Waiting

Today is my last of training the newest addition to our team. It was a less stressful week for me because I was not that preoccupied with the calls as I was also busy training and briefing him about everything. I know he's ready to take calls so he'll be on his own on Monday taking over the shift left by our teammate who resigned recently. Since he's the newest addition to the very small team that we have, he'll be assigned to the shift where there are virtually no calls. I'm looking forward to that shift myself. Two more weeks in my hated graveyard shift and finally I'll also be chilling in the swing shift.

Hay, can we just fast forward to April? I still feel stressed with my present shift. I know the stress level is lower now but I feel kinda traumatized already. So sad.

17 Days

I just resigned. Again.

Well, it's not really resigned because I'm not employed in the company yet. Not yet anyway. I just finished the 3 days of training and 14 days of nesting. That's a total of 17 days of rushed training and taking actual calls lacking a lot of product knowledge. But the worst thing of it all is that we didn't receive anything. We were informed that we will be receiving our so-called training allowance, a measly amount compared to industry standards, on the pay day after our 17th day. It actually defeats its purpose. A training allowance that is given long after the end of training? That's how things are done in that company. It's okay for the employees who have stayed there for a long time, most being first timers in the industry, however it's not okay for me so I quit.

With my departure, our batch is done to 10. After each one was endorsed to different teams, they were informed that instead of getting the allowance on the 25th of October, which is the pay day after our 17th day, they will be getting it on the 10th of November yet. As for me, I don't know if I'm going to get mine. I'm supposed to. I have to. They have to give it to me because I lasted until the 17th day.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

Struggling

I've lost count on how many days are we already in our 17-day training because of how hectic and erratic our schedule is. Our trainer and our mentor-in-charge are not even synchronized with our skeds that it's confusing to us. And yes, people have continued to disappear from our batch. We're down to 11 now. So far, 8 have gone, and a lot are planning to leave. I'm still one of those planning to leave, at the same time, I want to stay because as we got to take more calls, the more we're becoming familiar with everything. The quality standards are just so strict, and a whole lot different from all the call centers I've been with, not to mention the erratic policies implemented by the guards. I will not even start ranting about the guards. To quote a fellow teacher before, "Early in the morning, they make my blood boil."

Right now, we're doing better compared to the first days of taking calls. We're starting to get the hang of the calls, but we're still struggling. Struggling since there are a lot of issues we are not familiar with, and struggling since we don't have any pay or even an allowance yet. I am struggling because I have a lot of responsibilities, financial responsibilities. *sigh*

We'll have our last shift for the week a few hours from now and I have only slept for 3 hours. My mom woke up when she arrived to carry all the grocery bags she brought, and now I can't sleep. No, I don't have insomia and yes, I easily fall asleep. I just have a hard time sleeping once I'm already awake and my brain starts to run at full speed again. And having to report later during our technical class is not helping either.

*sigh*

Drained

After four days of kinda rushed training, we took calls on the production floor for the first time last night. We were stressed. I was stressed. I wanted to not continue the shift and go home. It was so queuing and I was having the most difficult time navigating the system and the tools, and answering queries that we weren't able to discuss during training. I am three years old in the call center industry and have experienced the worst customers ever taking a lot of escalated calls in my short career, but nothing compares to lack of product knowledge. I thought that if I'm having a hard time, how much more my batchmates who are first timers.

We were all so drained at the end of the shift, and a lot were already thinking about quitting. Another reason for their discouragement is that we were told by our so-called mentors that we will have a mock call and an online examination after the 17-day training, and if you fail in either, you'll not get the measly training allowance we're supposed to get after the training.

I decided not to quit just yet. I will give it another shot when we resume work on Monday. I'll do the best I can, and see if I'll stay or I'll go.

Burnout?

I am tired, I feel weak, at times I think I'm having a hard time breathing while working. I first thought it was just all in my head, then someone suggested hypertension. It's in our bloodline but I've never really had that problem before. I know I'm not getting any younger and getting so much stress in my job isn't helping a bit. The office used to be home, now it is not. Many familiar faces are now replaced with strangers. It's weird to be here for more than a year and yet it seems like a place I haven't been to before.

I am still looking for other career options as of the moment. With so many companies, I don't know why I can only find a handful of vacant positions. Is the Philippines now affected with the recession? I don't think so. I don't want to think so. I do hope to find a new home soon because I don't know which will come first in the next weeks (days?), my termination because I failed in quality again, or my resignation because of burnout.

*sigh*