I never thought I’d say it, but college was FUN. Oh well.
Entering a convenience store I grabbed a hotdog sandwich and a cold can of coffee (yes COLD coffee) for believe it or not, my ‘breakfast’; or lunch for those blessed enough to live normal lives. Tsk. With about 10 mins to spare I enter our office and headed for the pantry[i] where I’m greeted by a chorus of:
“Ey dude! What’s up?” “Yo Daryo!”
“Good morning!!”
“Kakagising mo lang noh?”
“RalphMan! Musta?”
“Pare simula pa lang inaantok ka na! ”
“Natulog ka ba?”
“Magsuklay ka naman!”
“Hi honey!!” (nah asa pako? Gud lak haha)
I manage to reply with a somewhat raspy and drawled “ey”; but it’s really an improvement since most of the time I just smile, nod, shrug, grunt or raise a hand in response. Ok, so my interpersonal skills are a bit rusty but there’s just something about work that drains my energy. Besides, wolfing down breakfast and guzzling down coffee (kinda explains why I prefer it cold huh?) requires my full attention.
“We have our break skeds[ii] already?” “Yup”, came the quick reply “we have our normal breaks.” Normal? I can’t even relate to people who complain of having a boring “8-5” job. Starting work at 3:15 in the afternoon isn’t something I’d call “normal”. Then again there isn’t anything normal about my job anyway. Taking a peek at the sheet that holds our breaks I see:
strt brk1 brk2 brk3 end
Ralph M.* 00:15 2:15 4:45 7:45 09:15
Not bad. At least the breaks are evened out. I’ll even have a short last stretch, cool. But before I could fully appreciate that last fact we’re rushing to get stations; plugging my headset into the avaya and logging in the computer I give a sigh like I did yesterday and the day before that AND the day before that. Hearing the beep, I take a deep breath and with my best affected accent belt out:
“Welcome to *******. How can I help you?”
“Good morning! I was wondering if you could find a number for me?”
“Certainly, what are you looking for?”
There isn’t much to talk about regarding my job. I do the same thing, rain or shine, earthquakes or storms, day or night, freaking strikes or not, in sickness or in health ‘til death- (teka mali ata haha), HOLIDAYS or not, as long as I have a shift I go to work, and do the same thing, over and over again and again and- get the point?! You think you get bored? Man I’ve been there, done that, doing it again next week arghh. It’s a really bad sign when you drag yourself to work; its worse when your first thought when waking is “may pasok nanaman ako!” (this in a very negative and vulgar manner), but it’s a nightmare when you start dreaming about work! I mean, come on! How would you like to wake up and the first thing you say is:
“In what town again please?”
“It’s in Mansfield.”
I’m not saying that my work isn’t challenging. In fact it’s the exact opposite, especially when you’re just starting. First of you have to get used to the program/system that your using, then you have to do the tedious task of learning, memorizing and yes, hating at times the company’s SOPs and protocols which would gauge your performance in QA[iii]. And just when you think you’re getting the hang of it, you’re sent to the floor[iv] where your most immediate and usual problem is trying to decipher what your caller is actually saying; no kidding, I encounter at least 5 different accents in any given day (not that I’m complaining mind you!). Finally, it would never be fun if you didn’t learn the accent of the customers; it makes life way easier for you and the customers, AND it’s the mark of any true blooded CSR[v].
“And you mentioned the garage was on Littlebrook Crescent?”
“Yes, although it could be on a different road. I’m not entirely sure of it.”
Now, I know it may seem that I am not thankful for my job but I am. My colleagues and I happen to be very grateful, really. We say ‘thank you’ at least 400 times a day. Beat that. But why endure all of these? As my boss conveniently summarizes it “It puts food on the table”. I couldn’t agree more. Heck it does more than that! It puts bacon mushroom melt or zinger burgers along with humongous fries into ones diet. Add to that splurges in Pizza hut, Yellow Cab, Sbarro, Don Henrico’s and Burgoos! My point? Pizza rules! yeba!
“One moment please.”
Seriously though; no matter how tired, upset or bored I get of my job, one thing I’m sure of; it’s a decent job. Sure it isn’t my dream job, but it sure is a lot better than others who also require employees to have night shifts and work during holidays. I’m not exactly proud of working here, but it ticks me off whenever someone calls it a ‘stupid’ “profession”. I just wonder how they see those who work as security guards, gasoline station workers or those who serve in 24-hour convenience stores and fast-food chains. But I’m ranting now, shouldn’t be doing that. tsk Oh yeah I don’t intend to stay for long here either! But in the meanwhile...
“I have the number now for Robinson’s Garage. Shall I connect you to it?”
“You sure you can do mate. Cheers!”
“Thank You!”
[i] Pantry – simply put: kainan at tambayan.
[ii] Break skeds - this is high school all over again where everyone’s favorite part of the day are the breaks. One could also define it as ‘taking a breather’, and that in its most literal sense.
[iii] QA - Quality Assurance, as bonuses are based on this, people develop a love and hate relationship with it. You’ll love it when you pass, and you’ll hate it (hate being an understatement) when you fail.
[iv] Floor – defined as the designated area as to where CSRs take calls.
[v] CSR-Customer Service Representative, the ‘elite’ thousands who make a living by talking all day, they also happen to define lunch as their hour long break no matter what time of the day it lands on.
*Ralph- a queer, autistic, cynical, insomniac, demented freak who inhabits a significant part of my brain.
