Good evening guys!!! Late nako nakagawa ng article. . . I had some conversations with my sister, my colleagues, and some clients earlier. . . So occupied for almost whole day. . . . Even right now, I'm still having conversations with my sister. . . . She wants me to talk to her friend for a potential project. . . She already gave me a brief details on what the project is. . . . So I just said yes and she gave me her friend's number. . . . To make it short, I'll be having a Zoom meeting later today. . .
So today is already month of May, and it's Labor Day. . . . So holiday ngayon pero weekend. . . . swerte sa mga may pasok ngayon, double pay kayo hehehehe. . . . . at ung mga naka-off ngayon pero pumasok, additional 30% pay hehehe. . . Un nga lang, since Araw ng mga Manggagawa ngayon, for sure may mababalitang rally . . . . reklamo laban sa gobyerno, reklamo sa kahirapan, reklamo sa pandemya. . . palaging may reklamo. . . . kahit anung gawing paraan, palaging may reklamo. . . . .
Anyway, naalala ko nung nagtrabaho ako sa isang BPO company. . . It was my first job after graduation and had my license board exam (Yes, Licensed Engineer po ako that time and napunta ako ng BPO). Kung panu ako napunta sa BPO, dahil sa pinsan ko actually. . . . . . may pinakausap cya saking tao na nagtatrabaho sa isang Telecommunications Company and sabi na may hiring. . . technical support ang kelangan. . . . So I went to the office in Ortigas and passed my resume. . . Hindi ko na matandaan kung ganu katagal ung process nung application, pero tinawagan nila ako agad and said that I can start the training already. . . So I went to the said date of training, at pagdating ko dun sa office, ang daming tao. . . . Akala ko mga applicants, un pala, mga tanggap din sa work (so sabi ko, wow ganito pala karami ung kelangang technical support). . . . . So nagstart ung orientation, inisa-isa na kami ng introduction and then I realized, ibang technical support pala ung kelangan. . . . So wala nakong nagawa kasi nakapirma nako ng contract sa kanila. . . So I just said "Dito na ako eh, tuloy ko na to." I took the risk and continue the training. . . .
I worked as an inbound Technical Support Rep for 6 months (yes, you read it right, 6 months). So dahil ang task is to do phone support (pioneer kami ng internet service provider), so medyo mahirap magmaintain ng call handling time. So after my probation period, I was transferred to a different account (well same floor lang naman din) and from there, tumagal ako ng 4 years as CSR. Since Credit Card account ang handle nung team, mas magaan ung workload, and most of the time, puro balance inquiry or statement balance and inquiry. Dito na ako naging suki ng holiday. . . so pag may dayoff akong Holiday, usually naghahanap ako ng pwedeng kapalitan ng schedule, mas maigi ung night shift schedule (imagine, holiday tapos may night diff pa). . . . kaya pagdating ng payday, halos doble ung nakukuhang sweldo. . . kaya mas gusto ko ung night shift (or graveyard shift), kasi wala halos tawag na pumapasok. . . Kung susumahin, maximum na ung 8 valid calls. . . kaya minsan ginagawa namin (2 agents lang ang nakaduty pag graveyard shift, and senior agent dapat ung isa, for data collation and extraction), test call para hindi mahaba ung idle time. . . .
Meron talagang araw na wala talagang call na pumapasok sa graveyard schedule. . . kaya madalas, tulog sa post (don't do this guys, kasi bawal talaga. . . nagagawa lang namin that time kasi walang bantay at talagang idle). . . . Salitan nalang kami nung isang agent sa pagtulog. . . . pag one hour break, iidlip nalang sa post, para pag natyempong nag-queue (oo, may times na nag-queueing during graveyard), pwedeng sumalo ng tawag. . . . . Tapos meron din kami na-eencounter na may tatawag pero prank caller. . . . kaya ginagawa namin pag nakita namin ung number na tumatawag, sasagutin namin tapos quick release ng call (oops, bawal din to guys ah, wag tutularan. . . For termination ung ganung gawain). . . .
Isa siguro sa aayawan mong tawag, ung irate caller. . . . ung greeting mo palang, hanap na agad ng supervisor. . . . magtatanong ka palang, sisigawan ka na habang hinahanap ung supervisor. . . . Madami kaming suki nyan. . . . Lahat halos ng agents, namura at nasigawan na nya. . . . Kaya pag number na nya ung nag-pop up sa telephone monitor, sasagutin namin pero wala munang opening spill. . . pag naghello na, saka magsasabi ng opening spill, then saka sya hahanap ng supervisor. . . . . One time, tumawag ung caller na un ng graveyard, and I was one of the agents na nakaduty. . . . so pagsagot na pagsagot, biglang bungad ng "I want to talk to your supervisor." So since walang naman available, nagpanggap nalang ung isang agent na supervisor. . . So usap , usap tapos binaba, don't know kung naresolve ung issue. . . . . pero in a few minutes tumawag ulit, at ung isang agent ang sumagot. . . So, ako naman ang nagpanggap na supervisor. . . so kinausap, then baba ng phone. . . . . siguro ilang beses syang tumawag (parang may problem ung line nya, kasi intermittent at static) at hindi nya napapansin na 2 lang ung kausap nya, na napagpapasa-pasahan namin. . . . . . Hanggang sa dumating sa point na na-escalate na sa higher management ung caller at sila na ang humahawak ng issues nya. . .
May iba pang callers kaming na-eencounter during graveyard shift. . . . . Merong tv personality na talagang tumatawag lang during graveyard hours (palaging out of the country), merong during system updating (around 3 or 4 am ata un, d ko na tanda), merong magtatanong ng available balance (consistent un), pero sya na din magsasabi na may system updating, tatawag ng after an hour. . . . tapos meron ung saktong out mo na (6am and 7am ang out ng graveyard shift), saktong papasok ung caller, para magrequest ng installment. . .
Pero hindi lang naman during graveyard shift nakaka-encounter ng ganung callers. Meron din naman during regular shift. . . May mga artistang nakakausap, may politicians (pero kadalasan, ung secretary ang tumatawag), sports icons. . . At makikita mo dun lahat ng mga transactions nila. . .Even the date and the location. . . Naku may isang caller kaming laging tinitignan ang transactions nya kasi puro personal stuff ang binibili (as in personal stuff). . . Parang stalker lang ang peg naming mga guys sa floor, tapos pag ung isa sa agents ang nakasagot ng tawag nya, lahat kami nakikisilip sa account nya. . . hahaha!!! Mga pasaway lang talaga kami. . . .
So many memories and lessons learned when I worked for that BPO company in 4 years. . . . I decided to leave the company, when I got the opportunity to pursue my career as an Engineer (though na-expire un license ko that time). . . . sayang naman ung mga pinag-aralan ko (dahil nga nakapasa ng board exam), so from there, I worked as Sales Engineer, to Technical Support Supervisor, to Product Manager, to System Design Engineer. . . . . until now. . . .
Anyway, it's already past midnight and have to take some rest. . . may schedule ng vaccine ang aming puppies. . . . I'll see you on my next article. . . Babush!!!
