My boss did not believe that I have changed since I got promoted. He even said that I deserve this new position. I know I do. I’ve worked really hard to get to this point. I don’t know what his purpose was to create a stir in our workplace. The worst thing about it was that his live-in partner decided to add everyone at work in her facebook account. She posted so many bad things about me and my sister that aren’t true. I was so mad that I wanted to punch their faces until their moms won’t recognize them!

Of course, I chose to be the better person and ignored them, but the damage has been done. Our CEO found out about what she did and she spoke to everyone about this and told them to unfriend her on Facebook. When our CEO spoke to him, he scrambled and made up another story, saying that we said something about him on Facebook that same day. I did not post anything against him, nor did my sister.

I don’t understand why some people ruin other people’s lives. The only thing that I could think of is his insecurity. I know for a fact that he is unhappy with his life. Maybe he wants everyone to feel the way he’s feeling. I don’t think it’s ever right to pull someone down just because you’re down at the bottom. What you can do is to use that as a motivation to move up.

Crab Mentality. It’s the most common reason why there are so many people are on the same position at work for years. Some bosses pretend that the ideas of their colleagues are theirs to get credit. Some shoot you down and ignores your suggestions because they didn’t think of it first. Those are the kind of people that I do not want to work with, but it can’t be helped. There will always be that one person in a workplace. This time it is a friend. An ex-friend. Sectumsempra, loser!

If you're wondering what Sectumsempra means, read the Harry Potter series.

Everything in our office is new. Since I am one of the first to transfer to the new office, I was able to choose one of the best seats. I chose the corner workstation, beside the window. Our new office is still bare. We don’t even have a trashcan yet.

It is actually a refreshing change from our previous office. The old office is in a old building with old facilities. The air conditioning doesn’t work all the time, the vending machines sometimes house ants, and the restrooms are always infested with cockroaches. Now, I can actually wear layered outfits without worrying about feeling warm. The restroom is always stocked up with tissue and no roaches! We even have free coffee from the pantry. Hurray for free coffee!

Hopefully, tomorrow’s commute will be much better. I still plan to wear my training shoes. I hope all this walking will help me lose a few pounds!

On Monday, May 2, I will start commuting to Taguig for our new office. I dread the commute. It is much farther from my previous job. I am currently working from home, and I love it. The only thing that I dislike about my job is speaking to clients overseas. The client that I’m handling right now is sometimes a pain. I guess, most clients are like that. Some of the tasks that she’s asking me to do is beyond my expertise, but I try to accomplish what’s needed. So far, I’ve encountered no problems that I couldn’t solve.

Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of TV series. Two of the most hilarious shows that I love to watch are Community and Outsourced. My favorite character from Community is Abed.

Here’s a bit of Troy and Abed’s antics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajx_jeE-n-Q

And here’s Gupta, from Outsourced, dancing:

Plug: My Peace and Pieces

Sometimes, I get assigned with tasks that require the use of MS Excel. The file that I am working on this week started with 3MB, and after editing it, it boomed into 15MB, and it’s not even done yet.

My office computer’s specs are as follows:

• Windows XP Pro SP3
• 3GB RAM
• Pentium 5 2.66GHz
• 300GB HDD
• Microstar Motherboard

What happens is, MS Excel freezes and lags whenever I cut and paste, and delete, and fill rows and columns. The file becomes all white, the hourglass has become a staple on my screen, and the file that I was working on went kaput!

I was so frustrated. I AM still frustrated.

What sucks the most is the IT guy who checked my computer complained to my boss that I was unprofessional to him, that I used a condescending tone on him, which, I never did. If anything, I was a frustrated. I even asked the people around me if they heard anything negative from me while I was speaking to the IT guy. They heard nothing of the sort.

That guy is really a huge SISSY!

Accounting tasks that I should be able to do, includes:

• Doing Purchase Orders
• Making Bank Deposits
• Accepting Payments
• Deleting Payment Duplicates

Aside from the accounting tasks, I have Marketing Campaigns that I do every week. I also update the marketing template sent to thousands of emails every Friday. On Mondays, I make sure that the campaign is
scheduled to be sent at 7AM U.S. Pacific Time.

There are so many days in the week that I am mostly stuck doing accounting tasks. Of course, it’s much easier than accepting technical calls, but it gets boring sometimes. I wish the new client gives us a “go” to integrate their website to e-commerce. It will be a hard project, because it means a whole lot of work, but at least it is something that doesn’t bore me. Looking at .csv files and excel sheets
for a long time makes me really sleepy.

I am still on the lookout for a day job.

Graveyard shifts = Stresstabs

We’re going to work on new projects in the next few days, and that includes marketing campaigns, looking for stock images, and matching the images to the inventory.

The work itself is okay so far. Hopefully, this will be a job that I can keep.

I am an Account Specialist. Basically, I should know the ins and outs of the account, and I should be able to perform any task that will be assigned to me.

My immediate boss is in charge of the design implementation of the e-commerce websites that our account handles, so that means, I am tasked to do his bidding.

Right now, we’re working on a Poker merchandise website, which is giving me a headache. We’re trying write a script, but, no matter what work around we try to do, we could not make it work.

Another one of my tasks is making sure the Google feeds are updated. I had to make sure that the CSV files are rid of symbols because Google Feeds doesn’t accept it. Some files are at least 900 lines with 6 columns. It takes a long time to check, but, it kills time.

I hope my boss gives me a good evaluation so that I can be retained on the account. It’s so hard to find a job these days.

Since September, I have been working for another call center as technical support associate for a US-based ISP1. I met 11 new friends from my wave, and we’re all lucky because we had 3 great trainers, who became our friends, too. In those two months of training, I’d have to say that it was worth giving the BPO industry another shot.

This week, all of us are trying to adjust with our new team. Lica and I are lucky to be assigned to one of the top 10 teams in our account. I’m glad that we’re together in one team, at least, it wouldn’t be too hard to fit in a new group. So far, my teammates have been very helpful and friendly to us. Our team leader invited us to eat with them for lunch on our first day with the team. They all made us feel that we belonged.

Still, Lica and I miss our wave. During lunch breaks, we would walk the floor and find our friends. We have different shifts, so sometimes, we can’t find anyone.

It’s been a stressful 3 days, but hopefully, after this week my body clock would be back to normal. From 8am to 5pm last week, to 8pm to 5am this week!

1. Internet Service Provider [↩]

I feel better now. I downed bottles of Gatorade and popped Vitamin Cs everyday. Working for a call center requires you to be healthy all the time. They are very strict with tardies and absences. I am paid at least 3 times the minimum wage, so a day of work missed means so much.

I miss my primetime TV shows!

1. Business Process Outsourcing [↩]

I applied for the job on Tuesday and was called for a final interview the next day after passing the assessment exams. Come Wednesday, I found out that all the final interviews for that day were canceled due to an emergency meeting. I came back yesterday and was finally interviewed. I was so happy to know that there are technical support positions available, and I was even endorsed for their highest paying account because I passed all the exams and got the highest score from my batch.

I took the Berlitz exam, which is required for my account. The trainer told me to expect a call before lunch today. They should be informing me if I passed the Berlitz exam, or if I will just be endorsed for another technical account. I believe I passed the Berlitz exam. It’s quite easy. It’s just a 10-12minute conversation with an American call-rater. They just rate your communication skills.

Anyway, I will be talking more about my new job when it starts. The interviewer told me that my start date would be on September 14.