DOWN TO EIGHT

Since I received my salary a few days ago I went to SM Masinag Mall and  decided to replace some worn out clothes I had in the my closet and buy in some new ones. some of these are my T-Shirt undergarments , a few briefs and socks. Hopefully I would be able to replace and buy new sets of those by end of this month. In addition I bought a new wallet to replace the old one at Bench Boutique store

On  Worked related news…

In view for privacy, I put in some "false" pictures on my digital camera so that I could know who among my co-trainee's are snooping on my digital camera , (or the very least would try to invade my privacy by looking for clues on my camera) . The "False Pictures" I placed on my digital camera are these.

Eventually if someone is stupid enough to snoop on my digital camera , He / She is in for a big shock of the life. I could easily determine who among my office mates or co-trainee are a bunch of gossipers and "invader's of privacy" . By the way the pictures I posted here are ABSOLUTELY 150 % FAKE AND COPIED IT ON SOMEONE ELSE PUBLIC BLOG . I am 100 percent disease free and I had the medical backing of medical test and screenings I took at Medical City Clinic and from two private clinics here in Marikina. I'm just using these pictures only as bait /entrap to determine my enemies and who among my officemates are secretly searching and gossiping things behind my back.

Been quite a long week for me and as much as possible I'm going to retell all those things that went by in a week. I would try to recall the things that has gone by and put much detail in it as I could.

Monday was the start of our "Grad Bay" (Nesting Phase) , I went there in TRANSCOM quite early and went on to my usual routine . At 45 minutes before the actual "Nesting Phase" start , I was surprised to see that Norman showed up and approached us. Based on what I heard from "Norman" he had to call in sick for a week and cant go to work because of a bad case of tuberculosis , apparently his doctor advised him to stay out of work for a while to recuperate - The same thing was also said to him by TRANSCOM.

Anyway "Norman" just showed up for a few moments , then he was advised by the company clinic to go home again and stay out of work for a while again until he's not contagious anymore.

So what's the total number of available agents left on our class, From my count were down now to only 8 - Yes the number called after seven. That’s all that is left out of 21 trainee's that went in on this account. Currently this class lost another agent and this time it's "Jason" , he went AWOL for good after incurring too many absences on his part and I couldn’t blame the reason why he had to go AWOL because his residence is too far from the job location - As in very far like Bulacan area (way up the northern part away from Metropolis manila), Anyway as what I said were only down to 8 and I think were still getting trimmed out as another month of phone training will go by (Nesting Phase).

Speaking of which , "Nesting Phase" in reality is what you call phone training and as what the name applies , Any Call center trainee going to this part is going to handle actual live calls and actual software tools. A test drive as one might put it , on how far a call center agent has in his skills, be mindful though that every call taken is being evaluated by a QA and that metrics (score cards) for every call is counted.

On the first day, "Raymond Victor" a TL from TalkTalk TV Plus wave 3B was the one that handled us for the nesting phase. According to him , He's going to be our temporary TL for the time being until a suitable trainer is found for us or in some cases until the rest of us 8 will get folded up on different teams. There only four of us trainees present at that time (Me, "mark", "McVin" , "Gwen") the rest of the guys just came in late.

During the first day of Nesting Phase. I had a lot of trouble on handling software tools , even the call I made were plainly bad - AS IN TERRIBLE. I even disconnect a few calls that I didn’t like  from the start. Seriously I had to change that nasty habit of mine for my own sake and if I don’t sooner or later someone or something might find out on what I'm doing and this could lead to my termination.

Anyway Here's what my computer desktop look like

During in the middle of work I was briefly interrupted by "Rene" who slapped my shoulder while I was in the call, resulting to my distraction and asking her "what's wrong with her " . Apparently I didn’t notice that she was eve's dropping my call,  She said to me that It was not the proper way on how to transfer the call and I'm transferring the customer to the wrong department , by the time I got back to my customer on the phone . The customer hang up on me

 What the FUCK !!! Who the hell told her to eve's drop on my call? First off she is not a QA yet and only QA's and TL (team leaders ) do that sort of thing. Second of all , I hate people who meddle my business - why don’t she mind her own business. I don’t like people telling me what to do - plain and simple

The next day ….

At 10:30 pm our trainer "R.Victor" along with the remaining people of another group (TalkTalk TV plus Wave 3b) debriefed us at the production floor about a few things going on in the account . He told us that there will be another "oral examination" screening coming from the British clients , though it was not specified if it will be done during or after "Nesting Phase" .  Another thing that was discussed was some policies about verifying account security of customers and that the clients are very strict about it.

While "R.Victor" was in the middle of debriefing us, I noticed "Rene" is making fun out of something - Not that I don’t mind someone else business but to my horror and shock she was point a joke that directly referring to me. I'm not overacting nor stupid enough not to know that she was making a fun about me. To make the situation worst was that he told our instructor while in the middle of the debriefing that "I'm sleeping" and right in front of everyone (which includes Talktalk TV plus wave 3b).  To my embarrassment and annoyance , I raised my voice and said that " No, I'm not ! Your accusing me of something that is not true !" . Both "Rene" and "Dustin" never expected that I would lash out and retaliate to their so called joke's , and It never hold me back to lash out even if I'm in front of the TL and the another group.  It never occurred to them that I had the balls not to back down on any fight I get into. Anyway serves them right and I'd let everyone know that I'm not the guy to fuck around with.

After the "lash out" , I noticed that some of my co-trainee's are avoiding me. Probably because they're now aware that they don’t want to mess with me.

In other related news

Somehow I got this feeling that I'm now isolated. I mean the people whom I usually talk at are now gone ("Erich" and "Jayson") and I had no one else to talk and I can't approach anyone from my group because I simply don’t trust them. Working here in TRANSCOM is very different from the way I was working in TELETECH , and lets just say that I'd be better be working here alone and as a loner rather than hangout with my current group.

 Based on observation , My co-trainee's "Back talk" a lot and say a lot of nasty things behind a persons back. I could always hear them talking a lot of bad things about "MICO" when she was still around, up to now they still talk about "MICO" even though she has already resigned from this job weeks ago. I think they should give "MICO" a break , after all she's already long and gone now and its pointless talking about her in the first place. They should give that person some kind of privacy now that she's resigned from the job.

Anyway on my matters , I think I should also stay away from them as much as possible and I had a hunch at the back of my mind that I'm not safe nor spared from all their back talk - Call it instinct but I know trouble when I see one .

Working with TELETECH was the best example of good working relations both in the groups TELSTRA BIGPOND WAVE 1 and AT&T wave 94c , I'm proud to say that all my folks there were OK. Sadly in TRANSCOM Talktalk TV Plus Wave 4b this is a good example of how bad working relations are in a call center , exactly the opposite of TELETECH . I simply feel that the working environment here is not that productive and friendly to sustain me in the long run.

In other news …

Here are the operational hand outs that were given to us by "Victor"

And here are the photos I took on what TRANSCOM Production Floor looks like

BARELY PASSING THRESHOLD

All that is left on TalkTalk Trainee group, I'm the one behind the digital camera

The perks about working in the call center is that payout salary is never late , In fact its always early or on time. Call centers companies here are always pressured to give their salaries early or on time in fear that if they do miss or delay their salary pay out their employee's leave them. 

For this day I had received my salary and its three days earlier than expected, the total payout money is 8,883.00 PHP somewhat less than the previous pay out of 9,200 PHP. So what did I bought ? A few essential stuff like medicines ( I meant vitamins C , B complex and E ) , cat food and such.  I already bought a months supply of everything and manage to keep the rest of my money in the ATM for further use later on, Honestly I don’t want to spend all of my earnings in a few days time given the situation that I'm still not entirely sure if my stay here in TRANSCOM will be short lived . Its prudent for me to save some money as a Failsafe measure just incase I get untimely fired , enough money for expenses on the next *target* call center and for my maritime agenda's .by the way I had also restarted reactivating my sun cellular SIM , and will be soon buying a globe SIM card for my dual line phone.

So what is happening currently at the office … well there a few news going on

Proximity cards have now been issued on us remaining agents as well as our assigned lockers , Proximity cards are pretty neat this time and that their absolutely much smaller and thinner compared to say proximity cards I had when I was in TELETECH. (Pictured above) quite honestly I like the "Look" and "feel" of TRANSCOM proximity cards. Speaking of which I wont be renewing my "Dress Down" pass till Monday and I want to make sure that I do still have another 5 week *extension* on my job otherwise paying 100 PHP for the pass is just a waste of money 

As for the lockers , that is If I recall correct there will be three agents sharing the same locker and I'd be sharing a locker space with "RENE" and "Dan" , Hopefully "Dan" will be going AWOL soon and that will leave just me and "RENE" sharing the locker. Well I'm not really a locker dependent kind of person and I rarely use a locker , even when I was a sailor I rarely use my assigned locker and besides that I'm more comfortable using a huge back pack bag when I go to work. Anyway what I meant to say is that "Rene" has a possibility that she'd get to use the locker all by herself.

Well in other work related news , My seatmate "Erich" is contemplating if he will go AWOL by next week and up to now he hasn't made up his mind yet. As for "Mars", "Dan" and "CJ" are already considered AWOL or at least will be recommended to the HR for termination since their absences have exceeded to more than just one. Too bad for them that the replacement trainer is not that lenient compared to "Norman" and doesn’t pretty much make considerations on the agents position.  In the end and overall there is not many of us agents left by the time "Nesting" phase will begin and the attrition rate is very high on our group. I wonder myself on how many of us will actually make it to the actual production floor , considering that there is still an attrition rate in the "nesting" phase.

In other matters , we were given a hands on demo of a software tool called "Resolve" which apparently is more like a decision based type of software were an agent gets to choose the options (or actions) taken by the customer and in turn will lead to a resolution choices. "Resolve" is much more convenient that compared to the software program used by AT&T on the fact that an agent doesn’t heavily relay on one tool alone.

 The day is the day were us remaining agents have to be rated if we pass or not , plain and simple. There are two kinds of the exam. Written / Computer exam and Oral exam (SIM call) , I had no problem getting past the computer / written exam as I relayed heavily on copying answers on "Mark's" computer. This may look cheap on my behalf but I do am determine to at the very least extend my *Drilling* mission on the call center for another 5 weeks.

So far based on the overall score I got is 81percent on the computerized exams, not bad at all and I had made the minimum threshold grade of 80 percent. I did pass , though only barely. Next phase which was an oral exam were I screwed up , to make the story short I didn't have any idea on what the hell I was doing and that having a high caffeine in my system ( I drank two Baccus Energy drinks) is messing up my nerves, irregardless I flunked the exam and I had no excuse on it. Good thing though our trainer "M.Barilea" was kind enough to say "I'd let you pass this time, in spite you failed the initial exam, you're free to go" . That’s it ?! - I'm free to go ? No words saying that I'd be endorsed to HR ?? , I muttered that to myself.  He said good luck and I have to greatly improve on grad bay (nesting) or else.

So generally I passed again , In the skin of my teeth even though I was in all terms had to be terminated. I get to live and have another 5 more weeks.

In other matters .. I had to be more carefully in regards to personal information and details regarding personal life since that "Rene" here is quite nosy when it comes to other peoples businesses , frankly I hate being asked on what kind of medicines I do take when she saw the picture of my med pillbox on my digital camera , I have a right not to give details about it even if those medicine's I'm taking are just purely vitamins / cosmetic meds. In any case I better be extra careful on every move I make and ensure that no details nor personal information will be known on my part.

In another matter , "Rene" seems to intend to evict me on our designated locker. She said that something in those words that there is not enough space for the both of us on the locker and that my back pack is so large , it won’t fit there. She said those words while in I was in the pantry.  Well first off , Who said anything that I'd cram my bag there in the locker, Second I rarely use a locker due to security reasons and much prefer my bag and things stored up in the baggage counter, Third reason is that three agents are usually share designated on locker spaces , there are some lockers there that are much more crowded than ours and yet she complains that there isn't enough space ? WHAT THE HELL !!! Look if she wants the locker , then it's hers and I don’t want to make a big deal out of it since I'm just here on a *Mining* mission to get some money for my sailing job. 

Cocktail of Vitamin Cosmetic Medicine's , I've been taking. Vitamin B complex,  Vitamin E and Vitamin C. Hope this will make my skin smooth 

WHERE THE HELL IS NORMAN

Wallet i brought at SM Masinag Mall, cute ain't it ?

.

" Norman Estrada " is still not around and someone fills in temporarily for him at the Training class , from what I heard he's calling in sick at this time.

Classes were absolutely boring without Norman around and to add more of the boredom is that our training class has already been reduced down to 11 from the original number of 21 , Yes the overall strength is down to 11 and I hope the numbers wont go below it because there only a few of us left.

At class we were given a live demonstration of a "YouView" box , apparently this little black box is some sort of internet digital media player of sorts.  Pretty nifty gadget I must say and quite impressive on the actual hands on demo.

Anyway Here's some of the List of people who made it.

Dustin Dave M. Cenina              
Mark Anthony P. Macaspac          
Erich B. Tunque                                  
Richard Anthony Regidor                
Peter Danbert Powell                    
Bernadette A. Retorca                      
Bheverly D. Bron                              
Micheal Vincent Gozon                    
Mars Milano                                                  
Myself                                                    

So were pretty short now on the numbers and the rest of the group have either quit or simply went away to pursue better offers.

I guess the main reason why I'm still around is because I don’t have the luxury of quitting and that I badly need the money for my agenda's plus I personally think I wasn't any good in becoming a sailor and this is the only thing I'm good at - being a Call center agent , I may not be doing it the best but its all I got.

Few days went by and "Norman" was nowhere to be found, some of my co-trainee's tried to contact him over his cell phone and they  received no reply , the same thing also goes when the TRANSCOM management tried to  make contact with him.

This "Disappearance"  of Norman has brought a few rumors at the training room.

"Gwen" as what she previously says that "Norman" left because he was apparently pissed off from what other trainee's are acting during training, especially attendance issues.

"Erich" on the other hand says that "Norman" probably left because he has some sort of internal problems not related to work.

Some say it could be a combination of both, and while I could only speculate that maybe "Norman" left because that class that he was handling is too tough for him , resulting to "Norman" losing interest with us and the job.  Honestly I could think a lot of ways why "Norman" would ditch his Trainee's and on my personal perception this could be it and he was having a lot of problems with us and lost interest in his job - eventually going AWOL.

The last time I spoke with "Norman" wasn't really that good either , as what I previously stated on my previous entry on this journal. Somehow I feel guilty and responsible for  "Norman" losing interest in teaching us because I acted like a bastard out there and added more problems for him, Maybe I guess this is the reason why I'm writing about him here on the blog and I haven't got the opportunity nor the chance to say sorry to him. The day before he eventually went AWOL,  I could notice that he was very much in low spirits and something was bothering him , I wasn't like him sending us home an hour earlier. Probably low spirits and low morale caught him.

In any case, this is the BPO industry and that finding another job isn't that bad at all given if you have the right job experience. I'm very much sure that "Norman's" just  out there finding another job somewhere in another company and he'd be alright.

In other matters related to work….

The new trainer "Mark Anthony Barilea" (The one that replaced "norman" ) has called in the QA's and explained that these QA's will give us further info on what are the things we shouldn’t do while taking in calls and what will be the actions taken against us if ever we did that.

The explanations was apparently short and self explanatory, however all of us didn't like the penalties part and some of them are pretty much exaggerated and overrated. Leading us to think that the QA's here are just a bunch of dicks bastard faults finders. All of the violations even the minor one's  are sentenced (or treated as) to escalations . What the hell ?!!

Terms was so exaggerated that "Mark" openly joked at the class and said "Is there something or any violation out there that is NOT TREATED AS ESCALATIONS - AS IN ANYTHING OUT THERE???" . I even added to his joke in a sarcastic manner " huh ?! Let me guess another escalation right , I'm surprised".

One thing I find exaggerated in those rules said by the QA was the "7-Second-dead-air-violation".which I find so exaggerated that I could say to myself " WHAT !?? Seven seconds of dead air only !!! You gotta be shitting me. Who wrote that piece of shit rule ! " , Seven seconds is just a short time - as in very short time and don’t expect us that the moment we picked us the call , our mouths will be blasting like a machine gun. This policy is so exaggerate and compared to my previous company that the call will be considered dead air only if the silence was more than 2 minutes and if someone screws up with this ,it's NOT TO BE CONSIDERED AS AN ESCALATION. 

Anyway the QA's here are just relaying the rules and that these rules are not on the open discussion, but whoever asshole wrote those piece of shit rules should better reread gain cause I find it very impractical on the actual situation.  Anyway who am I to question such rules eh ? My only purpose here and objective is to get some money for my *other* agenda's and I could careless about this office politics , I'm here for the money and as long as I get my money , I don’t care about the rest.

LIST OF OBJECTIVES

There is nothing to write about and I had been pondering on quite a few things. Maybe I'd get to address this issues if I ever made it out in training and make it in one piece.

Telecommunications
I had long neglected my cell phone for quite sometime now and in fact I had been neglecting it for almost a year , of course I do get to at least load a few credits just to keep my telephone line from being expired - kind of like being "Hibernated" .  I plan restart and reactivate it again since I don’t have an *official* telephone line

Another thing is that I need a new phone , seriously I need a new functioning cell phone for my "sun cellular SIM" and I had an idea's on what kind of specs should I consider in buying a phone. It should be small , compact and easily can be concealed. So I can easily slip it thru electronic security checking on the call center production floor. I already saw a prospective cell phone model unit in sulit.com.ph website , which apparently it looks like a cell phone / watch . The price of the said equipment is roughly about 3000 PHP.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Hypothetical only, if ever I do get to at least make it past this training phase , I am going to start rebuilding or grooming myself to make my appearance more desirable - I haven’t been paying attention with my looks ever since I went and became a sailor a few years ago. As a matter of fact,  I neglected myself since I went working onboard a ship and when to *war* against those "ethnic" Filipino's. Anyway I had the correct procedures in making my skin look smoother and more pleasant without visiting the dermatologist, all I need is to buy those cocktail of medicine's and maintain those medications.

FASHION AND SOCIAL APPERANCE
Same problem as I had been having above, Most of the equipment (I'm refereeing to clothes) I had been using are aged three years old and up. Usual clothes have only a life span of about only two years and such and it wouldn't  hurt if I bought in a few clothes and shoes for myself right ?! I had to look all proper in a corporate environment.

MARITIME AGENDA AND WARFARE
Despite having a civilian peaceful life, I am deep inside a "rogue renegade killer bee" trying to masquerade as a "typical worker bee" trying to fit in to a corporate environment. A life being a sailor is all but hardship and I had to endure a lot when I was there,  As of the moment this part is temporary put on hold for the time being until I sort out a lot of issues. When it comes to equipment (warfare equipment) I could consider that my stock is well equip, up to date and advance. I could live in a hostile environment on a ship for months with the supplies I currently have.  Anyway since I'm not using it , my equipment is just sitting on the edge of my cabinet and collecting dust.



PICTURED ABOVE IS THE COCKTAIL OF MEDS I NEED TO TAKE FOR COSMETIC PURPOSES

Myself in Tiendesitas, Pasig. Pretty cool pic huh ???

THE VOICE OF REASON

"THE BRAVEST ARE SURELY THOSE WHO HAVE THE CLEAREST VISION OF WHAT IS BEFORE THEM, GLORY AND DANGER ALIKE, AND YET NOT WITHSTANDING TO GO OUT AND MEET IT "

One of my favorite online blogs has all of a sudden vanished, For some reason it disappeared in the internet overnight and without a total trace -no evidence whatsoever. It only disappeared a few weeks after typing this and I could not figure out why the author of the blog decided to discontinue it - why have a change of decision when the blog started out a more than a year ago ?, Perhaps the author felt it was time to move on in life or maybe the author died suddenly , after all while the author was posting his blog he disclosed to the public that he has an incurable disease and could die anytime . It was only a blessing that he lasted this long and was the main reason why he started out to blogging is that at least to cope up he's deteriorating condition or at least prepare himself for death.

In any case he has informed he's family on what will be the fate of his blog and it's up to them whether or not the blog will be maintained and his identity be disclosed or whether the blog will cease to exist as a protection for his identity and his family relatives.  It's just a pity that the blog ceased to exist as it is the living testament of his battle to his ailment and that this 21st century plague is real , A surviving document on what a person does in coping up with and how to deal with the inevitable fate of dying later on.

The author of the blog has HIV / AIDS , here's his blog http://iamhpositive.tumblr.com/

In work related concerns….

Training Phase in TRANSCOM is nearing its end and I'm scrambling to get to the minimum threshold of 80 percent grade. As a precaution for me to make it to the said mark ,I'm resulting to cheating by copying a few answers from my seatmates. "Erich" was a big help in boosting up my scores and if it were not for him It is imminent that I'd be leaving TRANSCOM by end of next week, I owe the guy a lot and he has my best respect's . Anyway in spite of the big help , it doesn’t mean that I had to be careless - I still remember my objective to go past the training phase and make it to at least the 5 week "nesting" phase.

I had been in this "campaign" for almost more than three weeks and up to now I still have trouble staying awake during training session, Of course I was not the only one who has trouble staying focus. For what I saw "Mico", "Erich" and "Chard" is having the same problems as well. Anyway this is the main  problem In having a 11pm to 7am shift , I get bored easily and fatigue get's up to me fast.

The following day , I had an argument over "Norman" about not answering the online quizzes .As what I'm narrating I wasn't in the mood and was definitely tired to do anything even answer those quizzes , So I decided to delay my progress and answer it later at 11pm. I logged off early and "Norman" saw it and insisted that before I go out and leave the class I had to answer those quizzes , I told him that I'm already tired and if I would answer those quizzes on a later time, as It would result to me having more problems rather than helping my score boost up because. "Norman" didn't like what I said and even told me that I had been given numerous considerations before and I had to finish those quizzes , he even added that I was allowed to surf website while in class.

So what the hell does that mean ??? And I don’t like the way "Norman" waives and tells it right in front of my face about the things I should not do while I'm in training class. I'm not a retard to know the difference , and put it simply , I don’t like the way "norman" talks to me like that.  To avoid any further arguments , I shouted back and said "FINE !!!" then slammed lock lock plastic container containing my headsets to the computer table and answered the quizzes, Afterwards I hurriedly left the room in a very furious manner.

The following day…..

Wasn't in the mood in paying attention to "Norman" and his lectures and was ignoring him for the whole day.

From what I learned the difference between an "Australian" and "British" account when it comes to troubleshooting an ADSL connection is that , UK accounts are more equip and more detailed in finding out what the trouble is compared to software tools that Australian accounts have. In other words , I'm not left guessing on what's seems to the problem of the customer and I can identify exactly what part of the telephone line is having issues. However Australian accounts seems to be more employee oriented and care and well fare for them are much better compared to the UK.

In other matter related to work…

"Mico" went away at mid-half shift of work. Apparently she's all fed up and wants to resign permanently. Poor "Mico"…

When I first met "Mico" on the first day of training , she was probably one of the braves and most out spoken of the group . Now gravity caught her and she's now panic stricken and lost hope of at least getting past Training - She was not improving at all in her performance, I guess she just couldn't take the weight of gravity.

The next day….

It was scheduled that we should take in calls at this day but for some unknown reason "Norman" didn't show up and also the rest of the trainee's . It was only me, "GWEN" , "JUSTIN" , "MARK" , "JASON" , "McVIN", "ROSE" , "CHARD" , "DAN" and "BADONG" , The rest of the trainee's went on some bogus excuse that they were sick - which I don’t personally believe at all and they were just having petty excuses to not take in calls . I can't figure out why some of my co-trainee's are chickening out with this exercise and they should remember that we still have a job to do and that as call center agents , its out main job description to handle calls regardless if our skills in the BPO industry is very different from this account.

As for "Norman" I'm not sure on why he didn't show up , apparently "Gwen" could only surmise that "Norman" was piss off on how some of the trainee's acted with this call exercise.

Midway in the shift. "Badong" lost temper and went home. While "Dan" suggested that we should go to a bar somewhere in "LIBIS" and have a few drinks after all nobody is home in the tranining room. Everybody went with "DAN's" idea with only me and "Gwen" decided to stay here in the room. Frankly I oppose "Dan's" idea to go to a drinking session in "LIBIS" on the reason that we are still *officially* at work. I could have decided a different way and go along with "DAN's" idea if it was already during off hours , but since were not - I chose to stay , I think I made the right choice and have the balls to take responsibility of my actions.

I took some picture's of TRANSCOM just to relive myself of boredom.

END RESULT JUSTIFIES THE MEANS

When we started this training phase there was 21 of us, but now the numbers have already been trimmed to13 and I bet it will go down more by the end of our training phase. For now the most of the trainee's , I think will hold out and go past beyond the training phase. On my situation which is barely hanging on the 79 percent threshold when it comes to computerized quizzes , I'm still needing a point more to get passing mark and I'm now taking preventative steps to ensure that I make it to the 80 percent passing mark - such as cheating.

Eventually my low overall score caught the attention of "Norman" and I received a email "Memo" from him before lunch break , indicating my situation. I'm fully aware of what will be the consequences about it and I do known how will I end up if I don’t shape up, that’s why I'm doing ever efforts in ensuring that it doesn't happen to that - at least for now.

One such effort I'm doing is copying some answers on seatmates preferably either from "Erich" , "Mico" or from "jason" . Sometimes I go and take a peek at "Marks" or "Rene" answers in their computers. Believe it or now this has incredibly boosted my score from 73 percent (overall score by the time the memo was emailed) to 79 percent . I'd try to keep this tactic in order for me to get the Threshold 80 percent and maintain it.

Don’t get me wrong , I've already perceived that this "Mission" is just only intended originally to be four weeks and its just to get money from TRANSCOM and having at least 16000 PHP in my pocket plus back pay money is quite enough to finance my other agenda's related to maritime. However I figured if I stayed longer , it could mean that I would be digging in for more money at TRANSCOM and having beyond 16k worth of money is much better.

 To simply say it, My mission objective's have been altered a bit and I'm interested now in further extending my stay here in TRANSCOM for at least another five weeks to make preparations and draw money - It doesn't matter what decision or course of actions will I take to achieve it , as long as I get the satisfactory results. THE END RESULT JUSTIFIES THE MEANS… It never matter to me if I pass or fail the training phase as long as I get the money and the main reason why I'm putting extra efforts is purely financially motivated reasons

In other news ….

Most of us were confused to see a memo posted in "KB" (short term for "knowledge base" software tool , a program we use as a reference to this account) indicating that CS&B department will now have a 24 /7 business hours, which meant that the work here will be rotational and some call center agents will be placed in either the morning or night shift randomly - simply saying more workload for us.  Were confused in the sense that according to our perceived knowledge our job only indicates a job shift of around 3pm to 3am shift and not beyond it.  "Erich" asked "Norman" about this and he replied that TRANSCOM or "Talktalk" wants their service to widen to UK customers, Yeah good for them and bad for us because it instantly means always queuing on the phone line.

During lunch break , I accidentally saw "E.Chavez" sitting in table next to my table . I approached her and shared a few gossips with her and what's the latest news going on around her after I last saw her in ICT Call center company (precursor company of the Notorious "SKYES" company). From what I heard , she's been quite a while in the BPO and has been bouncing from one company to another , from what I recall it's at least been 5 years since I last saw her and told her that after I was through with ICT , I went to TELETECH and after which I later joined becoming a sailor and went back here in the BPO again.  She added that so far TRANSCOM company is an OK company compared to the previous companies she's hanged out.

 Another gossip I heard from "E.Chavez" was that "S.Nava's" Grand mother recently passed away,  I told her that I don't know any new lately from "S.Nava" and that I haven't been in touch for more than ten years , so I had little or not information at all at "S.Nava" .

Before "E.Chavez" left the table and went to work , she gave me a chocolate bar , she had on her pocket and said "welcome to TRANSCOM"

After the lunch break I saw "Rose" fiddling with a some sort of card at the training room , I approached her and saw a little green card and asked what's the card for. She replied " Don’t you know what's this is for ? - Its our Health card , an insurance kind of card and you can claim it at the clinic room in the fourth floor" . "Rose" really has an eye when I comes to finding certain objects and I hurriedly went on the floor to get mine , and when I arrived there I saw "Dustin" , "Mark" and "Jason" also claiming their respected Health Insurance cards also.  (The health insurance card is pictured above)

ITS SALARY DAY !!!

Only got two possible end scenario's over this TRANSCOM agenda. In either way I had no ill feelings over this and all I want is the money . I want it so bad ,I could taste it. I'm just being practical about this.

FAILED THE PRODUCT TRAINING PHASE AND "NESTING" PHASE - I get my salary and back pay. use the money to buy BhutBhut's pet cage (cat needs a new pet cage), pay a few debts to my younger sister , buy a few clothes, shoes  especially a wallet and the rest of the money get folded up on to be use for my next job hunting to another call center. If I'm still lucky maybe I'd use the remaining money for my PRC exam.

PASSED THE PRODUCT TRAINING PHASE AND "NESTING" PHASE - To be honest I haven't thought about this and the intended *mission* for TRANSCOM is just for a month, but here's a rough guess (If ever). get my salary, use the money to buy BhutBhut's pet cage (cat needs a new pet cage), pay a few debts to my younger sister , buy a few clothes, shoes  especially a wallet. Use the money for my licensure exam and simulator seminar. Stay with the company for a minimum 6 month and get promoted to either SME position, QA (though unlikely) or even perhaps a Trainer or Level 2 support for ops. Use the money to accumulate as much as possible to buy supplies and equipment and money needed for my sailing job - in order for me to "reboot" this dying job I left behind.

Frankly there are a lot of opportunities if I passed rather than not , but the overall reason is that I need the money to finance a my "long term projects" and that the only question here is how much money I could extract. For now the only thing I could comment about my situation is that "TRANSCOM" campaign is now on it's height and I'm midway in finding out the results of my efforts , only two more weeks and I'd get some answers about what will be the fate of this agenda.

In other issues to what I said earlier , There has been a progress in searching for the price of an SSBT - BRM seminar . I came across a website of a training center and found out that the cost of the seminar is not as pricy as what I though earlier , I cant recall exactly if it was "NEW SIM" training center or "MARITECH" training center that offers SSBT - BRM simulator courses with a 8500 PHP price tag. That price tag is not bad at all considering that some training centers out here charge for as much as 15000 PHP to 25000 PHP , In other words they offer half of the price with the same kind of Training environment . (5 days training plus assessment simulator exercise).

 Only problem for me now is how the hell could I raise that kind of money ? And if I do how long would it take me to generate that kind of money ?

Speaking of money …..

I already go my salary last September 28 and boy I'm so relieved while getting it, the pay wasn't that bad at all and was pretty generous . I was paid 9200 PHP for a single cut out pay of work done for ten days, what's more to my excitement was the appearance of my ATM card when I got it. (pictured above is the actual ATM Card issued to me and to the rest of the wave) , My expectations were just an orange card from union bank and yet as it turns out it’s a customized blue card with a company logo in it. I had worked previously with a couple of call centers before and none of them gave a customized card , they just usually issue a standard card and that’s about it , but here in TRANSCOM I could smile a bit on the efforts they do to please their employee's

Since it’s a salary day , My co-trainees and I , together with our instructor "Norman" went to a local fast food and ate together during break time and the only person who didn't come along was "Mico".  At the fast food "Mars" was telling to "Norman" on how bizarre "Mico" acts , saying that "Mico" is somewhat jealous on her looks.

I was with "Dustin" , "Jason" and "Erich" on the table listening to their stories, Apparently from what I heard "Dustin" tells about "Convergys" weird Monopoly cafeteria on their working spaces , while "erich" tells about why he ended up in the call center.

We went back to TRANSCOM at around 4am.

Training session wasn’t that quite hard and was not that hectic and Norman isn't that pressured to cram as much information on our heads. After the work , it was decided by some of the group to go to a drinking session near LIBIS. "CJ" was the one who suggested it , along with "BADONG" . So we went to the bar at LIBIS. The funny thing about this drinking session at the bar was that it is not done during nighttime but done in daytime like morning hours 8 am to 10 am.

There was me , "Jason", "Mark", "Chard" , "Rose", "McVin" , "Mars", "Gwen" , "RENE", "DAN", "Badong" and of course "CJ" . We hanged out there in the bar for a couple of hours and drank a few beers , After an hour it was very obvious that "CJ" and "Badong"  were already pig drunk as they were very talkative in manner.  "Rene" was the first one to leave the drinking session , then followed by "Rose" , "McVIN" , "Mars" and "Gwen" .  There were only seven of us left and we stayed there for 30 minutes more before finally calling it a *day* , "DAN" , me , "Jason" and "mark" rode a taxi then dropped me off in a jeepney station which heads towards Cubao ,along with me are  "jason" and "mark".

 We took a jeepney and during our transit, "mark" vomited inside the jeep which created a minor  scene among the passengers - fortunately though we were already at cubao area then. "Mark" was all messed up and drunk , literary covered with vomit from his shirt all the way down to his shoes. There was a nice lady there about her 40's or 50's who helped and gave us a medicine to deal with "Mark's" dizziness problem from alcohol.

We immediately went to the comfort room of farmer's mall , so that "mark" can clean up . I gave "Mark" my spare polo shirt inside my bag , as a replacement on his T-shirt since it was badly wet with vomit and "Mark" could wear it at all, A few minutes later "mark" emerged out of the comfort room and all cleaned up.  Since "jason" and "mark" are heading a different direction on their way home , I left then and boarded a jeepney going to marikina, But before I left the two I asked "mark" if he can handle himself on his way home , "mark" replied that there's nothing to worry about.


When I arrived at marikina, I took a detour and decided to buy a new and shiny pet cage for my pet cat "Batman" before going home.

 Anyway I would like also to thank the "Unknown" lady who helped up on "mark's" problem and gave us a medicine , Despite being a total strangers and have no obligation or liability to help us out whatsoever , she still managed to give her best in helping people she didn't even knew. I'm surprised as well that a stranger was helping us, since I have a negative image on how a Filipino is and how we treat each other. Again I would like to thank the "Unknown Lady" who helped us , thanking her may not mean much but it’s the least I could do and that not all Filipino's are grievous to each other, A lot of Filipino's are- but not all .