Call Center Life : Develops Its Own Brand of Culture

Working in a call center is stressful job. A lot of people likes to get away from their work. Believe me, working in a call center makes me do too. But when it's about discussing the 'all-days-work' type of excitement we read in Reader's Digest that talks about the humor or hype in various jobs, my my call center job is a no-downer for that. I'll go away with the bloopers that we can disgracefully utter during a call. It's not about that. It's not the night lights that places us corporate zombies from different call centers on to the spotlight either, but it's everything we had become when these corporate giants engulfed us with their financial resources. We seemed to develop and exude that same vibrance seen in neon-lighted signages of establishments that brightened the corporate world at night in the call center industry.

Working as a call center agent places you in the category of people with odd working schedules and dynamic lifestyle. It also does not free you from being part of a different cultural hype known only to the call center that you are part of. For instance, call center agents from Convergys are known to be coños, which means that they converse in the local tongue mixed with English fluency. This way of speaking may have been developed because of the company's strict 'English only policy' within the company vicinity and within its proximity. Some may have second thoughts about this information since most outsiders think that most call center agents speak abundantly in English mixed with the local dialect. I may be able to, but it simply just wouldn't live on because the people I get to hang out with could not ignite the habit. It's just not the culture in the call center where I belong. There was an attempt for such policy but that was short-lived.

Anyway, I belong to a technical account for Dell Computers where technical geeks and enthusiasts with wide variety of hobbies in areas like photography, biking, backpacking, gaming etc, gathered. In this diversified call center job, we may succumb to an American accent, but if there's no American to converse with, our language may be just be as bad-ass of some 'kanto boys,' but of course, that's an overstatement. Some will not even admit that they can speak English good enough. It shows when a situation outside this call center job requires them to speak the language, like being introduced to an English-speaking tourist, they will jokingly say that they need to wear their headphones to be able to converse the same way that they do at work. English for some of them may be a curse to run away from, so when it comes to the kind of fun this group of call center agent is looking for during days off, these adrenaline junkies go for the extreme. We plan for sport outing like tennis, badminton, flag football etc. Last July 5, 2009 we trekked to Mantalungon and climbed Cebu's highest peak, the Osmeña Peak. Still not satisfied, we hiked 6 hours to the ravines and slopes going down to Kawasan Falls of Badian. Exactly the kind of fun that we need.

Enough with the late Indiania Jones wanna-be, let's get on with the Blair Waldorfs, the Gossip Girls prancing the corporate arena and the call center world. In a customer service account, agents' vanity may be super imposing for men and women alike. You may think you're in New York or Paris at times, when men wear scarves over leather jackets, and women wear leather gloves and super high cone heels. Fashion in some call centers and certain accounts are apparent. It's probably like being in high school once again in this kind of job. You're either in or out.

In a call center job, most of us sleep during the day, made these proponents of some studies think that these cultures were developed from high-caffeine and nicotine intake, high extra-marital affairs, high rate of FB's (think of the dirty version) and booty-calls? I'll drop the bomb. I made that up but they made sense. The bottomline is, the call center life and call center job made its own culture. A mixture of New York, Paris, Las Vegas, and the Malaysian jungle, then in between's of anything else you can think of.