THANK YOU

Had been quite a while since I logged in and wrote something on my journal, My attention was briefly occupied for a few days taking care of my mom who was sent on the hospital for apparently suffering from chronic kidney disease. This wacked of ride lasted for more than a week as mom got hospitalized and confined over it. Initially the doctors though that mom had to be strapped and hooked up to the dialysis machine just to save her life, fortunately further lab results test showed that will not be the case although it was obvious that mom had indeed had problems related on the kidneys.

My younger sister was definitely and no doubt a big help in getting mom out of the hospital, and took care of everything even the financial aspect and some medical decisions to be made. If it were not for my sister then mom could still have been stuck up to now on the hospital and I'm still left figuring out what to do next.

 I would also like to thank "Uncle Panong" (Mom's cousin)  whom helped us voluntarily and given us some tactical decisions overall , especially in the hospital expenses where it ballooned to about 6800 PHP for the medical ward. He helped us in going through the social services and reducing the medical bills to almost zero. Frankly I never pay attention much to "Uncle Panong" until now and I do thank him a lot for helping us.

Anyway in other news

So how is the government hospital overall? To be quite honest , I don’t want to go the hospital if ever I get hospitalized. Being hospitalized in a government hospital in the Philippines is one of the worst things  a person could ever imagine in health care .

The doctors and medical staff are rude and ill mannered , I even saw one doctor shouting to her patient who is in near death at that time, plus doctors even avoid treating their patients and letting them rot in the hospital bed. Another thing is the facilities which looked more like a backwater motel rather than a full fledge hospital , the so called "Charity" ward isn't exactly free and cost as near to that of a "Pay" Private ward and the so called charity ward has no electricity at all to start with and no proper ventilation. Nurses most of the time forget to adhere to medications that are to be given to their patients like insulin and such, and even in some cases are rude to their patients and the patients relatives.  And another thing is that they even make it mandatory for the patients to buy and shoulder the cost of medical equipment that was intended to be free and a standard issue, I have no idea why patients have to buy their own dextrose, syringe, needles, glucose strips, plastic tubes and such etc.

To be honest I cant recommend at all a government hospital for healthcare. The only reason that people come there is the misconception that it was supposedly free . Little do the helpless patients knowledge that if they would compare their medical bill to that of a private hospital care it would cost as much as the same and with less worries. 

NOT FOR THE BETTER

Garden at a public hospital , Glad they took some time for the ambiance  

QA reports on my calls haven't been turning out positive and for some way I always get  mark down on almost everything on my calls. Anyway what is to expect on QA's right ? Their job as far as I know is to make life more difficult in the call center , and it's their job to hunt us down and be a fault finder.

According to the reports I received I already have a mark down for D.P.A. (verbal Password to be asked on the caller during the call ) twice for the record and that If received another , then it will be the final before getting fired, Well I guess that's the way of life in the call center and that sooner or later I'd get caught by the QA one day when I'm really having a bad day and be summarily fired without any due process.

Newly opened McDonald's  beside my house , soon I'b be eating my way to happiness

 Quite honestly I'm not bothered at all by this and practically speaking I'm not staying here in TRANSCOM for long periods (though I cannot leave yet till have full preparations set), I just see the working environment here to be deadlock and restricting for any call center agent to flourish.

Since I'm not doing so well on work , I had now started securing a few things which include money, medicine, food etc. incase in the advent of the possibility of being terminated on work in a ,much sooner basis. I had to take preparations for an unscheduled departure and the transition period of unemployment time from TRANSCOM to another company.

As what I mentioned on this journal and from my previous entries , Being in the call center is not exactly a permanent basis but more of a "transition work" while I'm sorting out my issues in the maritime sector.

In other news related to work….

T.L "John Rivero" informed us that the site of TRANSCOM in EDSA needs about 190 agents to fill in to the vacancy there  and relocated would be relocating agents from here to there. Immediately after announcing it to the group , "Dustin" , "Rene" , "Mark" , "Gwen" , "Mcvin" sent an email to T.L. "John Rivero" on their intention to join the  EDSA TRANSCOM bandwagon. While me and "Rose" decide to stay here. According to T.L. "John Rivero" the transfers will be effective immediately on December 10 , So I guess it's only me an "Rose" that will be here and be folded up on a much larger group. The original group of Talktalk Plus TV Wave 4b will be splintered into two.

My reasons why I decided to stay are personal and economical , Personal in the sense that I don’t have good relations with the my co-workers and it’s a relief  that I'd be rid of them soon. I just don’t like working with people who contradict me on my decisions and interrupt me while I'm in the middle of calls and just to add more I don’t like working to people who say a lot of things behind my back and think they're high and mighty just because they supposedly knew better . Ugh ! I had enough of those kind of people when I worked at sea years before. DON'T GET ME WRONG I'M NOT ANTI-SOCIAL , I JUST DON’T LIKE WORKING WITH PEOPLE WHOM I DON’T LIKE - PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

2nd reason why I decided to stay is on the economic / financial part. Lets face it ! The transportation cost going to PASIG TRANSCOM is three times much less compared to EDSA SITE, In PASIG I only get to spend 19 PHP going to and from my house , while in EDSA site I'd be spending as much as 60 PHP on the cost of transportation alone. So if I plan to spend extra on food or other stuff expect that I'd be losing more than a 100 PHP a day. It will be disadvantageous for me to be relocated there on the financial part.

However despite the possibility of being transferred to EDSA has more disadvantage, there is in fact an advantage on it in some was. It's main advantage is since its in EDSA then its in the middle of a business district and than in the even that I'd get to be fired or leave TRANSCOM , I can easily replace my losses and go to another suitable companies and if ever I get decided to go back and look for a shipping company the "transportation time" going from TRANSCOM to other companies is much less than being in PASIG

For personal news.....

Currently i'm in the hospital watching over mom who got hospitalized yesterday (or was admitted to the hospital) , apparently the reason while she was admitted was because of high creatinin levels in her blood stream (some sort of thing related to kidneys, high levels means that kidney is failing) . Based on the previous lab results the levels were three times as high as a normal person should have , which basically explains why mom is having "swollen" foot for a month now. My worse worries is that mom may suffer the same fate as Aunt milen who is now on a full stage kidney failure and now undergoes constant dialysis every now and then . For now my sister and I are doing our best to keep the situation controlled and take care of mom in the hospital until she gets a bit better

Mom confined on a Public Philippine Hospital , To be honest , off the record - one of the worse places in the world to have medical treatment with. 

CHURCH OF TRANSCOM

Who could have ever thought that I had lasted this long in TRANSCOM, Up to now I am still absorbing the details on my mind that I had made it past the "Nesting Phase" even though my Stats in work were the lowest on all the seven remaining agents in the group. Yes hard to believe even in the logical sense that I had been accepted and endorsed to work in the production floor , as a matter of fact my working status was even the subject of discussion between "Norman" and some unknown guy from the brass for a week , Deciding whether or not I would be fired.

I guess the overall decision that made me to be kept around by TRANSCOM was the fact that I had a perfect attendance , as in no absences or late in training ( that is what "Norman" said to me) beyond that I could just be added to the numbers in attrition rate (employee's fired).

My newly purchased Andriod tablet

Honestly my primary mission here at TRANSCOM is just to stay for a month, no more than a simple "digging and mining" mission afterwards I'd go back to finding a job elsewhere  maybe even take the licensure exam for a change - I had no idea that my mission would extended beyond the simple one month and yet I'm grateful that they did kept me around. I had never made a mistake in coming to them , they offered me so much more than what I need.  This had opened me a lot of possibilities in life, things that were somewhat previously limited when I was a sailor.

Who knows? Maybe when things went fine up to summer , I could enroll again in college and take a second college degree preferably marine engineering. I may not be working "seaborne" but at least I could still be productive in life and take schooling again.  Despite the failures I had , I'm somewhat hopeful that things would turn out positive to the least.

In office news …………...

A new face will be showing out in replacement to our temporary Team lead "Norman" and will be our permanent T.L. for good. He's name is "John" but we call him "J.E" or T.L. "J.E." for short.

According to the background "T.L. John " said to us when we met him , he was from an American Account in a BPO near S.M. MOA site and got hired here as a T.L. and started to work when he was still 16 years old. On first impression he's enthusiastic and cheerful guy (though I'm still holding out my judgment on him since I'm a cautious person and I've seen people who are friendly at first then later on become a monster). He's well experienced in handling people and doesn’t get ticked off easily by rude customers.

My new outfit "college kid" outfit

In other news related , by next two weeks the teams schedule will change from 11pm - 8am schedule to 8pm to 5am work time. This is of course based on what T.L. "john" said to us and it was verified on our Empower Citrix System, Apparently the change of schedule was made by the brass to see on how well we go in queuing time since were out of the Nesting phase. Well there's no harm to that and still will not conflict if I had urgent agenda's that needs to be done by the day.

For the working part , well I could say that I'm trying hard to drop off my nasty habit of disconnecting customers especially if I get pissed to them.  I guess it will do me a lot of good that as much as possible I should not disconnect calls.  Speaking of which I think "Gwen" caught me one day disconnecting calls , of course I tried to deny it as much as possible and I'm not bothered if I get caught , I just thought to myself that if I do disconnect calls then does she have a problem with that ???

One thing that really ticks me off to pissing mood is the lack of privacy of my coworkers and they go as far as eve's dropping my calls and contradicts everything on what they hear when I'm in the middle of work taking in calls. I doesn’t matter if I'm doing something wrong or not , what I meant to say is that they should mind their own business - and if they don’t have anything better to do , then they should pray on the rosary ,

Honestly speaking "Gwen" is a bitch when  she meddles with my work , and so is "Rene" whom had been pissing me for more than a month now. Good thing I know how to handle this people and tell them to back off and mind their own business.

On work performance…

Though occasionally I may seemed to be doing well and fare at first look , overall and in general things are going to be in a downward spiral for me. I just received two memo's from the QA within a week and both of it are as what is said to be "Critical Fail" which meant that it failed miserably on the standards set by the company , what's worse about it is that the next memo I'd be receiving will put me on the status of being fired if the issue still is the same. On top of it according to the company standards , it will stay on my records for nine months and will remain even after I made it past the six month "Regularization" period.

Goya Philippine cholocates , ive been eating during break

Honestly I'm not really bothered at it at all even if these so called Company working standards are a bit steep for  a normal call center agent  such as the AHT Score being only 10 minutes, This maybe normal for a CSR but in a TSR / CSR job category a 10 minute AHT is a bit short and not fit for a troubleshooting TV / Broadband System related issues. I should remember overall that these job is not exactly the permanent kind and that I'm only here in the first place is because I needed the money to start over on my sailing profession. I find that part to be very dismaying and no matter how much promises are made by TRANSCOM that this account is "easy" , I still find it to be a far cry from TELSRA Australian Account I handled years before. "Easy" for a CSR job category in some extent but a total bullshit for a "TSR / CSR" agent.

For now the job tactic I had been putting into is a "trail and error" one, not a very efficient one at all to be honest  and most of the time (or for the most part) ended up having more failed calls in the process. It's a painstaking kind of work tactic considering TRANSCOMS expects us normal agents to be "superstar Universal Agent" . Despite the failed calls and pummeling metrics  ,The only good news I could come up with is that the TRANSCOM System had a weakness . To be specific they don’t have any "screen shot" capabilities, just sound recording and that they couldn't tell what I'm doing on my computer screens. They have basically no idea's if I'm using the software tools as well and that they heavily relay on the "History Notes" in "TRIO System" rather than simply verifying it on the logs made on other software tools. In other words they couldn't tell if I disconnected the calls intentionally.

Pond's cosmetics ive been applying on my skin

So how am I going to exploit this weakness I just found recently ? Well for the brighter part I could intentionally get rid of pesky customer's without them even noticing and I could come up with a few ways to dispose them making it look more like "the customer is impatient and rude" . Upon my discovery of this weakness , It now explains it and adds up that despite the huge number of calls I had disconnected ever since I started being on the production floor none of them showed me disconnecting calls intentionally or even proved to have a direct evident that I'm disposing customers by cutting them off. QA could only detect the wrong decisions  I made on the phone and they were not even sure that if I'm using the Software tools correctly.

RENDEZVOUS WITH CAREER

Terrible long line of applicants in Career 

Upon the insistence of my dad that i should look back and explore possible companies out there that might accommodate me in the maritime, I did went out to look for another.

My only link to this is either my Uncle Mel thru Scanmar shipping company and another named Capt N. Betts from Career Philippines Ship management. Since the previous company i went to look for a job didn't even bothered to call me or at least get my papers, I could only guess that Scanmar Shipping Company is not going to take interest in me, After all its been 11 months passed since my resume was put in their office and they never even got the trouble to at least notify me if I got the job or not. 

I guess the rumors i heard that Scanmar Shipping being a bastard company might be right afterall ,

I should have known better......

D/C employees waiting for "quasi militaristic training" 

Anyway now comes the 2nd option and see if Career and "Capt, Nick Betts" words are 100 percent gold. I had been waiting for almost a year with "Captain Nick Betts" just to refer me to his company. And now the time has come to join and see if this second plan of mine works. It was a great opportunity for me that "Capt Nick Betts" was around and was willing to refer me to his company called career.

Immediately I went to dress myself after the SMS I got from "Nick" that he'd fetch me up on Masinag market and after that I took a jeepney to proceed to masinag, waited for a few minutes there until he arrives in a Red Nissan Centra. I quickly hop into his car and he said that were going to fetch in another guy in Santolan , by the time we got there a cadet joined in the car. We drove off a few minutes and passed by cubao till the makati area.  In the area near alpha land mall , "Nick" lost directions and we got lost for a few minutes , and circled the area in pasong tamo twice before finally figuring out that he should take a right turn to go thru Evangelista street in Makati.

When we arrived , we were joined in by another guy in the Jollibee fast food, so that counts the number to four people which is "Captain Nick", Me the OS , "The Messman" and the "Deck Cadet". A few moments later we went to Career Philippines Ship management and talked to the guys responsible for new recruit's called "Mr. SO" , we went to he's office. I'm  not sure if Mr. SO is a Korean or a Fil-chinese , because on the first look I would think he is either of the two.

 In any case from what I do know is that this "MR. SO" is a maritime academy graduates ( guys who are cold, vengeful, sadistic, jealous bastards expect no less). Based on the conversation with him and "Captain Nick"  he was reluctant to accept both the "Messman" and "Deck cadet" , apparently from my understanding Mr. SO also a racist who degrades people that do not originated from his maritime academy - anyway that's not a surprise to me, most academy bastards are just like that , megalomaniac freaks.

Upon the three that "Captain Nick" introduced in the office , I was the least (if not wasn't) ridiculed at all given that among the three I was the highest rank and got a BS degree. Another thing I guess that I wasn’t ridiculed was because I dressed a bit better compared to the "messman" and the "deck cadet", So well dressed that I think I intimidated Mr. SO ,

A few minutes later we were given applications forms for interview and was given a scheduled to meet Mr. SO again by Monday for the job interview . I'm not sure though if things will work out by Monday , but I'd keep it posted .

"Messman" was dropped off at MRT station in guadalupe , while "Deck Cadet" was dropped in santolan station LRT2 , I was dropped off in Sta. Lucia in mall in Cainta Rizal.    

On monday ..........

The "Messman"  (Randy Navarro) and I went again to Career Philippines Ship management to report back and pass our application forms, It was around 10 am when I got there and got an appointment slip.

Lunch time went and there was no sign of me and "Messman" , being entertained and I guess "Captain Nick Betts" was right that we have to wait patiently for about 8 hours before being entertained. We took lunch at the small makeshift store right beside the company building, then headed back to Career Philippines Ship management office at around 2pm. It was a long tiring wait and I was already beginning to feel the effects of fatigue and to add more I'm starting to have thoughts that applying to this company is a bad idea after experiencing they're so called "Hospitality" (in which I had to wait 8 hours before finally being entertained)  ,

 at about 4:45 pm finally my name and the "Messman" along with two others were called on the office of "MR. HO" .

The first few minutes that went by in his office was not exactly a job interview but more like a simple 3 minute conversation were Mr. HO just summarily turns down the job applications of two others without even looking on their resumes and documents, Mr. HO as what I best described is a cold vengeful sadistic snobby bastard ( typical attitude of people who graduated from The Philippine Merchant Marine Academy). Even my companion "Messman" was given the summary decision , By the time it was my turn to be interviewed I quickly gave him my application form  and said quickly  that I was with "Captain Nick Betts" last Friday and was told by you (MR.HO) to pass this to you by Monday.

Hard to believe that these kids will be in for a lot of hardship under filipino hands , Some of them will face cruelty and maltreatment from they're filipino compatriots . Shame that they have to go on a fascist , quasi militaristic job. maybe someday Maritime industry will be no more here 

It was a decisive move I made and prevented me from being given the "3 minute summary decision" thing. The next thing Mr. HO gave me a piece of paper with a drawing in it , he said that I should write down what best describes this picture and that I should write it in more than a hundred words and in perfect English grammar. I accepted the paper and immediately went to work , It took me only few the task and unknown to Mr. HO , my English language proficiency is very high given the fact that I am a Telephone operator in a call center.

I passed my test papers and Mr. Ho couldn't find any "holes" on my grammar and English writing skills.  Then came the interview which was very obvious that it was a one sided conversation, from what I recall Mr. HO was making up a lot of petty excuses just to get rid of me, I even recall him mistook and saying that he can't accept my application because my cadetship was made on the interisland ship. WHAT THE FUCK !!!! Since when did served in the Interisland Ship ??? Bastard didn't even looked on my Seaman's book to verify . When I heard him say that , I didn't know if I was going to giggle to laugh on his ignorance or be furious because of it.  Anyway I did corrected him and said that It doesn’t mean that I went to a Philippine flag means also that the ship is interisland. When I said that , I could giggle on the look on his face knowing that I contradicted him.

To avoid anymore nasty conversation , Mr. Ho said that the application will be considered and that I just have to report here in the career office every now and then and dismissed me.

I do know better that he will just throw my application form in the trash bin after that and that you cannot have someone's word for it and that he's only saying that to save grace knowing that this OS is more smarter than your average grunt.

Some people might think that being a sailor and working seaborne is paradise, Hell they have no knowledge that paradise isn't what exactly as what you think it is. There are a lot of bastards here and if you don’t fight back or be at least street smart , chances are people will take advantage of it and abuse it. There are a lot of these people in the maritime industry in the Philippines , far more worst and more sinister than Mr. HO out there . PMMA and MAAP people are a bunch of militaristic , racist facist pigs !

THE FEW LEFT

Changes in schedule has brought me to around 11pm to 8am shift, and there are only a few calls in UK during that time period (equivalent to 3pm to 12midnight). And as a result I only get to have very few calls during that shift and tremendously long avail time. The "Avail" time was so long that the recorded time was beyond an hour.

According to "Norman" this schedule will be put on the run for us for about several months, which meant that were stuck having long avail times, until someone from opts figures something out on our schedules. Not that I'm complaining , I think having long avail times are quite great and relieves stress  , however too much avail time is too bad also in call center agents as most of them get lazy and arrogant and in some rare cases pick on other agents.

During this week , our group suffered yet another lost  and two agents got fired,  It was "Badong" and "Chard" that got hit this time. It was a tough decision for "Norman" to inform them that they are going to report to the HR , but things had to be done and they have incurred too much absences and late's on work schedules and it was obvious on what things will turn out for them and sooner or later they'd be fired from the job. I guess they knew that they had it coming.

It was very cruel of TRANSCOM to let them not even finish their job shift first

Anyway since our group currently is just composed of 6 agents (including myself ) there is a rumor going on that we might get folded up and consolidated on the wave Talktalk Wave 3B just to fill up some extra vacant space , as of the moment the only thing I could comment about the rumor is that were working alongside with them and even share the same working station area with the same temporary Team Leader (Norman) and with the same working schedule. I will find out later on if indeed there will be a "Merger" of the two groups.

So how am I doing on this past week on work ? To be quite honest , I'm not doing so good and I'm fighting a losing war here and its only a matter a time before  I get fired . My performance is getting poor as I speak, and its in a downward spiral path.  For now the only Tactics I've been doing on calls is the "Hit and Miss" scenario, A trail and error phase as one might put it, and its been a very inefficient tactic in taking in calls. There were a significant number of calls that I solved in a wrong fashion and my stats is pummeling down steadily ,but what can I do right ? Its just that this account has a lot of problems given the broad scope that was put upon  us agents . Overall my progress was very little and that I think (based on the stats I had viewed) I will be fired by the end of nesting period , I'm the lowest on all the stats.

Anyway I did learned something that’s a bit useful , and that is the procedure on how to transfer calls from another department via Cisco Telephony . On what learned from the floor walker is that I had to press 9 first before adding the internal number's department ( example  91234556789 rather than just 123456789 only) . Honestly I'm thankful I've learned on that part but the problem is by the time I learned it , I was midway (2 weeks)in the nesting phase and had accidentally disconnected a lot of calls before I learned this procedure

Myself Taking the call and live in action on the job

 Honestly I'm not good as a CSR than a TSR and that realizing that I signing up as both of these is very disheartening , I am taking up a CSR / TSR / Tech 1 / Tech 2 job position with a 16K salary cap in it here , while other employees of TRANSCOM are just a dedicated CSR or TSR level 1 and yet they get the same salary as I have. This is outrageously unfair on my part that I had a lot of tons of workload put on me  while the others just enjoy little work and being paid on the same amount of salary,

 This lowers my morale tremendously and much more on the fact that my co-workers and I hate each other. The only good reason that I'm still staying on the job is purely financial reason and that I need to keep this dragging on to maximize the amount I could siphon for my future maritime agenda's . The truth is I'm not exactly bothered at all that my stats is the lowest of all nor the fact that working relations at the office is slowly deteriorating. Somehow I'm not taking this seriously and I don’t really care much on what happens next after Nesting phase.

For now I have a very low morale , its so low that even my work in TRANSCOM is affected and I'm wouldn't care less about anything aside from the money . I'm so dishearten that I'm reverting back to my old habits of disconnecting callers intentionally , believe me my performance is greatly affected by working relations

Honestly this job is one of the most difficult I had handled in the call center not because of the job itself but with the working relations and that the only compensation I was getting is the fact that I'm taking to British people rather than American customers. The rest is just plain old crap.

PHONE THAT NEVER WORKS

With permission with my sister , I'm now using her former Samsung GT-S3850 Phone. The overall reason that I need to use it was because I'm getting interested in social networking lately and I needed something to take my mind off from stress (Boredom) , Fortunately for me this phone has the capabilities on social sites like FACEBOOK and Twitter. Though the phones capabilities are somewhat limited compared to a Tablet and a Net book , I could say that it's atleast sufficient enough to keep me updated on the latest news and updates.

As of the moment I had no problems accessing these sites with the use of my sisters old phone and besides that I think my sister wouldn't mind at all since she decommissioned this phone ages ago.

In work related concerns…

Things are going bad for me at the "NESTING PHASE" and I'm still doing very poorly in the "customer service" part and I just received the QA review on my calls , apparently one of the reviews was captured with me disconnecting the customer off my line. Good thing though that there was no "Screen Capture" on what I'm doing on my computer screen or else I'm caught red handed and would be expecting a Memo from my trainer anytime soon.  Another QA review was ok in the fact was that its was just a basic enquiry coming from the customer , good thing though that I never gave any personal information about the account on the caller.

Since "TELETECH" Years I started out in the call center as a TSR and it was not my business to please customer , just tell them the facts and fix them - never matter if they're happy or not. Unfortunately the contract I signed at TRANSCOM clearly states I'm a TSR / CSR, So its obvious I'm stuck on that part.

One good thing that despite having a bad score card ,My team mates as well are having bad score's.  And according what "Norman" says to us , our ACW and AHT's count are very high - So high that it caught the attention of the operations manager. Another thing that "Norman" told us was that currently among all the TalkTalk TV plus groups , our was the Lowest ranking of all.

Currently I'm feeling a work fatigue now and its really taking its toll on me especially on the morale. I never expected that It would happen to me but yes it did and each day that passes I'm losing more interest in this account and with TRANSCOM , In fact the only reason that's holding me back from leaving is because of financial reasons and I'm still up to now financially short to finance some long term plans. 

To add more on the gravity of my low morale on this job is the fact that working relations with my co-trainee's are deteriorating fast and sour. I meant is that some of my co-trainees are a bit short on manners and etiquette, they maybe good in taking in calls and doing their job but they're not  doing so well in treating others with respect and dignity.  One such example I had is that some of my co-trainee's keep contradicting me often on the decisions I've made on the phone and what's worse was that even on normal conversation they keep butting and contradicting my statements . The Fuck of those bastards , and why don’t they mind their own fucking business 

Pictured here is "Ching" and "Dustin" plucking off  white strands of hair on "Chard's" head , This is what some of us are doing during an "Avail" status in a call center

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.