This is for the People of the Sun*
January 17th, 2009 by Marocharim* – It’s from a Rage Against the Machine song. Please bear with me.
I’d like to throw my hat into the whole hubbub about mainstream media and blogging taking place right now here at Filipino Voices, but somehow, I feel the urge to voice out something. I’d like to talk about Filipinos who live on their voices. I’d like to talk about a generation of young Filipinos who, in more ways than one, never see the Sun.
I was reading the news online when I came across this snippet of news: Accenture is going to lay off 500 workers because of a “redundancy” program. I don’t know what “redundancies” are, and I’m sure this is a necessary move for many BPOs and call centers in the country. I am not one to tell the call center and outsourcing companies what to do, or what measures to take, to save their businesses. It’s just that too many things can hit you in the gut, in the stomach, in the mind, and in the heart.
Most especially if it is your generation involved here.
Faced with economic crises, there have been so many young Filipinos in the outsourcing industry who felt the brunt of the global recession in the worst way: to lose the one job you can possibly have, in a country with very little in the way of national industry.
I admire the knack of people who see humor, perhaps even hope, in the lot of being a “callboy” or a “callgirl.” There’s this interesting Youngblood piece by Pamela that discusses the travails and (mis)adventures of being a call center agent. Perhaps there are some people who view outsourcing – and their futures – without the anger that I have for myself, and laying down the same smackdown for any one of my friends who’ll listen to the frustration I’ve always held about young, educated, brilliant people tethered to machines doing the menial work of Information Age factories.
True: there are many, many call center agents out there who see their call center jobs as temporary sources of income, or a stepping stone to a better career. However, it is also true that this seemingly temporary career choice is increasingly becoming a very permanent prospect. If the call center or the BPO is the first job available to you when you graduate, you take it; the reason being that there are not a lot of career options available.
The problem has so many facets and causes, but I think the biggest problem is the inability of The Government – and society in general – to generate and perpetuate national industry. Generating jobs and employment that benefit society, as well as sustain needs, is something we all are responsible for. Yet it is quite obvious that this is not exactly a high priority for The Government, which chooses to extol and pimp out something as economically unsustainable as outsourcing.
Yet on the human side of things, the biggest failing society has against the Call Center Generation is how it transformed the minds and the bodies of the youth: stress, smoking, drug addictions, insomnia, and for very few – but for those very significant – those who walk the line into death or perhaps even psychological stability. Members of a generation who start to define their humanity in terms of Venti mocha frappucinos and partying, members of a generation who put their place in society as another failed project of Rizal’s “ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.”
And now, many of them are losing their jobs left and right.
This is for the people of the sun: night-shifters who work the lines at the dead of night, while people half a world away benefit from their labor. Those who live that Dick Whittington dream only because they work in glass-covered office condominiums. Those who work like machines for hours, and only become humans when they punch out and look for that beverage or coffee that “rewards” them of their hard work for a rather low pay. The people of the sun who want to fight, but have to save their voices to get fed.
The people of the sun who have, will, or would, lose their jobs because of a world that failed them.
My rage turns to heartache as I write this entry, knowing fully well that the legacy of my generation is not in changing things, but answering calls and becoming employees for offices half a world away. No assurances, no security, living in that alternate reality where day is night, and night is day. A generation exposed to the grim realities of racism, underemployment, abuse, decadence, hopelessness, mediocrity, abandonment… where no one spares laway for them.
As a blogger and as a writer, this is all I can do for them. Right now.
The people who spend endless hours in artificial light, work morning to night. This is for them. I write this for them.
This is for the people of the sun.
January 17, 2009 at 7:27 pm
it’s good to know that this post sympathizes with the plight of call center workers. a lot of people think working for a call center is not a long-term career. i’d say these people are mistaken. having worked for the call center industry for 3 solid years, i’d say that the experience is both humbling and enriching. during these years i was subjected to irate, arrogant customers who want it all for free. of course there are also a lot thankful and gracious people who take the time and ask for the supervisor just to put in a good word in exchange for spending 2 hours on the phone teaching them how to repair their pc.
bottomline, there are workers who have it worse than we do. most call centers regularize employees, provide full medical and dental coverage (usually up to 100k) including their dependents. medical insurance is an important benefit that is almost nonexistent among government employees. pay is above average, usually 15 to 18k a month, plus allowances. public school teachers NEVER get paid this much, unless they go up the organization.
hindi kawawa ang call center agents. in fact, we wear our job titles with pride. maingay kami kasi masaya kami sa trabaho namin, despite the risks which we are compensated for.
public school teachers, cops, security guards, starting programmers, even nurses have it worse than we do. after working for a call center, we are usually hired in better companies for our skills and excellent language skills. there is really nothing awful about it.
January 17, 2009 at 7:31 pm
oh and with the call center agents who get fired, they easily find replacement jobs in less than two months max, because any length of experience in a call center is highly-valued in any organization. besides, not everybody makes it to a call center. did you know that only 20 out of every 100 call center applicants get hired?
January 17, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Arpee: I would suggest that you hop over to my blog and type “call center generation” on the search bar to see where i’m coming from.
I’m not saying that being a call center agent is wrong: I’m saying that the system that allows for call center agents is wrong. May problema sa sistema ng lipunan at pamamahala kung ang sinusuportahan at sinusustentohan nito ay hindi ang pambansang interes, kundi ang interes ng ibang bansa.
January 17, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Why don’t you establish a business, build an industry? Say, for a writer, improve the entertainment industry to make it globally competitive. Then perhaps the Call Center Generation starts to notice and decides that their language skills could better serve this vibrant entertainment industry.
Rage is getting cheap. More rage makes it cheaper.
January 17, 2009 at 9:28 pm
call centers are encouraging our countrymen to forget about nationalism…forcing them to deny their nationality to the whole world.
Forcing the Filipinos to deny their being a Filipino???? and the Govt tolerates this with their heads up…
January 17, 2009 at 9:41 pm
peste: easier said than done, i say. :(
January 17, 2009 at 10:43 pm
peste, making the entertainment industry a viable career option is beyond the control of any generation of writers: it’s a function of market, and the market just doesn’t react fast enough, or reward any effort to make the local entertainment industry globally competitive.
Perhaps the entertainment industry is not the best example to put forward.
Some young people have actually been doing what you say, peste, and the jury is still out on how long indieSine in Robinson’s Galleria will remain a commercial endeavor.
For this I blame whatever enterprise we have left for failing to work with themselves to foster and create a growing market base. I blame other relatives depending on these “People of the Sun” for their daily needs. I blame people for not taking individual responsibility for their own lives.
Get your sh*t together, people. At least try. Don’t screw up. Wake up early. Work harder than the next guy. Be responsible.
I know it’s a tall order, but sure as hell it’s not rocket science.
Marocharim: I don’t necessarily see call centers or BPO units as evil entities, or as enterprises that serve a foreign master. Work is work. It’s not for an employer to find dignity in work.
I take exception to the idea that you are an employee of some faraway employer. For that matter, and to be technical about it, you are not an employee of an office half a world away. You are an employee of a company that operates here, that only pretends for the sake of its racist and xenophobic consumer base that it is somewhere else. Thus, your employment protection is under Filipino law, which makes it hard for these people to fire you.
The problem for me lies in the failure of this particular administration to produce tangible results for all the planning and coordinating work that they say they do (and for which we pay them with our taxes). I just don’t see an effective, organized, sustained, and coordinated push toward urban and rural development as any such efforts are often squashed for short term political gains. Proof is in the pudding, so goes the English term, and to use an American term, where’s the beef?
Let me make myself clear: IMVHO, the problem isn’t the system – insofar as any system will have its own flaws – but rather that we do not and refuse to make the system work for us.
It’s so easy to blame the system.
January 17, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Obviously, the writer does not know anything about the call center industry, bpo and outsourcing in general.
Answering calls is just a part of outsourcing. It used to be the largest part,yes, but now, knowledge outsourcing is getting bigger and bigger, especially in IT.
With Indian outsourcers rapidly losing clients due to poor quality, pretty soon, Filipinos will be running and maintaining most of the databases, servers and networks of the world…and all this from the Philippines! No need to work abroad and break up your family.
At any rate, whatever is said about the industry , it is still churning out more jobs than it is losing. Enabling a lot of our young people with enough resources to stop thinking about where to get their next meal, and thus freeing their minds to explore new and better things.
January 17, 2009 at 10:53 pm
OK, points taken. :)
Just Browsing: I do not claim to represent people in outsourcing on the whole, I just work for one aspect of it. At any rate, I still think that a national industry and jobs that focus on the national interest should be established in order for our resources and our profits to benefit us. Not unsustainable political and economic models, not politicking, not 2010 ambitions.
Peste #2: I respectfully disagree on one point: there are so many hardworking call center agents out there who do face the prospects of layoffs. Although I agree with you that the problem is the failure of Government to provide sustainable means for national development.
January 17, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Lamentation, yes… words of encouragement much less applause, no.
I have not encountered any blogposts for the striving business leaders of the Philippines to wish these entrepreneurs continued success in building jobs that fit the 9-to-5 (Philippine time-zone) or where the language-requirement is Tagalog.
January 17, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Let’s not blame the system then. Let’s blame the policies of the past governments. Let’s blame society for settling for what crap employment “opportunities” the Philippine economy “generates”. Let’s blame each other for what crap investments we settle for.
Work isn’t just work. Work defines who we are. The time and labor of an entire generation of Filipinos, many exceptionally bright, are wasted in the call center industry.
Young Filipinos should be preoccupied with building this country. As kids they dreamt of flying to the moon. As scientists and engineers they dream of inventions. As artists they dream of creating meaningful work of art.
But what the fuck are they doing? Telling dumb people in other countries to push the power button.
After Marcos this country has not had a single Industrial Development Plan. What we do is we breed Filipinos for export overseas. That’s our development plan.
January 17, 2009 at 11:29 pm
welcome to the real world. Try coming to America, That’s exactly what your going to deal with everyday. Experiencing it in familiar places is less intimidating. It could be worst emotionally many miles away.
January 17, 2009 at 11:40 pm
The United States is hardly the model for labor rights and privileges. Please. Over there you need three jobs to keep your house if you have one.
January 17, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Maturity comes from such experience. One day you will not think about it but will move on to become a better person, a better employee, an entrepreneur, a better thinker and a doer.
The blog is young, naive, fragile, concern and willing to help. I like it.
January 17, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Question: would it benefit BPO workers and call center agents in general if someone drafted a Magna Carta?
January 18, 2009 at 12:04 am
sparks,
i don’t have three jobs but i do know many pinoys who have 2-3 three jobs.
Your body will tell you when to stop working. The US government cannot control what its citizens do for employment. The government can be liable for medical expense when an uninsured get sick from working 3 jobs. Employers can fire you if you don’t perform. The body cannot sustain. It’s not permanent for many but temporary.
January 18, 2009 at 12:57 am
this is a very naive statement about US Labor Law.
The law do not discriminate anyone to work overtime however both employer and the employee are subject to increase taxation from overtime.
An individual who works overtime could be subject to its own personal liabilities such as the lack of quality of life, fatigue and deteriorating health. It’s not sustainable and healthy for many families. It’s common sense really but some people do it for a valid reason and it is none of my biz.
Your statement is a “be all and it all”. It’s temporary.
January 18, 2009 at 1:50 am
the Accenture article was referring to Solutions-based employees only. it does not affect the BPO workforce.
January 18, 2009 at 2:00 am
On employment…. people should remember this general rule — the wages paid relates to the job being performed, not the needs of the person doing the job.
January 18, 2009 at 8:13 am
Leytenian,
Magkano ba ang sweldo ng McDonalds waiter sa US? Minimum wage ba? $5? $6? Sa Australia kasi $17.50/hour (as of 2007). Ito po ang ibig kong sabihing kailangan mong kayod kalabaw sa US para mabuhay. Hindi sya modelong dapat tularan.
UP n grad,
I worked for a web-based company when I was in Oz. Similar to the call center experience here I worked in customer service. 20 hours per week netted me $1,200++ per month. Living alone, that was enough to cover rent, food and entertainment. I hear our counterparts in the United States earned three times less doing exactly the same job. So no, its not just the “nature” of the job that determines labor cost.
What savings these companies make when they outsource here. Sabihin mo nang P20,000/month, 40 hours per week. What’s that in dollars? $425? Kaching-kaching-kaching.
January 18, 2009 at 8:47 am
sparks,
i have to apologize for being blunt here. the $4-5 wages is for low income, uneducated americans, unlicensed, nonskilled or people given temporary Visa for manual labor such as farming, hotel aids, hospitals aides and others, like working for mcdonalds.
The $4- $5/hr is considered at the poverty line for US standards. This salary range will get benefits in housing, food stamps and other government subsidies.
Here’s a link to US Minimum Wage Per State. It’s a little higher than $4-$5.
Honestly sparks, the minimum wage earner cannot afford to buy a home even if they will work 3 jobs. It’s insane unless the home they bought is in foreclosure.
January 18, 2009 at 9:04 am
sparks,
tama ka. bakit ang pinoy magtrabaho sa macdonalds? wala siguro silang ibang alam. malay ko ba. :)
January 18, 2009 at 9:14 am
Leytenian you are one of the most lucky pinoys in the uS as a ceo of your own company and with a worforce of a number of thousand.
How I wish i outsource mo sa pinas ang iba mong business processes (Joke)
I mean good for you,how I wish ganyan din ang madami sa mga kababayan natin.
=========================================
I have been a call center agent intermittently for almost two years.
True stressful di lang sa customers,pati officemate mo at boss mo minsan nakakastress din.
Saan ba hindi?
Nasa nagdadala lang yan eh, kailangan wag mo ipahalata ang stress mo.
Ako di ko nakayanan inatake ako ng high blood at kailangan pa akong itakbo sa hospital.
Goodbye to my call center career.
Yung sa accenture:
Bawal daw magsalita tungkol sa trabaho ang mga taga accenture.
Asawa ko naman ang taga dun kaya pwede siguro magcomment.
wag na lang.
January 18, 2009 at 9:17 am
“Bawal daw magsalita tungkol sa trabaho ang mga taga accenture.”
Policy ito sa maraming companya pero STRICT DITO ang Accenture .
January 18, 2009 at 9:20 am
On the demographics
Marck:
madami ding mga above thirty , me mga fifty something pa nga eh.
January 18, 2009 at 9:26 am
that is so true.. There are only a few Telemarketing companies that allows us Filipinos to proudly say “Yes, I am a Filipino, We are working from an outsourcing company”
Yes they give jobs and a bit of good money, but what we pay in return is our health (I get sick most of the times. My schedule changes weekly from 12 am to 9am then “Miraculously” my schedule changes to 8 pm til 5am).
There was even a time while I was taking in calls, a colleague had a heart attack after talking to a customer.
haizt that’s why whenever I call any 1800 numbers, I try to be polite as much as possible..
January 18, 2009 at 9:50 am
The wage paid is not determined by the needs of the person doing the job, the wage relates to the job being performed and the labor-situation in the particular job market.
Any Makati “callboy”/”callgirl” should command a higher salary once this worker transport himself and finds himself a job Kansas City, Kansas.
January 18, 2009 at 10:19 am
If kansa city kansas is what Metropolis is in Suoer
January 18, 2009 at 10:41 am
As i previously wrote about in my blog and in comments, i am also for investing in industry and local production capabilities and agree that our government (past and present) have failed to lead a program to do just that. However, to argue against Call Center or any other Outsourcing work on the basis of their working nights and its collateral effects is to address the wrong point.
Most work is drudgery whether it is factory work or services. If we eventually changed direction and followed Korea, Japan and China into manufacturing-based industrialization, you could just do a find/replace and substitute ‘Call Center agent’ for ‘Factory Worker’. For majority of the labor force, that will be their lot. A lot then has to do with the person’s attitude in performing his and her work and in his/her personal investment in his/her own enrichment/education outside work e.g. by reading books (or blogging).
On another point, ‘redundancy’ is just another euphemism. In the Corporate World, we have a penchant for dressing up words. ‘Knowledge outsourcing’ is another such sexy term but don’t expect that it is not much more than drudge work albeit of another kind.
January 18, 2009 at 11:17 am
OK, points taken.
Somehow, I just got carried away here again. Criticisms accepted.
January 18, 2009 at 11:26 am
“If kansa city kansas is what Metropolis is in Suoer”
di ko alam na submit ko paa itong comment na ito,kala ko nabura ko na bago ako lumipat ng ibang window.
scratch that comment.
CVJ, I agree
yeah most work is drudgery kaya nga me phabol ako na :”saan ba hindi? “sa comment ko.
dahil di lang naman ako sa call center nagtrabaho eh.
I really agree that investments are badly needed
First let me opine on OFW money; Sa ngayon akala ng mga ibang expert; Sa sari sari store lang napuunta ang mga remittances, o di kaya sa mga jeep; meron din sa mga entreps napupunta.
Kahit malayo ito sa gusto mo na magkaroon tayo ng maraming factory ang point ko madami naitulong ang mga ofw remittances other than the survival of the individual family.Pero as usual di lahat ng pagkakataon ganito ang nagyayari.
Now what about the rest of the people with nothing to do with the benefits of ofws.
madami sa atin hanggang microlending lang umaasa kaya puro microbusinesses lang.
Now as to the rest of the people including your pet peeve the middle class and the elite.
The rise of franchising has its drawbacks, instead of having your own business you will choose among the existing businesses as models for your new buiness,ayon gayahan na lang.Pero in fairness me imagination at innovation din nagyayari pero ginagaya lang ito kadalasan.
January 18, 2009 at 11:26 am
I do like to point out that growing trends in economies and businesses should lead to new perspectives, new ways of looking at problems, and new ways of solving those problems.
@CVJ, the fact that there are collateral problems means that they should be addressed; that there are consequences to this new form of labor that, as Reezen TOT points out, has health as its price. Somehow, I see that as a point to be addressed.
Well, as far as the policies go, huff… :( oh well.
January 18, 2009 at 11:52 am
Karl,
It’s a tough world in the US. Many pinoys really work hard and probably stressed out often. Susceptible younger ones could be the first to get easily burned out. It’s work and one cannot just keep complaining for life has many needs. It’s normal to change career when options and other opportunities are available. In the Philippines, opportunities are not readily available. Lucky you that you have connections but majority don’t.
BPO consulting is no longer an opportunity at my present career. Besides, I don’t have the ultimate decision. That was 3 years ago. At this current crisis, most firms are downsizing and lots of stress is coming and i expect it.
January 18, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Leytenian,
Kaya nga. A 15 year old (unskilled) kid in Australia makes more than a full-grown adult in the US doing exactly the same job. The US model is nothing to admire or follow.
Oh, tumpak. The richest country in the world? The only remaining superpower. And they cannot even provide universal health care. What a joke.
January 18, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Ang mga guro ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas ay mas nakakaawa kung ihambing sa mga call centre agents. Ang take home pay (net) ng isang associate professor ay di hihigit sa 17K kada buwan.
Mas stressful mag turo ng 9-12 units di ba sa mga magaaral na ang karamihan nagbabalak maging call centre agents?
Lalo’t na mga science majors are iyong tinuturuan ng sabihin natin ng “Pauli’s exclusion principle”!
Sinsabi ko lang ito na hindi i “down” ang marangal na hanapbuhay ng mga call centre agents kundi ipamalita na ang sistema ng higher education ay di tugma sa direksyon ng neoliberal na sistema ng lipunan.
Malaking “frustation” sa akin ang malaman na ang nanalo ng best undergrad thesis student sa agham na nag tapos ng magna cum laude at medisina sa UP Manila ay nagpakita sa aming department Christmas party at siya ay naging call centre agent!
Ngunit saludo ako sa call centre agents, lalo na yung mga may pamilya na binubuhay. Sa civil service hirap makabuhay ng pamilya kung di ka garapal at walang hiya na malimit nakikita malapit sa Palasyo at Kongreso!
January 18, 2009 at 12:53 pm
sparks,
LOL :) the US comprise mainly of middle income earners. Statistically, minimum wage earners is a minority. The People always have the opportunity to earn more unless they will graduate from an associate degree or higher. Higher education means higher pay which will provide an individual greater access to an employer’s healthcare benefits. I don’t know why some people in America do not purchase their health insurance even if they have the money. Health is their only wealth. Might be an individual’s foolishness. It’s not a constitutional obligation but an individual’s liability. The US has medicaid ( healthcare) for everyone. Any life threatening emergency are treated with or without insurance. A healthcare paramedic who will ask question to an injured individual if he/she has insurance prior to care is a criminal offense and he/she can lose a license. Yes we have insurance for all but it’s not well understood. sorry :)
Going back to the 15 year old. He/She is subject to follow the US Child Labor Law. They are only allowed to work for a certain hours in a day. It’s the employers responsibility to make the child aware of the law. If abuse, the employer will be subject to federal penalty and can lose a business license at state level. And the parent could also be liable.
Many of the youth in the US who work for minimum wage are full or part time college students. Some youth opt to study , instead they want money for IPODS, iphone, blackberry and all those mocha fraps. Same thing is happening in other countries. The world has gone crazy.( bambee) :)
January 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm
in addition: healthcare cost is very expensive for an employer (A) in the US. it’s a common strategy to outsource their employees from another company (B) like the call center. Employer A has then transferred its risk in terms of healthcare cost to company (B). Therefore employee A will not be subject to the law.
other cost transferred by employer A to B , is the mandated State law of unemployment benefits and taxation of C corporation. Transfer of risk is a management strategy.
January 18, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Leytenian,
I am happy you seem to be living the American dream. Kudos to you.
Meanwhile the model of development the US has been advocating overseas for the last two decades (a model the Philippines has also adopted) have resulted to this…
The American Human Development Index factoids:
Health:
The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy – yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
More than half of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. are related to an inability to pay for illness or injury.
Access to knowledge:
Fourteen percent of the population – some 30 million Americans – lacks the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks like understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals.
Standard of living:
The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
In 1980, the average executive earned forty-two times as much as the average factory worker; today, executives earn some four hundred times what factory workers in their industries earn.
The U.S. ranks second among 177 countries in per-capita income but 12th on human development, according to the global Human Development Index, published annually by the United Nations Development Programme. Each of the 11 countries ahead of the U.S. has a lower per-capita income than the U.S., but all perform better on the health and knowledge dimensions.
January 18, 2009 at 1:15 pm
“Most work is drudgery whether it is factory work or services. If we eventually changed direction and followed Korea, Japan and China into manufacturing-based industrialization, you could just do a find/replace and substitute ‘Call Center agent’ for ‘Factory Worker’. For majority of the labor force, that will be their lot. A lot then has to do with the person’s attitude in performing his and her work and in his/her personal investment in his/her own enrichment/education outside work e.g. by reading books (or blogging).”
Manufacturing based industrialization….Is there any other kind?
We are principally an agent economy not a principal based economy. We do not have the primordial ingredients for an integrated naturally evolved domestic economy. There is no agro-industrial base to speak of
There is no national economy. An agent economy almost totally depends on foreign principals.
Get used to it and suck it up…
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060301faessay85209-p10/alan-s-blinder/offshoring-the-next-industrial-revolution.html
January 18, 2009 at 1:24 pm
sparks,
true and that’s the problem of the US of which I cannot control. How I wish. The only thing i can do is to take care of myself.
in terms of bankcruptcy , that’s could be a sign of weakness of some US laws.
Many people with huge healthcare bills are allowed to file bankcruptcy. isn’t it nice? They will be debt free. And honestly, some people take advantage of that law.
January 18, 2009 at 1:39 pm
in the end it’s really healthcare for all. who will suffer? the healthcare professional who are so use to getting paid higher. i am predicting that our nurses and medical pinoy professionals may have to prepare for a pay cut and I think they will hate Obama :)
January 18, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I agree with you but there are alternative schools of thought which base development on services (e.g. financial services, IT or Outsourcing) on the theory that we can leapfrog over the factory stage. Ask Jon Limjap.
It’s not an either/or debate (national vs. agent-based). Once we get past the broad categories, the number of possible industrial activities a country can choose from is in the tens of thousands. We just need to discover what we are good at (to sell to the world) and we can import the rest.
January 18, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Seriously however, “just go to the US to work” doesn’t really scale, and doesn’t really solve the problem wholesale.
I would even argue that it’s making the problem worse, and it might have started the problem in the first place, since Pinoys have been migrating to the land of milk and honey loooooooooooooooooooong before our economic woes started (remember the days when there was an anecdote where “UP grads where going straight from graduation ceremony to the airport”? That was the late 50s – early 60s).
January 18, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Marck,
Unfortunately, that’s what everyone says.
January 20, 2009 at 7:21 am
“Question: would it benefit BPO workers and call center agents in general if someone drafted a Magna Carta?” – Marck
No response so I will answer it.
Of course it would. In fact ALL Call Centers have been blatantly violating the Labor Code no one in government is doing sincere work to protect the agents. The biggest mortal sin?
“The Labor Code of R.P.
TITLE III
WORKING CONDITIONS FOR SPECIAL GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES
Chapter I
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN
ART. 130. Nightwork prohibition. – No woman, regardless of age, shall be employed or permitted or suffered to work, with or without compensation:
(a) In any industrial undertaking or branch thereof between ten o’clock at night and six o’clock in the morning of the following day; or
(b) In any commercial or non-industrial undertaking or branch thereof, other than agricultural, between midnight and six o’clock in the morning of the following day; or
(c) In any agricultural undertaking at nighttime unless she is given a period of rest of not less than nine (9) consecutive hours.”
It is safe to assume all call centers are guilty under this provision. I have googled and scanned chanrobles.com’s website with a fine-toothed comb, there are no existing laws that have repealed the provisions I mentioned. But it is not all. I was asked to comment in the website (which they call their “online labor union”) of one of the biggest call centers in the Metro. There were several exploitative policies being implemented which were contrary to law. Sadly our labor officials choose to turn a blind eye since the consequences of doing otherwise are unimaginable. But that excuse is all to flimsy and all too frequent, this government’s much-vaunted adherence to rule of law is definitely inexistent.
If anyone cares to read the rest of the violations and the abuse, and I’m sure this is not an isolated case, you can read them here.
January 20, 2009 at 7:36 am
Btw, the connection to “People of the Sun” from Evil Empire, was just great. So is the band’s name. No Battle Hymn is more appropriate.
January 21, 2009 at 3:20 am
I have to agree with Leytenian regarding the health care system here in the US.
@tongue twisted
I agree with you that our government turns a blind eye with regards to out labor code..
Even if the weather is really bad (Signal 2 or 3) agents are still required to go to work. Oh yeah, I had an incident last year (when I was still working) that I contracted the “Pink Eye” (A.K.A SORE EYES). My team leader at that time would not sign my permission to go home because her stats would be at stake. I was appalled at that time, I did not want to infect other agents so I went to our Operations Manager to have it signed. Another incident was when I just came out from the hospital. I followed the proper protocols (calling HR, my OM and TL etc! Haizt!), guess what my TL told me, “You might be acting you need to show up for work.”
I did show up for work as she requested with bandages still intact on my skin. I took in calls and she was still mad because my stats are really low. Then when I passed my LOA, she did not process it. She made sure that I get terminated by not submitting it.. LOL..
This is how some telemarketing companies work..
As much as I wanted to take action for this, I am afraid that justice won’t be served. I am just praying that this incident would not happen to her.
February 1, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Meet Malou Ang, 24 years old Mass Communications graduate who failed to impress ABS-CBN or GMA network when asked to report the NFL games in tagalog. She did not want to but ended up working in a call center. She cries privately, began to smoke Marlboro lights, got a care bear tattoo on her inner thigh, and consumes more double AA dry cell batteries when her iPod does not need them. She purchased a new fancy cellphone, rides the FX like a stiff, and licks her avaya 5 minuites before she was to start. Then one fine day, they “let go” of her.
It is within the realm of the possibilities. Here now… gone yesterday just did not get the memo yet, like the one on station 17 last week, and those four guys the other week. Malou Ang has just entered…The Twilight Zone.