take a piss and I left my station and headed towards Norman to ask permission to go to the toilet. To my dismay and horror , he told me to back to my station and said I cant go to the toilet - Son of a Bitch , Bastard !!! What the hell does he want me to do ? Piss on the computer ! - Fine if that's the case ! Hell ! The only reason why I approached him was only because of courtesy and I don’t want to sound disrespectful , but if that will be the case then Fuck courtesy ! Next time I wont ask permission anymore and will be going straight ahead to the toilet, its my fucking personal right to relieve myself on the toilet and piss there - otherwise I'd be pissing on the company computers. My fault on one part and I forgot to remember that we Filipino's are not that humanitarian towards fellow Filipino's.

One good thing of being furiously mad is that I get to have an extra strength to holding my piss.

For the whole four hours of taking calls I only got two calls , one is a customer who hang up after 30 second after getting the call and the other was something asking for enquiries about his broadband contract - and that’s about it.

After the phone exercise, we went back to the training room and was informed to open our online email clients and see the email. Upon opening it was a memo from our trainer reminding us that too many absences will leave us be removed from training (i.e. Fired) and that we have to "digitally" sign the said memo like a some sort of contract. When "DAN" read the email memo , he joking replied "This is more like selling your soul to the devil" , I could only giggle in his hilarious remark and quite frankly he's right. But it's ok and this isn't the first time that I signed unfair contracts.

Second day of taking in calls , but an hour or 30 minutes before we went to the 4th floor production area to barge in a few calls. Me, "Jason", "Mark", "Dustin" and a few others were talking and having a chat on what other call center companies out there would be at suitable in looking for a job. "Dustin" said that he's pretty much committed to getting a job here than anywhere else and said that he's already tired job searching , he added that he'd try to settle as long as he can here if in case things work out.

We discussed a few possible companies "Out there" like "AEGIS 24/7 people's support" (sounds more like a political party than a BPO company) but we all agreed that "AEGIS" pay its employee's too little like only 14K PHP compared here in TRANSCOM which amounts to 16K PHP basic. We also discussed an Australian account based company called "Acquire Asia" which supports DODO and perhaps Telstra  , but apparently from what "Gwen" claimed the work load there was tremendous - So tremendous that she resigned.

A few minutes later , Norman approached us in the 5th Floor cafeteria and told us to prepare and proceed to the 4th floor production area. So we went there and listened to call handling by other telephone operators , Classic stuff then after an hour we went back to the training room for a fifteen minute break then afterwards the usual drill in taking in calls at the fifth floor production area.

My station was seated next to "chard" and we keep asking each other questions when had trouble on callers. So far being a Customer service agent for billing is somewhat problematic for me on the big fact that "call flow" is non-linear which meant that there's no exact step by step call process and i have to think creatively on how to address the customers issue , which apparently takes time for me to *Think*, The only advantage I figured out for the customer service job category is that calls here are very short and fast paced ,lasting only for 5 minutes to 11 minutes tops.

For the actual call handling on this day , I never had any serious problems such as "bill explanation" or "I -Want-to-Talk-To-Your-Supervisor" calls - just had a few transfers , bill payments and general enquires  - nothing to get me distraught. Unfortunately though I handled calls with minimal problems , some of my co-trainee's were not that lucky, "Gwen" encountered a few piss off callers , "Erich" had trouble explaining bill charges to customers , "Rose" was generally ok with the calls, "Dustin" had been transferring callers in a "Cold transfer procedure" , "Mico" on the other hand was disconnecting calls every now and then for various reasons, "Mark" along with "Alan" are the luckiest and were not able to take in calls due to issue's with their log in passwords on the company server. In other words they just watch while we bleed on calls.

("Warm transfer " means that you have to make formal introduction on another telephone operator and informing the situation of the customer before passing it to the *other* operator , while in "Cold transfer" you simply dump and ditch the customer to the other telephone operator and let the operator handle the situation )

At 4am we went back the room for debriefing about our calls and at around 6 am, "Norman" gave an ice breaker . Apparently "Mico" was not in a good mood at that time and was pretty menstrual about being joked at, Resulting to "Mico" bad mouthing to "Norman" and making offensive comments like "This game sucks" and "I'm going to leave this room" . Everyone in the room didn't like how "Mico" was behaving and "Norman" just let "Mico" left the room without saying a word.

 I guess this was a pretty good example that the call center is open minded to all forms of opinion , be it either good or a bad one , It is respected without any backlash or harsh punishments - although some of the time it is taken advantage of. In the Maritime Industry , those things we take for granted at the call center are non existent and if it do exist - it is very limited. No personal freedom there and the right of open expression , If someone even dared to do that - there will be serious retaliation.

On the Next day….

I was so exhausted that I slept the whole day and ended up being waking at around 7pm, barely got 45 minutes to prepare for everything.  Upon arrival at TRANSCOM , I did my usual routine and saw "Dustin" waiting on the cafeteria , then after that I went to the fourth floor to log in to the internet station there and check my FB account then I return back to the fifth floor and saw that "jason" and "mark" are also there with "Dustin" , Soon afterwards some of my co-trainee's arrived one by one .

10 minutes before the Training class begin , "Rose" told me that the Company ID's have already been out at the reception desk - I hurriedly went there and "Rose" was right.

When the class began , All of us were surprised to see that "Norman" was not around and that "Jack" took over his class. Apparently "Norman" went to an unspecified emergency leave and "Jack" had to fill in for him for a day. Initially all of the class perceived her negatively , but later on things lighten up and she wasn't that bad at all . "Dan" even joked to "Jack" , About the meaning of NTE technical term saying that its called "Notice to Explain" instead of being "network terminal equipment" , Everybody laughed on that smart ass comment made by "DAN" .

In other matters…

"Alan" might not be coming back at all and perhaps has gone AWOL , its been three days that he went absent straight and there's little or no chance at all that he'd show up, However in other related matters  "CJ" showed up though he already used up his absences , it seems that he's back in the game or perhaps he's just showing up to get his salary first before going "AWOL".

In other matters also …..

Everyone is expecting and anxious about our salary which also includes me. As a matter of fact "Badong" , "Jason" and "mark" are coming early at TRANSCOM just to get their ATM's from payroll Department.  According to "Rene" the COMPENBIN office is open at least 12 midnight , though she is not sure about the office hours of payroll department. 

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Few days time and I'd be celebrating my one year here marooned and hopelessly out of options on how to go back at sea, In the meantime Inspite of this big setback, I choose to spend my time working in a call center as a form of "Transitional job" .

It’s a very Good thing though that I'm an "Amphibious" kind of a sailor and that I do not entirely relay *economically* working on a ship, In some ways I even think myself to be more advance in some extent than ship officers. Ironic isn't it?  I'm a sailor and yet my skills and traits have somewhat evolved into a land based type, a sailor that can entirely work at land and live without being a *sailor* at all.

Being a call center agent and a sailor at the same time has similarities in some extent. These are that working environment on both of these are isolated and that they have a very own self contained community.  The call center I'm working at (TRANSCOM) has an array of facilities that would make an employee's there live like it was literary a community and shielded from the outside world. Same goes also in working in a ship though some amenities are less than those present in a call center.

The funny thing about TRANSCOM is that it has the complete facilities and amenities for an employee, As a matter of fact TRANSCOM is the most advance and well equip call center I had been so far. It is even far more advance than TELETECH when it comes to facilities, equipment and amenities .

TRANSCOM has four sleeping quarters (two for male and two for female employees), two shower room area's , two locker rooms, a pharmacy store, a cable TV lounge area, Four free internet TV stations, 2 cafeteria's , a very own fast food store (Wendy's fast food) , a billiard's area, a dental clinic, a bank (RCBC Bank), A baggage counter area, very own parking floor, and believe or not a playground for children. These are the amenities an employee get to enjoy and use it for free at TRANSCOM - I haven't even mentioned yet here the usual standard facilities that a call center should have.

Anyway here's what happened at work…

I Arrived early to submit the necessary paper documents needed by the Compensations and Benefits  department (COMPBIN for short) , apparently from what I heard once you didn’t get to submit those documents you wont get your salary - So its IMPERATIVE that I submit those paper documents as soon as possible to catch my salary. I had no problems submitting it to them and everything was in order.

Before the training class starts , I've noticed that some of my co-trainee's were either absent or late - as in very late. By the time we went to the room  , there were only 8 of us. Good thing though that the class was delayed because our trainer was also late as well and that the COMPBIN employee visited us in the room to give an orientation about the compensation and benefits of being an employee here. The rep also clarified the misunderstanding that even though we didn’t get to submit paper documents on time , doesn’t necessarily meant that we wont get our salary. The truth is that were are still able to get our salary along with the ATM card , the only problem is that they wont be releasing the security pins for the ATM which in turn we wont be able to get our money via ATM machine. Funny in the fact that what difference does it get ? To simply put no ATM pin means no money - no money means no salary right ??? She said our only option left was to get the money via encashment on the bank counter, period.

After the orientation , some of my co-trainee's have already arrived and there were now 15 of us.

The lectured we had in the Training room wasn't that interesting really and "Norman" gave us a few icebreakers just to keep the boredom away. One of the "Ice Breaker's" had us divided into two groups and searching and grabbing a piece of paper at the end of the room - it was an exciting activity and far more interesting than the lecture.

("Ice breaker" is a call center term for group activity , as in live physical activity of any kind )

Two hours before our training session ends , were we given more password and username log on about the  software tools that we are going to use on the apparent "live calls" that we are scheduled to handle at by Monday and Tuesday.

Some of my co-trainee's including me are taking this activity very seriously, assuming that we will be monitored by the dreaded QA's . Being in the "product training" Phase in a call center world is not guaranteed employment at all and that most trainee's still get fired on this part, especially if this is a live call exercise were  you'd be watched over by the dreaded QA for close scrutiny , probably looking for "faults"- literary speaking every call could be your last in training.

This is the harsh reality of the call center world in the Philippines , Training Phase is much harder than the actual job seeking part and I still get to have the possibility of being fired just because I simply didn't fare well on the training.

30 minutes before the class ends ,a QA arrived and told us that we should worry about then and that compared to other QA's in other companies, the QA here is not "Fault finder's"  and that they are merely coaching staff to give us tips during our job at the floor.  I find it hard to believe (or even refused to believe) that QA's here are different , I've been to so many call centers before and QA's are pretty much the same - always breathing down on my neck and trying to find any faults that could be dig up against me over the phone, they expect me to believe that QA's here are different - ha !!! What a load of horseshit !!!

In other news …

It's been more than two weeks since I started working again and I have now remember some of my co-trainee's here. Here a brief introduction on the people I have worked along side with here in TRANSCOM

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

"ROSE"

 apparently she studied nursing during her college days , but due to domestic problems finding  work here as a nurse proved to be difficult because of competition - she decided to give call center a try. She always wear pink colored clothes.

"BADONG"

A lesbian and a former employee of TRANSCOM (a rehire for short) , she is most familiar with the in's and out's of this company. Her hair fashion is semi-bald, kind of like sigourney weaver in "ALIENS 3" movie.

"GWEN"

In first look appearance you might mistook her as an African American teenager, She is probably originated in another call center company called "STARTEK" (funny name for a company).

"DAN"

A large Obese person and is terribly addicted to drinking coca cola, he's personality is light hearted and on my personal interpretation a comic relief on our class along with "CJ".

"ERICH"

An short elderly guy , that has graying hair on the sides of his head. He always wears a jacket given the fact the air conditioning in TRANSCOM is set on low temperature (for Philippine standards), he has a long history in the call center industry and has probably travelled to Indonesia during his younger years

"JASON"

A thin guy in his early twenties that always wear a thin formal jacket, he's past exploits in the call center was in the outbound sales department - a telemarketer for short.

"CHARD"

A well dressed guy, so well dressed that you might mistake him as a commercial model. He came from a well known "elitist" school called "LA-Salle" , but nobody cares here were he came from because call center environment has a "no discrimination" policy. He's mostly a quite guy sitting in the edge of the room.

"CJ"

Another comic relief in this class and without him and "DAN" this group is just another boring class. He's dresses like a hip hop African American style and has tattoo's on both his whole arms, He's a huge well built muscled guy and from the looks of it , you might mistake him as an office bully - He's an ok guy.

"MICO"

Everybody in the class knows this 28 year old MICO probably because of her loud sexual overtone comments. Some of us think that "MICO" is a man hungry sexual lustful girl, and for a girl I might say that she is pretty horny and somewhat a pervert. She probably came as a directory telephone operator in INFOXX, she's very skilled in drawing though and like reads weird news on the internet site and has a simple one track mind.

"MARK"

A guy that dressed in simple clothes, just denim pants and white shirt and a converse shoes and that’s about it. He has a very long wavy hair similar to heavy metal punk musicians.

"ALAN"

An executive guy from a call center called "STREAM" and was also a former employee of the notorious "Sykes" call center company. He's been in the industry for 8 years now.

"RENE"

From all the trainee's , she's the most season in customer service sales job category and probably is a smooth talker over the phone, she plans to be a TL someday.

"MCVIN"

A gay guy , that wears "box" type of eye glasses, he has a funny hairstyle that has a some sort of pony tail similar to jedi padawans in star wars.

"DUSTIN"
19 year old, probably the youngest of all my co-trainee's here. According to what i heard he originated in new zealand and came here to live in the philippines when he's 16 years old. currently he has an apartment , and was a former employee of the well known call center called "convergys"

"Mars"
Mars is a fat lady that always hangs out with "McVin" , "Gwen" and "Rose" . Nothing much to say about here on the fact that "Dan" always jokes around her saying . "yes my love" or "of course my dear"

That all I can remember for now n my co-trainee's , I'd post more on those people I missed out