PHILIPPINE RECYCLED EMPLOYMENT

If you were watching the news lately, you will be elated to see that there are thousands of job opening in the call center industry. This must be what the Philippine government have been bragging about to have created more jobs than any years in the past. It is commendable that these opportunities came upon. Were it not for the economic slow down in the US and some part s in Europe, this would not have been possible that the influx of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) would increase drastically.

The openings at hand are call center jobs. What they normally do there is to receive calls, assist customers of their client company from abroad. Some would do outbound calls to offer products, collect payments or just simply communicate to client companies' customer abroad. Others would simply work as back office support for process and documentation for the client customer abroad. There are a lot of things that these BPO can offer for more jobs to Filipinos.

What is confusing is that many of these job applicants are just recycled from another call center. These agents work for one call center and transfer to another call center after 2 to 3 months of employment. Some would just wait for bonuses to be paid out and then leave and look for another call center job. Applying for these jobs really come in handy because usually they just do it online and there goes your job offer. I would doubt if we are really increasing the number of applicants hired or we are just filling up the lost employees with another employees from other call centers.

The rigors of the call center job are unknown to many except for those who are in it. Knowing from them on how they fare in their jobs and you can seldom hear they are satisfied with what they are doing. You can seldom hear them say that they are happy with their employment. It is as if that they feel they are working just for the present with slight hope for a better tomorrow in the call center set up.

They say that when you work in the call center, the company feels that when you stay long enough you will become more of a liability to the company rather than becoming an asset. In an ordinary corporate setting, you will be getting more perks and additional incentives and bonuses when you stay longer to your company. The more you stay longer the better your position will become. In the call center, performance evaluation is done regularly which you will have to pass the rating from time to time otherwise you will lose your job. It is similar to a sales job where in if you don't perform you will be asked to leave. In the call center, it is like renewing your contract every regular period, sometimes monthly or quarterly. When you sign your performance contract, you can expect that your other leg is in your own dug up grave. Why do they say that? It is because they want to make sure that these performance metrics are difficult to achieve for the average performers.

The most significant basis for their performance rating is through your attendance. Employees in these companies pay so much premium for attendance. The moment you absent yourself in a day, especially on a busy day (meaning they are expecting a lot of calls), your demerit will be equivalent to that of 2 days absence. A point demerit is given to each day you are absent and when you reach to the maximum point, usually 1 week, then you leave. Terminated!

Why do you think these companies would be investing so much to lose their tenured employees? I would suppose that when they hire you, you are offered an above average salary for speaking good English. They have saved 75% of salary anyway if they were hiring an onshore applicant, mind you. Unfortunately, there are not enough rooms for you to get better positions on top, and your English will never be innovated to have additional use, so what do they do with you? If you stay for a little longer, they will keep on increasing your pay every year, simple math will tell you that 10 years of stay in the call center will give a pay of bank manager by simply speaking the same English you used when you applied for the job. Now who will tell this is not fair?