Manila Day 4: Off to work!

Monday was a good work day, as was Friday, though I didn’t really mention much about it. The thing that is interesting to me is that, like most Americans, I have a belief system about call centers located off-shore; that is, in India in most cases. We’ve all had that experience where we can’t understand someone, or we assume they cannot understand us at the first point of frustration.

What has been great learning for me here in Manila is that the agents who work in our call center, serving our North America customers, are nothing short of amazing. Their English is excellent, their dedication and passion for what they do is beyond anything you’d ever see in an US-based agent. For these folks, this is a *really good job* - they make more doing call center work when they graduate college than they would if they went into a profession, such as teaching or architecture – earning around $12K US/year (or so goes the ‘average call center employee’). Where in the US it’s not seen as prestigious in most cases, here, it’s a huge thing.

Oh yeah, and remember, they sacrifice their social lives to do it. They work graveyard shift, so they all hang out since they're on the same schedule. They hang out after work, go away to the beach on weekends, and even on work trips, they pile in 4 or 5 to a hotel room! They are like a family in a huge way because of the shift work. Though, tons of people in Manila work in call centers that support the US, so some bars and clubs actually open up from 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. to accommodate the "after work call center crowd"... interesting, no?

Did a little more mall shopping – it is the thing to do here – and had Chinese food at the hotel that was really good. Still yet to have Filipino cuisine…outside of Pringles and other snacks. :) Oh, and vodka on the rocks with calamasi juice (it's like a little key lime but with a totally different flavor) is my new favorite drink! :)

Handing out awards, the team and the view from the call center...