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

TRAINING DAY

Third day of training, by the start of it we were given our very own password ID logins for our computers so we could access the company Intranet , aside from it we were also given  access on the computer software tools we will be using during our actual work (assuming that if ever we get past beyond training phase).

We were also given explanations on the scope of support of a customer service and the general idea of the parameters that we would do during a call. Some of this that I had found out is that all transfers calls to be made are "Warm Transfers" which meant that I'd have to formally introduce myself to the *other* telephone operator and say the details first before giving him the customer.  Based also on what we were told , we will be using 7 different software tools for the customer service job alone plus a few more software tools as a Technical service rep - In other words our computer screens will be absolutely littered with those Tools while during a call.  Another thing that was discussed was a "Decision tree" which is basically a sums up as decision options made available during a call. In addition from what was told from us , "TalkTalk" account doesn’t have an *Exact* opening script when a conversation begins meaning that I have to think of my very own introduction to introduce myself to the customer

Example's of a script are like this  " Welcome to big pond , my name is <operator name> to assist with your technical inquiry , can I have your telephone number including the area code please ?"

Aside from that , we were also given an actual a hands on demonstration on one of the software tools called "TRIO" , which from what I understood is a software tool that will be used to pull out the account subscription details of a customer.

In other news,

Midway during the training shift. One Account official came in to the room and saw some of us trainees are a bit worn-out and sleepy , Upon seeing this the fat lady immediately transformed and immediately became a quasi- Drill sergeant complete with the shouts and aggressive behavior  even had us do jumping jacks. Frankly I never liked this kind of militaristic behavior, for me people like that are totally crack pots and have serious attitude issues , they should be reminded that this is a call center not a military installation.  

Afterwards a few hours later the HR Staff came in and gave us an orientation about the rules and regulations of this company , Assuming that a trainee gets past training phase.

Its just been the third day of training  and Working relations in TRANSCOM company have been turning sour on my wave mates and some officials of this account. Apparently from what I witness on the training room , The QA (Quality assurance personnel) is a bit arrogant about his job status and even makes threats about firing us or anyone whom he see's falling asleep or shows signs of it. He made that statement and announced it an hour before the training class ends .

Personally I think making threats and intimidating trainee's , is not a good idea on the fact that it is sending a bad image not only to the QA personnel but the management of TRANSCOM also. Chances are  people will think that this  person is arrogant and abusive his job position , (as if he wasn't an agent and trainee several years before ). He's just a QA and yet he acts like some sort of bastard guy with a suit , I think this QA shouldn't give us that kind of lecture ,as if he himself didn’t when through that kind of hurdle before. Doesn’t mean he's QA means also that he's high and mighty

I feel sympathetic on our trainer who feels helpless and couldn't do anything about  these guys who  act high and mighty in the office.

These people will have to clean up their act or else they get a conclusion that TRANSCOM is just another one of those call center companies out here that are very cruel and oppressive on their employees.


SEPTEMBER 14, 2012 FRIDAY , JOURNAL ENTRY...


Fourth day of training and were taught on how to use the "Soft Phone" software which basically replaces the use of an actual phone, with these it meant that we are just clicking  a few icons in the computer monitor instead of pressing buttons , were taught on which icons to press during an actual call operation.

Aside from the use of the soft phone we were also given an idea of the call structure of how we will do things when we received a call, the general idea of it was what are the usual steps a telephone operator would take when receiving a call. Normal a telephone operator would make an introduction first , then rest follows in.

A few hour later Payroll orientation was discussed in our classroom. According to the payroll staff that discussed the topic , Only Meal allowance and Transportation Allowance was not taxable and THE REST OF THE THINGS I'D BE EARNING IS TAXABLE. Meaning to say they have a cut on everything except the meal and transportation thing.

Aside from the bad news that came to the payroll department , now comes the worse news.

Trainer informed us that after the two week training of Customer service training , we will be immediately proceed in taking in actual calls on our third week and then back again in the class room for the Technical Rep training for the fourth week. I think this jobs keeps getting worse as we go along this training phase, I mean ONLY A WEEK OF TRAINING FOR THE TECH REPRESENTATIVE ? , some companies spend as much time as a month of training for the technical service representative alone and yet this company is giving us only a week of training for their bullshit.


SEPTEMBER 15, 2012 SATURDAY, JOURNAL ENTRY...


Arrived at TRANSCOM earlier for my usual routine before training. Usually I head off to the showers directly after my arrival to clean myself , It's just a policy I keep to myself that whenever I go to work I should be tidy. Though this is my policy whenever I'm in the call center this is usually contradictory when I'm a sailor and rarely take a bath there.

Anyway after the long shower, I went to the TV lounge area of TRANSCOM to kill some excess time and perhaps watch a movie in HBO channel. The movie that was playing is Titled "Batman Begins" , Shame though that I never got to finish the movie and it was already time for me to go to the training room.

By the time I got to the room , I noticed that some of my Wave mates were still not inside and was just waiting at the front door. Few minutes later our trainer arrived and told us that we won't go into the classroom for an hour and that we had to go to the production floor to see first hand on how customer service agents handle calls.

On the production floor area , I was assigned to one agent , and "barge" (another known term for this is "side by side")  on her call . Mostly the calls she handles is related on the billing inquiries and such , and compared to being a technical service rep which is basically straightforward job, being a customer service rep is more on explanations of a certain kind of inquiry.  Basically customer service rep and technical rep are two different things in the call center , they simply don’t mix and if they do then expect that they wont work well

To make it more worst - most of the call that I'd be handling in the future (assuming that I passed later on product training) is not to be escalated , and I feel more like some sort  of whacked down "Judge Dredd" telephone operator - a Judge , jury and executioner , all pack in one. A "Universal" telephone operator as one might point out.

An hour later after the demo , our trainer told us to go back to the training room.

Usual stuff being in the training room and more lectures , this time though the lecture was more on billing. We were shown an actual telephone bill of  "TalkTalk" on our computer screen showing  the breakdown charges and such. Our trainer gave us a through explanation on what are those billing charges are for. To my dismay , I also found out that our job description also includes handling payments  and not just only answering billing enquiries .

Despite a lot of dismaying job parameters that we discover each day here, My seatmate is somewhat hopeful that everything will work out fine and that somehow , someway, we may perhaps outlast the Product training phase. Well glad to hear someone is still optimistic around, Seriously  I think it’s lucky that someone still has a positive outlook despite this god awful regulations imposed on us by TRANSCOM and that almost all of us here is still upset on the "job weight".

Thank god that after this training , I'd have 2 days of rest for the whole days of Saturday and Sunday ..

In other news

Time really flies  fast and its been a week since I started out and I had already made an expected salary of 4000 PHP. I'm not exactly expecting that I may make it on the production floor at all , given the difficult circumstances I'm dealing at but at least ,it has never bother me not one bit ,it eases my mind that if I stay in for another week and I'd get another 4000 PHP which counts to at least 8000 PHP salary at September 28 payout - After all I'm just here for the money and for as long as I still can hold on , I'd make the most of the "Economic Value" staying in TRANSCOM. Maybe who knows I could get more than 16000 PHP in exchange for a little of my time , But then again 16000 PHP it's fine with me if things don’t work out.


SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 TUESDAY, JOURNAL ENTRY...


Had an issue with laundry for this day and I had only 2 sets of clothes left, as a result I had to hire some laundry service to do all the washing for me, good for me it only cost at around 150 PHP - Bad in the sense that there's a possibility that some of my clothes will get lost, but I had no other choice and the necessity is great . Hopefully I get to pick up my clothes at the laundry service by Wednesday.

In other matters …

At the start of our training shift , we went again on the production floor area to "barge" in a few calls and hear other call center agents in action. Most of the calls that I heard was related in billing issues. After two hours we went back again to our training room and proceed to the boring lecture.


SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 WEDNESDAY, JOURNAL ENTRY...


Out of my surprise , I did not expect to see "E.Chavez" at TRANSCOM Pantry area. Last time I saw "E.CHAVEZ" was way back several years ago (I think 4 to 5 years ago) at ICT Call Centre, At that time I was looking for a job at ICT while "E.CHAVEZ" was resigning from the job. A funny twist of fate that our paths crossed again after several years and this time it is in TRANSCOM company. Based on what I saw "E.CHAVEZ" is already in the production area and taking in calls on the fact that one of the T.L'S   (Short term for "TEAM LEADER" or "TEAM MANAGER" in the call center) approached and told that "after break time immediately switch to AUX 3" , probably I could surmise that "E.CHAVEZ" is existing for more than a month because of that.

One of my co-worker's were offended when "Mico" drew "N.Estrada" (Our trainer) in the glass board, well not that they mind at all about the drawing - but the problem is that "Mico" made a drawing of our trainer NAKED and said after drawing it , that "It's been a while since I (Mico) draw a naked caricature of a man" . Though "Gwen" was terribly offended , she could just laugh on how the way Mico draws our trainer naked and just said that "Mico" is one horny little girl. After the drawing was complete , it only brought more laughter from my other co-worker's.

Some of my co-workers find "Mico" to be one bizarre girl, One example is that she tells a lot of joke's that has a sexual tone and even made claims that she has an "imaginary love live with an imaginary lover , which she uses her fingers to express it " . All of us could just laugh on her claims saying that she is just one bonafide horny girl, I think she is just plainly liberated and doesn't really care what goes inside in *between her legs*

In other matters

There's a rumor spreading that maybe "TalkTalk" account would be transferred later on in Edsa site and that currently we are just finishing the product training phase before being put there, of course these is just a rumor said by our trainer inside and there is still no confirmation yet. I think there's a possibility that it might happen given the fact that the TRANSCOM Edsa site is still not yet fully operational and is still under construction, and that only Samsung Australia is the only one residing in that site - hinting that maybe some other accounts will be occupying it when the rest of the floors on that building.

Anyway it doesn’t matter if this account will be transferred or not , and before we get ahead of ourselves we should first figure out on how to live past product training phase ( since this is the part were people still get fired even though they have already signed a job contract)  ,after that they could think whatever they want and what they please .


(PICTURE BELOW ARE PICTURES INSIDE TRANSCOM)

                       
                                                   (INSIDE TRAINING ROOM)

                                                       (LOCKER ROOM)

                                                         (TRANSCOM PHARMACY)

                                                    (COMPUTER /INTERNET STATIONS)

                                                              (TV LOUNGE AREA)

                                                                      ( CR ROOMS)

DILEMA AND "ACTION" REPORT OVER TRANSCOM

After months of being out of work, I've decided that its about time I do something. Yesterday afternoon I went to Transcom call center office in EDSA looking for work, It was convenient that I should look for work in that area given the fact that I'm familiar with the place.  At first I thought they need a few guys over that site , since when I accidentally discovered it a week ago the site was still in the process of being constructed.  I assumed that the place was understaffed, Hell I was wrong when I got there and apparently word comes in very fast that this newly established site in EDSA would be crowded with job seekers in only less than a month after its opening.

By the time I got there , the waiting area was littered with job applicants and I estimate that there is about a hundred people at least looking for a job. I quickly got down to business and passed my resume to the reception desk , after a few minutes of waiting I was called for the initial job interview. No problems there and got away with it in easy (even though my English speaking proficiency is somewhat deteriorated over the years) .

Next phase was the so called "Versant" phone recoding test , as the name implies - the test was all about speaking and repeating the recorded message on a recording machine. To simply put I'm talking to a machine . During that time a huge portion of jobseekers who arrived at the  same time when I arrived were cut down by this test , after that the few of us left we put on to some sort of online kind of test using a PC.

Nothing really much to say on that phase and it felt more on my perception that this kind of test is not a "fail or pass" kind , In fact I think the test was all about being categorized on which specific "account" I'd be put down. By the time it was finished , there were about only 8 of us left on the batch.  We had an hour break of waiting . I heard a few gossips on about what's going on in the call center world like a certain company named SITEL not paying social security and all and the reason why Sykes company was so mean on their company security and employees as well. After the wait we were told that a company car would drop us off in another site for the final interview , apparently the site was very far this time and its located deep within the Fontera Verde Compound in Pasig.

So we went there and had the final interview , it was I think near 10 pm when the job application process was finished and all . Of the six of us left , only me and another with a tattoo had made it. The other two gave up easily and went home early after knowing that the interview would start by at least 8 Pm, the other remaining two didn't simply passed the final interview and gave personal issues to the interviewer.

I came home late at night and slept for about an hour or two. Woke up again and went to Frontera Verde Area till 7am till I found out via text message that contract signing was 7Pm and not 7am, Ooops big mistake on my part and hurriedly got back to my home to sleep till afternoon.

By afternoon I've arrange to make another X-ray copy by going to Centro medical diagnostic clinic in marikina , I realized I had to do this and take an X-ray given the fact that my reserved X-ray films (used for medical records) were lost by Sykes several months ago because of HR's stupidity and I only had one left and will be used later on for TRANSCOM employment.

At 5:30 pm I was already there in Frontera Verde for the third time , This time I've figured it all out on how to exactly go there using public transportation - well the Solution all along was that I should take a Jeepney located at Marikina Sports center, The Jeeps destination should be indentified with a sign on its face window saying  its bound for "Pasig Palengke" and Tell the driver to drop me off at the location called "Simbahan" afterwards ride another jeep with a sign that is bound for "Citibank". Another option I was thinking  (if I feel like kinda  energized for a walk) is walk to the east direction and cross the bridge, it should lead me direction to the place were Transcom is located. BINGO !!!

The contract signing went well and I was offered 16,000 PHP basic salary for the so called "Toc-Toc" account from Britain apparently its nature is somewhat cable TV and internet business related. By the way Transcom caters US, Canada and UK country clients .

In other matters to be discussed..

So what do I think of TRANSCOM BPO Company ?! For now I couldn't make any judgment whether this company is a bastard one or a lenient kind, Frankly there are some aspect that I didn’t like about the company and some aspect that I do like about the company .

Some noticeable aspects that I did like was that It has facilities like a billiard table , pantry , sleeping quarters and a shower room (although up to now ,I'm still not be able to determine if the usage of this facilities are for free and for public use for every one on this company). Security guards seems to be a bit friendlier and approachable . HR staff seemed to be always in a hurry and late on schedules but are very courteous and warm, not like the stone cold bastard counterpart of theirs in Sykes.

Some negative aspects I saw for now is their enforcement of an attire, which from I understand is that no denim pants are allowed on Mondays and Thursdays. In other words formal attire for 4 days, disadvantage for me on the fact that I only have one formal pants and I had to wear the same pants for four days. I think they should have more freedom on how people should  choose to dress up, of course there's an option were I get to choose to wear any kind of clothes I want to , but the catch is that I had to pay the reception a some sort of "dress down pass" fee of 250 PHP for it.

To simply put the freedom to choose what kind of clothes to wear rest on paying *them* a some sort of "Pass fee" for a month of freedom to wear. This sounds more like profiteering to their very own employees, they also stated that the money will be used for in a charitable foundation. Which I hardly doubt they will use it for such a purpose . Hmmm Really huh ?! And do they expect me to believe that ? What a lame excuse.

As of the moment I have a neutral impression in transcom and I haven't made up my mind yet on how to rate this company.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012 MONDAY, JOURNAL ENTRY........

General overview of the account I was assigned on was called "Talktalk" United kingdom, Apparently according to the orientation this company in the UK was the second largest communications / Telecom company there - combining Television ,Broadband and phone service at the same time.

Based on the contract I've signed I'm supposedly to be a customer service agent and a technical service rep and a pinch in sales. In other words an all in one "Super" agent , hmmm ??? I wonder why the hell call center companies really put a lot of "parameters" to its agents ? I think TRANSCOM is just short changing on the manpower stuff , in the expense that agents will get stressed a lot - AS IN A LOT. Hehehe guess I better get my vitamins ready anytime, cause chances are working hours will be long. From what I understood TRANSCOM / "TalkTalk" British account  is more interested in putting a general purpose agent rather than a specialized type of Agent (Teletech / Big pond Australia account)  , similar to the AT&T / Accenture Call Center Policy

As of the moment while writing this there no specific metrics yet for this account , and the QA people in this company is still figuring out on what kind of call "standards" will be put to place. The Account will be handling broadband , phone and TV service and given the broad scope the training will be at least 4 weeks and I assume that it will be a difficult job ahead after the training - if ever I get past the training phase.

Frankly I don’t expect my work life span will be more than 4 weeks and I will eventually get fired after that but at least it will provide enough time for me to get an initial salary and perhaps a back pay for my other agenda's outside the BPO industry and to add more I'm not taking this job seriously compared to what I did in Teletech a year ago.

(By the way , just to keep everyone informed that signing a job contract does not necessarily guarantee employment and that being in the training phase is not exactly employed at all in the call center as what a person may though, chances are most agents still get fired even if you're already in the training phase.)

So what's the impression I got from TRANSCOM ? First thing I got is that working hours are a bit long , as in really long and based on what I heard from the management there is some sort of mandatory or irregular extension of working hours from the usual 8 hours to probably about 10 hours without any good reason at all,

The mealtime and breaks schedules are reduced from the usual one hour break to 30 minutes, the main reason why they said is that it’s a "paid break". Well fine if it’s a paid break but haven't they figured out instead to rather have an hour of unpaid break ? I think they're so much absorb in making profit in their business that they forgot the basic necessities of a person to eat . 30 minutes ?! Heck I haven't even finished digesting my meal at that short time and I had to haul off my ass back to training room (or maybe even the "Floor" area)

TRANSCOM Facilities in Pasig based on my spying includes a Billiards pool area , a TV lounge room, two Cafeteria's , Clinic , Gym room, two shower rooms , two locker rooms , Internet station, and a very own Pharmacy.  Floor production areas are a bit small on the floor space and the same goes on hall ways and walk ways , which I assume that TRANSCOM company can only handle a small agent population.

Security checkpoints are not that exaggerated and most security guards seemed to be approachable , though I encounter only one security guard which seems to be rude and ill mannered.  I cannot say that This company is as lenient and free as with Teletech but compared to Sykes company (Which I find their policies to be oppressive and brutal ), the agents and employees here are better off. HR staff so far has shows no evidence of crapping on their jobs - though I find them a bit rude in some extent.

For now , I am going to test the shower facilities of TRANSCOM if its free and unrestricted use . I'd post it on this journal on what the results turn out

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 WEDNESDAY , JOURNAL ENTRY....

To my surprise when I arrived at  TRANSCOM building yesterday 8pm (Training schedule was 11pm midnight to 7am in the morning) I saw my former schoolmate during high school nicknamed "Christian the Cat" , He is also surprised as well to see me in TRANSCOM. Didn't had much to have a chit chat with him , just only a small talk then I headed to the showers to test if the facility there was Ok to be used for the general workforce population. Had no problems using it and there were no restrictions , though the shower area is a bit small compared to TELETECH and I had to hang my belongings in the door just to keep them away from getting wet. So far testing and using those facilities was a success.

At around 3am in the morning during the lunchtime , I went to the clinic to retrieve my Comparison X-ray which was given to CLINICA MANILA (pre employed Medical clinic of TRANSCOM) . I was hoping that I could retrieved it there , Unfortunately to my dismay the clinic REFUSED TO GIVE IT BACK and said that it’s the property of the HR department. Really ??? Guess they haven't figured it out that the X-ray Plate I'm referring to it’s the one from CENTRO MEDICAL CLINIC, and those bone head HR thinks its their property - Bah ! They since when MY XRAY plate's became theirs? This HR screw up is going to impact negatively on how I view this company.

It's been just two days and I have now roughly came into a conclusion on how I view TRANSCOM company. If I would rate a company by numerical grade on which 1 is the lowest and 10 the highest grade (a utopian Call center) . I would rate TRANSCOM to be number 4 , I rated number 4 because it has complete well maintained facilities and is free for use by almost everyone working for this company and that the only reason why it got that grade, without those facilities I could have rated it on a much lower grade of 2 . The only thing good about TRANSCOM is the Facilities nothing else  - plain and simple , the rest of other things like HR, Security, Company Policies, Working environment, Benefits and compensation, Salary , workload, treatment of employees are just simply Plain Horseshit and not even worth the effort of getting a job in TRANSCOM.

 Overall impression is that TRANSCOM is just a transition company and getting a job here is just only for the *Time Being* , not the company worth settling into or building a career. A company that has issues - Serious Issues

Speaking of which I just found out while in the training room that the "Perks" in Working for TRANSCOM is either missing or non existent at all. One example is the Signup bonus or even rejoining bonus for rehires, another one is the simple *perks* like at least a free ball pen or note pad of some sort (which results that I have to bring a pen and notepad every time). Another example is their so called "Tech premium" which amounts to 2000 PHP is apparently taxable - Worst part is that they never mentioned or even stated it on the contract.

In spite a lot of flaws I discovered with this company , I am unaffected of it. Simply because I never care and the only thing I want to this company is the money , Aside from that I'm just only using this as a "Training" to update my skills in the call center and the money for the licensure exam I'd be taking later on. It simply never matters to me and I'm apathetic on the situation.

Anyway the training class I'm currently at is composed of 20 people, all of whom which are "veteran" or has some sort of experience already in handling calls in the call center. For some reason TRANSCOM only hired the one's with an experience and threw out the First time call center agents, Hmm didn't really gave an equal opportunity to all huh ?

Anyway like I said there are 20 agents and 15 of them are male and 5 are females. Overall most of this Wave mate's of mine have a low morale given the circumstances that we are in fact a CSR / TSR / Sales , much more that add weight to them is the fact of the salary that we later discovered is just  basically  the same as to those existing agents that they have that are dedicated to TSR only. Frankly most of them think that it's unfair given that we are a 3 in one agent and that the scope of support given to us is much more wider compared to those dedicated TSR's . To simply say they are paying us less on the work that is much more.  All of us agree on the same thing that TRANSCOM is short changing people. Given the kind of work given to us,  I surmise that work life expectancy of a call center here is very low here , probably no more than a year

In Addition.....

Shouldn’t be discussing this since my blog is themed to be specifically targeted a "sailor's" blog, Hell do I care and this is my blog , and I get to put whatever I want with this.

Anyway I am writing this as a part of my identity crisis over being a Telephone Operator and a Sailor. Frankly before I became a telephone operator , I consider myself to be 100 percent a sailor. I told myself from that time that this was just only a temporary job and only went there because I needed the money plain and simple , No hard feelings.

When I first came to this industry , I don’t have the slightest idea on what was going on and had no clue on the technical terms they were speaking with. The first terms that I learned in the call center was this two things called "outbound" and "Inbound" which later I found out that "inbound" means that callers will be the ones calling you over the phone and "outbound" means that me (Telephone Operator) will be the ones calling outside.

Honestly I never expected that I'd be so comfortable in this job. The treatment I received here was humanitarian compared to searching for a job as a sailor. they taught me the skills to speak proficiently in English and was treated with equality , They encourage me to promote my welfare and thus I learned to thrive. It never mattered to them what was my background.

Given the equal treatment and good welfare , there was a point were I had to question on why I became  sailor. The lasting legacy that the call center gave me is the skill of being proficient in English, So proficient that some say that they could not distinguish me from an Australian or not, when I'm over the phone.

Up to now still consider myself more of being a call center agent than being a sailor.

But what is exactly the difference between being a sailor from being a telephone operator ? overall there is a very big difference from almost every aspect of these two jobs, From job searching - all the way to salary and job description. A total "Parallel" life running along side by side, It is a blessing that I made it to being a call center agent and I am above the minimum wage earner and that I knew other skills than just plainly becoming a sailor.

Though in some ways that I feel more fortunate that I knew other non-manual jobs, I still have to maintain the secrecy part and never mention to this when I'm sailing. I have learned the crude lesson that without the protection of anonymity I could have easily fall prey on discrimination from other sailor's - I learned it the hard way when I worked on "Stolt Strength", when I openly claim that I was a call center agent before, thinking that it was safe and no discrimination existed onboard an all Filipino crew. Looking back, it was probably a mistake to do so, but I was still innocent of the evils that lurked  being an OFW and a sailor. Eventually this resulted to my maltreatment and persecution onboard that ship.

As a part sailor and I am saying this by experience I encountered , That It is of best choice never to reveal any information about myself especially on my background that I am a call center agent and I deny it as much as possible. Don't get me wrong I'm proud being a call center agent as a matter of fact and I am doing this to not only protect myself but other people working on the call center industry - and most of the time lying in the maritime profession helps

( Photos shown below are taken during my survey)

SEARCHING FOR CLUES TO START OVER

Not bad for a kick start on being active again, after all I had been
sitting my fat ass at home for nearly 8 months now and it's about time
that I should do something and start moving again. By next month I would
be celebrating being one year marooned in the Philippines, Heck I never
thought that this would actually happen at all and earlier I though that
after successfully landing a job in that cursed maritime industry I
would be stable enough to "go career" as a sailor - I was hell wrong as
it turned out. For the moment all I could say is that I'm a washed out
sailor with no real options of getting back.

Anyway this is not what I wrote about.

As I mentioned, by this time I would make a few changes on my life and
have already though of being active again in finding work. I started out
in going to POEA looking for clues on were to start, Unfortunately I
didn't get their issued newspaper which tells the list of "Licensed
Manning Agencies" ,apparently they ran out of copies and wont be issuing
until by next month. Without that paper I could not determine whether or
not the company I'd be looking for work is credible or even find their
exact location

They did however gave me another newspaper as a remedy which gave a hint
of a newly established shipping agency called "pos-fil" . I have no
information at all about this new company and maybe by tomorrow I'd be
visiting it looking for a job there.

Another thing which I discovered by accident , was a nearby call center
called "Transcom" . Heck I never noticed that there was one nearby
,certainly it wasn't there 8 months ago. I'd be checking that call
center later on after I had finished my business in this so called
"pos-fil" company, and see if I could get to join their bandwagon. All I
know about "Transcom" is that it is some sort of Financial Collections
kind of company which deals in Canada and UK.

I guess that would be all for now and maybe I'd try to look for other
jobs openings in the shipping companies which I'd encounter later on.
For now my full attention is focused in getting work in a BPO, its my
best chance in finding work for now.

The following day....

Pos-Fil Shipping Company is not exactly a "new" company at all as it
turned out. When I arrived there the company is somewhat related to
"Astra Marine" ," Abosta Shipmanagement" and "Alpha Shipmanagement".
Frankly I'm not that stupid to figure it all out that these companies
are the same since they share the same address- hell even the same
building. Now the big problem on this company since its not new is that,
will they accept walk in applicants ?? (drifters is more the proper
term) or only prefer accepting applicants that have "sponsors"
(backers). Unfortunately I didn't went there to look for a job on the
fact that I was wearing inappropriate clothes , I should have wore any
colored polo shirt , denims jeans rather than a standard polo and slack
pants which made me look like a high school student than an applicant.
Since I was wearing inappropriate clothes I decided to call it a day and
pull back, maybe I'd look for a job later when I'm more dressed properly.

For "ST Ocean shipping company" which was another company I had visited
aside from "Pos-Fil" . I made a mistakes which I said I'm looking for a
job as a "deck cadet" , This is a big no-no for anyone applying for a
job (unfortunately this is the start up position as sailor kind of like
a novice and if you even say that word right in front of the office
reception area then good luck , chances are you'd get driven out) and as
expected I already know how am I treated. I should have said I'm looking
for a job as an ordinary seaman.

I only barely got two months left to get this act right before I go over
to and look for a job locally shipping and I certainly don't want to go
that kind of hardship , fully knowing how dangerous it is to go there.
Of course there are other options but the problem is those *other*
options don't have any guarantee and plagued with problems as well.

Quite honestly working for an overseas job as a sailor get's worse every
now and then , So bad that it makes me wonder why the hell did I ever
get to take this course in college in the first place - I think being a
Filipino sailor is a big joke grandeur and a mistake.

(Pictured above is the score's of unemployed filipino sailors hanging
out in the streets of the T.M. Kalaw,Manila this is a clear picture on
how worst it gets in being a sailors nowadays, pictured here is only
partial view and not the exact numbers of unemployed sailors overall )

In other matters…

A few years ago , Me and my two other friends Joenar Palomas and Rommer
Banal came up a good discussion while we were in McDonalds. Joenar made
a good question "What would happen to us if we don't happen to ever get
to *work* as sailors ??? " , Rommer answer that if maybe the case then
he'd just simply drive his cab and move on to life while joenar palomas
answer that he'd help his parents personal logistics business , Now
among the three I was the misfit on the answers and said "I don't know,
maybe I'd end up as a beggar in the pavement down the road". My two
other friends laughed at my answer, Seriously I said that answer on the
reason that I would never see myself beyond it and don't have any good
solid answers - to simply put it , I'm as helpless as a cockroach
without it.

Now a few years after , Given the same kind of question I would answer
it very differently now. Maybe I'd answer that I'd end up in a call
center and hope for the best.

The question has a good point , but what if by some chance a student
sailor doesn't become an *actual* sailor at all ? Or a sailor met some
untimely reason and had to stop ? As what I point out a kind of
"Professional afterlife" , were do a person go In the event of a
catastrophic situation that leaves him / her no way of getting back.

First off a person should have a positive thinking in life and be open
minded of other possibilities that they could continue on with life
without being a sailor. Keep in mind that choosing on how to continue
with life is your decision and yours alone. Be brave and have the
courage to move on, make a career plan and base it on a long term basis

Here are some things to consider on choosing an *alternate* job

1.What are some of the task I'd be required to do ?
- What will be as typical month or day be like ?
- Would I chiefly work with, data, people, or things ?
- Would I sit all day ? Stand? Get outside the office ?
- What distasteful things would I have to do ?

2.What personal qualifications are required ?
- Are my skills and talents compatible with this ?
- Are my personal traits compatible with this job ?

3.How much money will I make ?
- Is the base pay for the job at the entry minimum wage ? Above minimum
? Or top pay ?
- what employee benefits are usual with this job ?

4.What are working conditions like ?
-What do most people in the job say they like the most about their work ?
-The least ?
-Are the hours regular or irregular ? Long or short ? Would I work even
on weekends or holidays?
-Is the work hazardous?

Some of the people I knew do other jobs aside from being a sailor. Most
of them doing other manual work as a replacement, I've heard some
students sailor take up jobs like being a construction worker, tricycle
driver , Service crew on the fast food store, etc. I even saw one as a
receptionist in a hotel. I think there is nothing wrong in that and its
nothing to be ashamed of , what matters is that person should continue
living and it's definitely not the end of the world if you don't make
the "cut" being a sailor. I myself became a call center agent (and up to
now) , I took it as an alternate job incase of a situation arises that I
could not work as a sailor anymore, I chose this on the perspective of
my traits and skills (being not physically fit to work in manual labor)
and never regretted being there.

Overall the main fact is that a sailor should have a secondary skills
not related to the sailing job itself. A parallel kind of job , working
independently or side by side, related to being a sailor will do.
Personally I think a sailor should have this as secondary skills as
mandatory , given on the fact that although working as a sailor has an
"extended" age of something like 65 years old (sailors who have a
license ) to 56 years old (ratings) the reality is that this kind of job
is still based on a contractual basis and has no stability, to simply
put , a sailor is expendable and could lose your job at anytime.

For sailors who already had a taste of sailing and yet ended up being
cut short on their dreams , well there are two possible options. If a
sailor has a license then perhaps he could set up shop in the teaching
profession or even go to the HR personnel as some sort of consultant ,
if a sailor doesn't have a license then he should refer to what I've
written earlier.

In reality there is no such way on how to "circumvent" or even swap the
marine transportation course compared to marine engineering. In other
words there is no other related field in marine transportation , Its
just a stand alone course specifically targeted to being a sailor ,
sadly to say that this course cannot be converted to anything else.