BPO Industry is one of the fast booming industries in the country. It has provided employment to thousands of job-seekers. Though it is one of the most underrated professions, this career is not for the soft-hearted and easily discouraged people. I have been in the BPO industry for more than 10 years and boy, those years were not easy.
Each call center employees deserved a pat in the back for being able to manage to stay alive in this merciless and overly-demanding field. If you have been in a BPO industry, you can certainly relate to any or all of the things below.
1. Not Knowing What Day of the Week It Is
Yep, ask us what day it is and we will just give you a blank stare. We do not know the difference between Mondays and Thursdays.
What we know is it’s already our 3rd shift for the week and two more days until we could see that light at the end of the tunnel.
2. Having Multiple Personalities
Research shows that only 1 out of 10 bipolar is being diagnosed. Immerse yourself in our production floor and you will see that almost 100% of the population has a split personality. If you listen to how we speak with our customers, you would sense a lot of empathy, willingness to help, and over-apologizing for the inconvenience that they have gone through which is clearly not our fault.
But as soon as we place them on hold or press that mute button, we instantly speak French. By French, I mean all the cursing words ever invented.
And yes, aside from the French words, we also wish that they would suffer 100 years of poverty and murdered them a million times in our mind. But when we get back to our customers, we automatically switch back to those empty empathy and fake enthusiasm.
3. Being Estranged to Your “Normal” Friends or Family
We may live in the same place but we have different timezones. Normal people are very active at day while asleep at night. We, on the other hand, are the opposite.
So we may live under the same roof, but it would take ages before we could see each other.
4. Doing a Lot of Things at the Same Time
The job demands that you are an expert when it comes to multi-tasking.
Talking to your customer while entering their data and processing their order at the same time? No sweat! Trying to make your customer understand their bill while catching up on your teammate’s love life while putting eyeliner on while eating that sandwich you managed to sneak into the production floor at the same time? Not entirely impossible.
5. Speed is Your Superpower
With average handled time being a big part of the scorecard, we learn the technique on how to be super fast with everything.
It’s a very fast-paced field so you have to eat fast, take your bathroom breaks very quickly, finish that calls as soon as you can. Our hands work faster than our brains. We are the master of ninja moves, with the fastest speed, even the most feared QA could not fathom how you were able to release that call without being captured on the recorded monitor.
6. The Pressure to Meet Thousand Metrics and Unreasonable Goals
How could they expect us to teach the customers how to use that brand of a remote control when we have not seen it with our own eyes? How could they assume that we can finish that call in 3 minutes and follow all the call flow and resolve all those endless issues and answer all of those silly questions of the customers? These, among many other things, are what is imposed on us by the company.
You may have the skills, but you would also need the help of all the saints and the luck of the universe to get that passing scorecard every month.
7. Shades and a cup of Coffee( preferably Starbucks) are the most important accessory.
Nope, we’re not vampires who would instantly melt when hit by the rays of the sun. We hide our massive eye bags by wearing ray bans. And coffee?
The liquid in our body is made up of 80% coffee. We could survive a day without eating, but not without coffee.
8. The Majority of Your Salary Goes to Paying Off Those Debts
Because we have a higher salary compared to most other jobs, you would think that our savings account is at least 5 figures. Well, you are mistaken.
That’s why we invented the term “critical wallet days” because right at the moment that our salary passes our hands, it is being passed over to pay our debts.
Those are mostly payments for trivial stuff that we ordered like underwear, pillow, makeup, and overrun stuff.
9. Holidays? What are those?
When you work in a call center, you would be very lucky if you can spend the holidays with your family.
If you want to spend Christmas or New Year at home, start offering eggs and lighting candles every day starting January.
10. Hitting Clock Out and Seeing “No Shift Today” is the Most Wonderful Thing in the World
When you leave the office and not having to return the following day because it’s your day off, you can literally hear the angels singing.
Then you can give that middle finger to your office’s building from the other side of the street.
Being in a BPO industry is challenging, but it can be very fulfilling and satisfying.