(This is the first of a 3-part series I’m doing before I leave; it helps me remember the people who became a part of my TP life)
The lure of higher compensation and equal employment opportunities appealed to me like the candy house did to Hansel and Gretel. I was wide-eyed, awed, excited, and VERY eager to learn.
At first I thought of call center employees as loud, humbug, and well, egocentric. And of course, I proved myself wrong the moment I realized that I was already part of that world.
Training was super fun. I had a harmless crush on my trainer, and friendships were built among the wave-mates, which I would later understand when I became a trainer myself. Kristel Ase and I come from the same Glenda Pesimo class, wave 167, Team Alright!
Learning lab (nesting) proved to be challenging, and I got to compare my trainer’s calm demeanor to that of production’s hasty, noisy, and somewhat strong atmosphere. But I passed =) and I specifically remember Sirs Effie (then a lab sup) and Mike who were really a source of inspiration to me even if they were not my lab sup. Mine was a lady who took her job seriously and apparently disliked me (I might have been really stupid when I was still learning).
Ryan Naoe became my first production supervisor, and of course, because he took almost everyone from our wave, not a week has passed when he transferred all of us to a different supervisor. If you ask him why, he’d gamely tell you the story. Until now when I see Ryan around, I would never forget how easily forgettable my one week with him was, but ironically, he has still made a mark in my head.
Claudine Callueng then absorbed our batch. I’d say she is a pretty effective supervisor because each of us achieved what we set out to do. I got exposed to compass encoding as early as when I was in this team, and I have Clauds to be thankful for that.
I was only beginning to become comfortable with the team and the line of business (swap and go) when I heard that I would then be transferred to a new supervisor and LOB (billing). I was saddened, scared, and felt lonely.
Brian Bautista proved to be the papa Piolo of TP during his time. And it was in this team that I met veteran agents Yuki, Philip, and Allen. All the early tricks I learned, I learned mostly from them. They accommodated all my newbie questions, and were always ready to help. Hmmm.. why was I taking calls and they weren’t? #AlamNa
Then I got transferred again to Darrel Unabia. It was in this team that I started getting straight yeses, got rewarded with GC’s, given by then CSAT manager Ms. Sen some Samsung Rant items because I answered most of their questions about customer service. Yuki, Vannah, Echo were part of this team, along with Angel, and the rest of the gang. We were tight, strong, and, well, mayabang.
This team experienced a lot of reshuffles, but Vannah, Yuki, Echo and I stayed with Darrel. Was it by choice or by random picking? It’s still highly debatable til now.
Soon thereafter, we welcomed a few agents whose team was dissolved (thank God). Yuki’s crush, who now happens to be my beautiful partner, and her teammates, got transferred to our team. Tere, Marie, Jenn, Pie, SN, Victoria and a lot more tenured agents became part of team Darrel.
Joy and I unknowingly sat beside each other (which ACCM Rio soon noticed) when we took calls, and she would eat my “tasteless” biscuits because she is starving. She and Pie would put make up on my face and laugh at me on end, while Joy and Jenn would endlessly comment on my baggy pants, my old school polo shirt, and pretty much anything. They would bully me during kris kringle sessions, but would later prove to become the dearest of friends to me in the end.
Pie (seen laughing in the photo above) lives next door in the apartment Joy and I share with other friends.
Yuki and I remained really good friends despite his many misadventures and my voicemail issues. Mention farmtown to him and he knows what I’m talking about. We competed against each other, with each other, and defended each other like crazy especially when my average ACW (1 second) was questioned. Our topics ranged from girls, to stats, to anime (oh well, that was pretty one-sided) and love life.
I experienced to be the site-wide #1 agent, I also experienced to be one of the bottom performers of the cluster. And I wouldn’t be what I am now if I hadn’t gone through those.
Team Darrel went out a few times, including my first ever trip to Baguio. “Siraan ng buhay”, “basagan ng trip”, and “ubusan ng pera” were our favorite games. This is also the very significant phase of my life when I started understanding the gay lingo. Warlahan left and right, chorvahan here and there, and the like.
Darrel also taught me how to coach newbies, not formally, but I got to try it. Needless to say, the bond I had with this group of people was like…mighty. What a mighty bond =) it is then!
More pictures:
All these happened within a span of a year and 8 months until I got recommended for escalations, which is what book 2 is all about. Please watch out for it… =)
Photos from:
Chat Bechard’s FB page
Rose Domingo’s FB page
relate, lol