Call Boy

by Thirdie Palma

LifestyleBohol Section
Bohol Chronicle
Published: May 25, 2008

Working as a customer service representative or associate (CSR/CSA) or more popularly known as call center agent for a well-known and one of the biggest outsourcing firms may be a glamorous job for those who want to be part of the call center industry in the country. One may think highly of a CSR as someone who has a kind of job that’s totally simple yet financially rewarding. But those who are and have been part of it may not share the same thought. It is true that the pay is way better than what a bank teller or a regular government employee receives. True that four or five-digit bonuses and other perks like free movie tickets, cell phone loads, DVD player, iPod, Starbucks gift certificates, Sony PSPs and even all-you-can-eat buffet from expensive restaurants may be given at least on a weekly basis. Even more true that if you get promoted, a bank manager’s salary is only a quarter of what you would earn plus your overtime pay and night differential. That’s even a generous estimate. There are so many things one can get in this kind of job that enumerating them all would be time and space-consuming. But did I really enjoy being a call boy? Did I take pleasure in being scolded or worse, screamed at on a per call basis because of something I didn’t personally do? Did I like the constant nagging for services not working as if they were all my fault? And did I benefit from the emotional, physical and mental stresses this kind of job put me through? The answer is a resounding no.

Sure, many call boys and girls I know say they don’t take the harsh and more often than not profane words personally. Of course, they don’t. I don’t, either. The customers are on the other line, anyway. There’s no way they can grab my collar through the mouthpiece of my headset and they’re on the other side of the planet so why worry? But here’s the thing about how sharp words can get. Several times I wake up from a nightmare (which happens during the day when I sleep after work) wherein a customer screams at the top of his lungs after saying so many F and S words at me because a sales agent signed him up for an internet phone even though he has no internet connection. Yeah as if that’s my fault but since I was from the account management department, it was my job to provide the best solutions possible before painfully deciding to disconnect or close the account as a last resort, which would then greatly affect my performance. One time my sister called from overseas and because I was dreaming that I was at work, I answered her call with my opening spiel, “Thank you for calling (Company)…How may I help you?” She answered back, “What’s happening to you? Are you crazy?” then she went on laughing.

It was then I realized that money’s not everything. Money can buy you a lot of things, yes. But how about your physical and mental health? At some point, maybe. Not when you lose your sanity or when you literally drop dead on the floor at work because of stress, like what happened to a poor guy in one of the call centers in Manila. Before, I didn’t believe much in the effects of stress but I have seen so many colleagues being brought to our clinic because of several health conditions they never thought would afflict them. Personally, I had to quit due to my osteochondroma (a benign tumor in my left femur), which didn’t bother or cause me pain ever until after I was in my fourth month as a call boy. Later on, I learned that stress is actually more sinister than what most people think of it. Some studies say stress is linked with serious conditions like cardiovascular diseases and even cancer. And here I was thinking that my daily supply of A-Z vitamins and a full glass of fresh milk was enough in dealing with the taxing work I was into.

I am not badmouthing any call center or any employee nor am I instilling fear among those who aspire to take the challenge of taming wild beasts pretending to be English-speaking customers (pun intended). I am only presenting the facts I knew and have seen as someone who used to be in the business even for a relatively short period of time. I am not even sour graping, not after getting huge bonuses twice a month, free movie tickets and cell phone loads almost every week or receiving a thousand bucks right after a quality assurance evaluation for getting a hundred percent rating of my recorded call. My point is, if you want this kind of job primarily because you want to be identified with the English-speaking Filipino population and enjoy the apparent luxury and glamour and glitz of it, then forget it. Usually, you won’t get nor enjoy the luxury part because stress will deprive you of it. Sitting pretty in an office all day preparing coffee for your boss albeit having a meager pay might be a better one for you. However, if you’re not only aiming for the trend but for the money itself, which I admit is very tempting and materially rewarding, all for the sake of your family’s subsistence and your own without having to fly to Dubai or anywhere else in the world, then take the job. Don’t be scared. Not all customers are beasts, by the way. There are still nice people out there who would need your help and who would go as far as commending you through your supervisors or even the President of the company for a job well done, that is of course, if you’re able to help solve the problem for them. But think about it ninety-nine times before diving into it.

Have you ever heard of jobs that are not for the faint-hearted? This is one of them. You think that just by engaging in a phone conversation with customers isn’t a tough job and an easy way of earning money? Think again because what you get from this job is hard-earned cash. Hard-earned in the sense that most of the time, you try your best to be resilient and unaffected by the insults or stupidity of some customers who are determined to bring you down emotionally or prove you wrong no matter how right you believe you are. Some customers do it just for the fun of seeing you crashing down. Then there’s racial discrimination, too. I could still recall the times when I had to deny my roots whenever I sense that the customer’s heading towards color coding scheme just to avoid an argument and finish the call the way I suppose to. As a result of these and some other things mentioned earlier, I always get exhausted and felt empty at the end of the day. I may have been a quitter but I was brave enough to make a choice from what’s good for me and what’s not. That was a personal choice. Like anybody else, I needed the money, too. I also enjoyed all the perks that went with the job but even with all the pampering stuffs the company was showering us, the excitement died down eventually. Money can only take me somewhere but not to a place where I can fully taste the sweetness of contentment.