inside call centers

This is a reply to the youngblood post I read. I was surprised, insulted and furious at the same time because she claimed to have worked in the industry for a long time. So she thinks she's knowledegeable enough. Define knowledgeability. Here are 5 facts about the industry she cited.

Fact No. 1: The call center is the new church of the gay religion.

Fact No. 2: The call center industry is the breeding ground for “college bosses.” … Oftentimes, these bosses get to where they are not because of their superior skills and intelligence but because of their great “talent” to smother their own bosses with praises and compliments and their ability to kiss butts..

Fact No. 3: The call center industry is slowly turning into a haven for the “plastics.” The movie “Mean Girls” glorified the “plastics” as portrayed by Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. They are basically persons who do not show their true colors, and most of the time they engage in backbiting.

Fact No. 4: The call center industry is the modern-day Garden of Eden. It is where single men and women meet, work together and fall in love. It is also where married men and married women meet, work together, fall in love and leave their wives or husbands. Morality and social obligations are often overlooked, if not, deliberately forgotten as lust triumphs completely.

Fact No. 5: The call center industry is a ticket for foreign travels. Most call center companies nowadays include training abroad as part of the job offer to entice the best applicants. 

Excuse me but all these things happen to all working environments every-effing-day. If she happened to know colleague with these lifestyles, it is not for her to conclude that these are facts exclusive in the call center arena. 

The truth is our society is the one changing. Homosexuality is accepted more openly. As for college bosses, well, the performance metrics now are very dynamic. These college bosses may be young but they aren't merely college graduates to begin with but talented go-ahead leaders. Though management sometimes ripens with age, age is not a basis of efficient management. Non sequitur. Makes me think that writer was bitter because she either did not get promoted and ended working for someone younger than her or perhaps, her boyfriend left her for another guy.

Call center is not the only haven of plastics. The reality is all working environments can be places where you should practice the great DTA policy (Don't Trust Anybody). Like in any place there are good ones. bad ones, and good-enough-for-you ones. I guess I'm lucky because I've found a few good ones at Sykes.

And don't give me Fact No. 4 because honestly, finding 'someone' is a global phenomenon (and crisis if I may say). As for overlooked morality, well, I know more immorality other than adultery in other working environments. Try the congress! So you must be the husband?

As for the last fact, I know a lot who declined opportunities to go abroad for training simply because they don't want to enter binding contracts. Foreign travels like any other opportunities have trade-offs and it's just a matter of priorities and need if people accept them.

It's so insulting how society underestimate those who are working in BPO's particularly in call centers as if our only core skills are to speak in English well and stay awake through the night. Honestly. there was a time when I thought I'd follow through the BPO career path. There are so much opportunities in the industry and I prefer the work ethics practiced here. I know that I just have to give soon because of my health and studies yet, it's in readings like this that give me more reason to stay and prove those people wrong.