incessant rambling

would you invite an honored guest to a banquet, only to ridicule and make him the receiving end of your pointed barbs? that's exactly what happened to my team as well as other representatives of the BPO/Call Center industry who was invited to join a school job fair. from the start, company participants were already complaining as they got the notice from the school that they need to be there at 8:00AM sharp. only to find out that we would have to listen to an endless series of speeches from organizers and any hiring only started past noon. despite this lapse in professional handling of the event, the companies stayed on. at one portion, a VP from the organizing school went up the stage to call on an employee for a series of testimonials - a great idea when you're praising partners for their work. then he asked the question: "so why did you decide NOT to work for call centers and why is it better to work for (name of school)?" fine. it's his school. but for...

"Recent news mentioned that a lot of Call Center agents have HIV or AIDS . What is your industry doing to address this?" An overly smug forum moderator asked the not-so-innocent question in front of other non BPO industry participants and students. great, something that even the Department of Health nor the national government can resolve has been reduced to a very simplistic question as if my industry can provide the answer to this mystery. "Let's put it this way, call center agents don't change their values overnight. the current situation is just a superficial symptom of a deeper issue of how they were brought up as well as the values taught by the environment that has a bigger influence in their character - the school." if you ever heard of the expression "drowning in silence" then you know that it was uncomfortable. for the facilitator that is. i was barely warming up. "considering that my industry is the single biggest employ...

According to study: Call center agents prone to HIV-AIDS By Marjun A. Baguio (The Freeman) Updated January 30, 2010 12:00 AM CEBU, Philippines - A health official said call center agents have a higher risk of acquiring Human Immuno Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS). Dr. Crisol Tabajero, Health Information and Research Coordinator of the DOH Region 7 said in forum yesterday that because of their environment and peer pressure, call center agents tend to involve in risky sexual behaviors. She said that basing on a study conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute and the Department of Health, the result of the study is alarming but it is not surprising." For now, let this sink in and let me share my thoughts in a separate post.

the only reason i see for needing an Elevator Operator is if i am a midget and i have to get to the penthouse of the Burj in Dubai [which is just the taaallest building at 167 floors]. speaking of midgets, i imagine one behind the elevator panel announcing doors opening and elevators going sideways... err.... up or down. i hate it when people test the automatic sensor by sticking out a foot or hand. [warning, doors closing, please stand back] then they "accidentally" have their butt cross the laser sensors [warning, doors closing, please stand back] . these are times i wish the midget behind the panel would shout: [idiot, i said the doors are closing! get your fat self inside!!] then again, that is fantasy... or is it? a cousin sent me pictures of an uber fabulous advertising campaign for a jobs company in denmark. if midgets DO stay behind elevator panels, would it be too far off to imagine people behind coffee dispensers, atm machines and photo id cubicles? indeed, life is...

an article in the newspaper contends that working in a call center is a potential health hazzard. the assumption is that screwing the work cycle has a direct impact on your state of wellbeing. a different study came out that potentially debunks this assumption and lays out the REAL cause of hypertension and other stress related disorder: 1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. 2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. 3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. 4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. 5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans. CONCLUSION Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you . aylabet! thanks Annabelle, this made me laugh ha ha ha!!!!

There's this curious tale of "The Spider and the Fly" originally written by Mary Howitt. To cut the long story short, Spider promised Fly glorious temptation and despite the fact that Fly knew the terrible fate that's dangled in front of him, he willingly got himself tangled up, trapped and eaten up. yum yum. This dainty tale could very well be the next corporate strategy for s WE at STERN s WATTS (abbreviated as SwitShop) as they gear up for their Davao spider web, err... office. They've had their fill of cebudamus-flymus and want some davaomiscus-flymus. the buzz in Cebu is still strong about the nasty incident of mass termination (a.k.a. suckered - while - still - alive - and - kicking) of cebudamus by SwitShop that resulted in the extermination of more than 1,000 flymus just when Christmas was about to roll in (apparenty, these flymus creatures are Christians). Some greedy SwitShop this one... aside from being naturally curious creatures of habit, the ceb...

Recently we celebrated the fact that Cebu City ranked number four in the Top 50 Global Outsourcing Destinations as reported by Tholons (investment advisory firm) and Global Services (leading magazine for global sourcing of IT and BPO Services). The study indicated that outsourcers consider the competencies, costs of operation as well as maturity of the services in a location as primary metrics in the ranking system. While we celebrate this achievement, this does not highlight the bigger picture of the study: in the Top 15 destinations, India has 5, China has 3, Vietnam has 2, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil and Philippines only logged a single city each. The Top 50 revealed a further interesting result: India (6), China (5), Philippines (3) and Vietnam (2). Other destinations in North/South America and Europe are included in the list but the emerging trend shows that China and Vietnam are fast catching up to the Philippines as a regional competitor in the global outsourcing industr...

sometime late december (2007) i got a call from mem and she asked me if i knew anything about a thousand people that got laid off from Western Watts. i was honestly caught off guard as i make it my responsibility to monitor industry movement and something this big should have made a beep somewhere in my radar. early this year i called up a friend whose son works for Western Watts and confirmed that people were laid off sometime just before Christmas last year. Last week a commentary by Bobby Nalzaro in SunStar reported about a thousand people were laid off. the reports indicate that the company terminated the services of people due to gross incapacity to meet performance standards as set by the company. what a lot of bull. any decent performance management system allows for an employee to be coached and provided ample warning of roughly two months before decisions to terminate services are served. this is backed up by documented reports on performance, coaching sessions as well documen...

We have a critical crisis for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines. We tag an industry as a sunrise sector for its potential to expand and deliver returns in terms of revenue and employment generation. One such industry is the BPO group that has been tagged by the Philippine Government to deliver 900T jobs for the Filipino people and deliver an estimated revenue of USD 11B by 2010. The numbers look promising, the 2007 estimates indicate that we already have 190T employed in the Call Center Sub-Sector (CCS) of the BPO industry and the country is posting a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of (CAGR) 63% in terms of human resource expansion. On the other hand, in 2 to 3 years the Call Center Sector will stagnate and move on to more competitive countries that can fill in the growing deficit in Philippine resources: qualified human capital. As with any other economic indicator and activity, the BPO industry is dictated by the Law of Supply and Demand. According to ...

i admit, i have taken up my old profession. yes, i work at night, staying up late and servicing all kinds of customers. haggling for prices and services. i go home early in the morning only to get some sleep before getting up in the evening to prepare for a workout in the gym (to make sure i am fit and healthy for the work that i do) before going back to work. yes, i am a call boy. i work for a call center. he he he