Call Center "Culture"

[Una_dagmar]

In every environment, there is a certain pattern of actions, habits, and attitudes adopted and passed on from generation to generation by its inhabitants (ala-animal kingdom ito!). These shared characteristics create a "culture" in a niche.

With this in mind, is there such a thing as a call center culture?

Some feedback I'd hear quite often are as follows:
People in call centers tend to:
-smoke a lot
-drink coffee a lot
-speak with an American accent even when out of theri workplace
-be quite arrogant (nagmamarunong or pa-sosyal)
-etc.

What do you think?:*)

[syk_man_agoqui]

di ako american accent pag out of the call center hehehe
coffee oo pero di a lot smoke yes pero after lunch hehehehe

[mikeabundo]

They cuss a lot.

[ahrjhey]

ehehehe, yeah, those are quite true. peeps in call centers do drink coffee and smoke a lot. it's probably becuase they need it ;) however, i work in a call center but i don't smoke neither do i drink coffee :)
and i certainly don't speak with an american accent outside the office bldg. :)

[StArBuXs]

There are agents who can't really converse in English. Barok pa nga daw sabi ng friends ko.

[mikeabundo]

Some outbounders bring their aggressiveness and assumptiveness out of the bounds of the office.

[kengkay]

Originally posted by Una_dagmar
In every environment, there is a certain pattern of actions, habits, and attitudes adopted and passed on from generation to generation by its inhabitants (ala-animal kingdom ito!). These shared characteristics create a "culture" in a niche.

With this in mind, is there such a thing as a call center culture?

Some feedback I'd hear quite often are as follows:
People in call centers tend to:
-smoke a lot
-drink coffee a lot
-speak with an American accent even when out of theri workplace
-be quite arrogant (nagmamarunong or pa-sosyal)
-etc.

What do you think?:*)


i agree to this :D :D tsaka nagiging alak depended *** iba... cyempre gusto mo lagi mag unwind :lol: :p :lol:

[syk_man_agoqui]

hehehehehe oo nga eh tapos puros ka age mo so gimik inuman hang out cofi etc...

[mintfreak]

medyo true.. okay lang.. hehehe

[ambertookme]

and those pretentious trench coats...

[kengkay]

add those knee high boots as well ,tas pag sobrang lamig na sa floor ang mga lola mo naka scaf pa :eek: :eek: :eek:

[spadia]

totoo ba yan!?
I work for a call center ...di naman ganun ah..
lmostly naka casual .....about the accent...di naman ah...
coffee..and smoke due to shift i guess..
well im happy na nomral 8-5 ako :)

[chinghe]

pinakabarok na atang call center samin. pasok ka nang nakapambahay. pwede kang kumain, matulog, sa workstation; mag-chat at mag-pex and mag-friendster. pag maginaw kumot uso dito hindi jacket.

[beefeater]

Originally posted by chinghe
pinakabarok na atang call center samin. pasok ka nang nakapambahay. pwede kang kumain, matulog, sa workstation; mag-chat at mag-pex and mag-friendster. pag maginaw kumot uso dito hindi jacket.

Dapat nga na proud ka sa ganung culture eh! At least they give you a chance to be yourself :D

My take:

1. CC peeps cuss a lot
2. CC peeps tend to call friends or even other people "dude", "tsong" more often than before
3. CC peeps drink after the shift -- they do that by going to the nearest convenience store (i.e. 7-11, MiniStop, Binggo)
4. Non-smoking CC peeps learn to smoke yosi (and in social occassions the bong)
5. Mas madalas mong mapapasuot ng jacket ang taga-CC kesa nung hindi pa sya nagtatrabaho sa CC

[mickaela]

hmmm... ang alam ko CC peeps tend to smoke a lot.. and when they do they can maximize their 15min break for that yosi break.. i quit smoking before and when i started working for a cc.. i started to smoke again.. and a lot at that... dami ko kse kayosim8s.. hahaha... pero that was 9 mos ago.. until then, nde natigil ulit..

people do wear jackets all the time.. matatawa ka nga kase kahit mainit, may bitbit na jacket.

and yeah, people drink a lot of caffeine..

and people drink alcohol early morning.. whehehe.. looks weird.. pero dahil graveyard.. maiintindihan mo.. =)

[kengkay]

Originally posted by mickaela
hmmm... ang alam ko CC peeps tend to smoke a lot.. and when they do they can maximize their 15min break for that yosi break.. i quit smoking before and when i started working for a cc.. i started to smoke again.. and a lot at that... dami ko kse kayosim8s.. hahaha... pero that was 9 mos ago.. until then, nde natigil ulit..

people do wear jackets all the time.. matatawa ka nga kase kahit mainit, may bitbit na jacket.

and yeah, people drink a lot of caffeine..

and people drink alcohol early morning.. whehehe.. looks weird.. pero dahil graveyard.. maiintindihan mo.. =)

yeah me bitbit kang jacket papasok ng office during summer when everybody you see e halos kapiraso na lang damit :bear: :D *puppy*

tapos pag uwi mo ng morning from drinking session lahat ng kasabay mo sa bus bagong ligo ikaw ang bukod tanging amoy alak :D :bop: :*) :bop: :cheers:

[mintfreak]

inaaya na nga *** ng sup namin na maginuman 1 morning after ng shift namin..

[spidervein]

these are what apply to the agents in the CC that i work for (at least among the people in my group):

-smoke a lot (ako i dont pero i get to take in the secondhand smoke)
-cuss a lot
-palaging may dalang jacket, sweater, coat (not for porma, it really is damn cold in the office! and when you work in gy, even when you go out for breaks malamig kasi madaling araw)
-you get to be alcohol dependent (anti stress, to unwind, or just to have a good time after working so damn hard)


...we've learned to limit our caffeine intake, 'cause it's very hard to get sleep in the daytime once you've drank too much coffee
...after the shift and outside work, nagtatagalog kami kasi nakakasawa na yung may accent!

so far i'm loving the cc culture. it's loadsa fun!

[haberdasher]

here in our callcenter, there are those who are pasosyal ... it's true

[rabbaddal]

New opportunities that require new skills...

-------------------------------------

Demand for Spanish-speaking call center representatives seen to grow

The Philippine Star 12/23/2003


Global contact center specialist Source One Communications Asia believes the market for Spanish-speaking customer service representatives (CSRs) will continue to grow next year.

Source One deployed recently 20 Spanish-speaking CSRs and nine translators for two major clients with Spanish-speaking customers. The translators translate and assist the CSRs in case there is something they do not know or understand.

"There has been a steady demand for Spanish-speaking CSRs. In May 2002 when we started this segment, we needed only about five CSRs. Now, we’re close to 30 and there’s demand for more," said Nathan Shapiro, director for Asian operations.

The 2000 United States census results show that Hispanics now make up nearly 13 percent of the US population and have surpassed African Americans as the largest minority group in that country.

Source One currently does not have Spanish-language training. With Hispanics representing the fastest growing market in the United States, Shapiro said it makes business sense now to require new hires to be fluent also in Spanish.

"We assess their fluency through a series of tests. They must be fluent or we don’t get them. We are looking at adding language training by 2004 to meet the growing demand," added Shapiro.

Source One expects 2004 to bring new demands on contact centers in the Philippines. "Aside from Spanish-speaking CSRs, which is likely to grow tremedously, we may see a spike in technology-related contact center services," Shapiro said.

Source One Communications Asia provides outsourced inbound and outbound services in English to North American corporations, including customer care, help desk, technical support and consumer affairs.– Mary Ann Reyes

[one_shot]

Call center culture is established primarily, but not solely, by the call center company itself. I should know, I'm an HR assistant in a call center here in Pasig. It's a part of the recruitment process - you select people not only because of their abilities and skills, but you also consider the applicant's ATTITUDE, DISPOSITION and LIFESTYLE that matches to the company's values. You end up having a consistent mixture of people with the same values, you establish a culture. This results in the branding of people coming from a corporate setting, and call centers are definitely not an exception.

And for my favorite example, if you came from e-------e, the most common comment I hear from other people is "ay naku, iba yung kultura nila dun!" - cut-throat competition, upper class B and up, English-speaking (even outside the company premises), trip to Boracay and stuff...

If the job is very stressful, the tendency of people in the recruitment is to look for people with high tolerance for pressure. Most people with this quality tend to be aggressive... and it turns out that majority of them smoke to release tension. Thus you'll find the company ending up with a lot of smokers. Some people release tension by drinking, while some just do it by sleeping - others do it by going out, watching movies, and my favorite: eating.

Bottomline, work culture depends on the company where you're in. It depends on the values the company is promoting.

The environment also affects the corporate culture. People adapt with the environment around him or her. People will always find a way to make him or her self comfortable with the surroundings. Now in the case of call centers, I'm sure all of you people have encountered the quasi-sub-zero temperatures in the office, especially in the wee hours of the morning. Of course what you do is keep yourself warm - you bring along warmers, blankets - and pillows even, thick jackets and stuff.

Absence of daylight also has a tremendous impact on the individual's attire - night is also associated with gimmicks, right? So it's natural for some people to dress like he or she's going to party.

But then again, another factor must be put into consideration: the individual itself. The individual also contributes to shaping the totality of the corporate culture.

Now, as for the "pasosyal" (to quote haberdasher), well, it's true for all call centers that we have people like them among us. We have to understand that most "ingglesero" and "ingglesera" come from, none other than the upper crust of our society - Class A through upper B. It just so happens that they're so eloquent and some of them, naturally equipped with the American accent, confidence and everything - are really good for the job. It's just SO natural for them to do that because that's basically their lifestyle; that's how they were raised and how they grew up... but I bet most of you people would agree that SOME really overdo it, if you know what I mean.

Last but not the least, we also have to consider that not all people are the same, we have different sets of values and beliefs. "Birds of the same feather flock together" as the saying goes. Smokers go together, drinkers go together. Shoppers go together, "sosi" people go together. Sleepers... nah, forget about them, they have their own room to sleep in :) You stick with people who share the same interests as you do.

So, what's the call center culture? Call centers are different from each other, thus you have to look at your company's values and setting. You also have to look at the people around you. Now, what you'll see is the call center's culture.

[mikeabundo]

Originally posted by one_shot
Last but not the least, we also have to consider that not all people are the same, we have different sets of values and beliefs. "Birds of the same feather flock together" as the saying goes. Smokers go together, drinkers go together. Shoppers go together, "sosi" people go together. Sleepers... nah, forget about them, they have their own room to sleep in :) You stick with people who share the same interests as you do.

One newly refurbished lounge in e*******e is actually filled with nothing but lounge chairs designed for sleeping. Seems even the sleepers are flocking together now. ;)

[drewbacks]

aNo YuNg e*********e? :confused:

:bluefish:

[gulay]

e-telecare po kaya?

o esykes?

epeople supporte kaya?

[LinuxMandrake]

e-wan ko... nyehehehe...

ako pumuputi na ng konti... nandito ako ngayon sa bangalore, pinadala ng company. hindi ako lumalabas ng hotel gawa ng wala namang mapupuntahan dito. humina din ang intake ko ng yosi kasi sobrang tapang ng mga yosi ng mga bumbay... buti na lang may dala akong 2 ream ng marlboro... wahoohoohoo!!!

[tina11]

i don't work in a call center but i know some people who do, and i've seen how working nights takes its toll on their health and drastically changes their lifestyles, eating and sleeping habits. i know the money's good but i'm curious...how do you guys plan on keeping up this stressful way of living - working nights and holidays and not being able to set your own schedule - when you get married and have kids?

[LinuxMandrake]

i'm married, and i have a kid... lately we were blessed with the opportunity to travel (nga lang, trabaho). i'm in bangalore and the wifey is in sydney... on how to cope up with this stress... mas gusto ko na stressed out ako habang bata and secure a bright future for the kid, kesa hindi masyadong stressed out, wala namang ipon. madaling habulin ng tulog ang pagod at puyat, pero ang nawalang oras eh hindi na babalik. un lang po. bow!

[Una_dagmar]

I kinda agree with LinuxMandrake. There's a downside to working in a call center but there are good things as well.

Being married AND working in a call center is indeed a challenge. This is even more felt if you've got kids. However, some parents actually opt to work in this environment to earn more. Pansin ko lang, mga parents ang extra hardworking sa call center,no. Yet, they party hard pa rin!

[tina11]

the reason i asked was because i have a brother who works in a call center and i was thinking that if he decides to settle down in the future, it might be hard for him to be a good husband and parent when he's asleep all day and working nights and weekends. but it's good that there are people who can successfully balance call center work and a family. it's not the ideal lifestyle (as you guys can testify, it's hard and stressful work) but pinoys would do anything to give their kids a better future. *okay*

[LinuxMandrake]

Originally posted by Una_dagmar
I kinda agree with LinuxMandrake. There's a downside to working in a call center but there are good things as well.

Being married AND working in a call center is indeed a challenge. This is even more felt if you've got kids. However, some parents actually opt to work in this environment to earn more. Pansin ko lang, mga parents ang extra hardworking sa call center,no. Yet, they party hard pa rin!

hehehe... tama ka dito my friend... actually i'm here in bangalore with one of my trainers... we work smart during the day, and party hard during the night.:eek: yebayebayeba!!!

[Una_dagmar]

I also noticed that when call centers started to surface (about 3-4 years ago), most, if not all, fall between the ages 21-about 27. Young daw ang people. Lately, in the center I work for, there are thirtysomething employees being hired. Isn't that great?

[LinuxMandrake]

Originally posted by Una_dagmar
I also noticed that when call centers started to surface (about 3-4 years ago), most, if not all, fall between the ages 21-about 27. Young daw ang people. Lately, in the center I work for, there are thirtysomething employees being hired. Isn't that great?

hah! wala to sa lola ko... literal! meron kaming agent na 64 years old, kumukuha pa ng calls... hehehe... malufet! si mama rose, ang bagong celebrity namin... she's set to go to irvine ca this january kasi petition ng anak. eh wala daw magawa sa house... nag-agent! ibang klase talaga! hehehe...:D

[Una_dagmar]

Nakakaaliw nga silang pakinggan sa phone...kakaiba sa mga mas batang agent.

[LinuxMandrake]

ur right dagmar... sila maingat magsalita, they tend to enunciate every word, while as the younger group talks fast... hehehe...

[mickaela]

hahaha.. kakatawa naman *** "mama rose"!!! for a lady her age..working in a call center... hah! =) it just goes to show na walang age discrimination sa call center... =)

[Una_dagmar]

addendum sa culture:

We work during holidays, but we try to make the best out of it. (Pumapasok ng bangag...)

[wishiwashi]

Join http://pinoycallcenter.proboards24.com/

[Una_dagmar]

Originally posted by wishiwashi
Join http://pinoycallcenter.proboards24.com/

Hanep sa post!:D

[kengkay]

Originally posted by Una_dagmar
addendum sa culture:

We work during holidays, but we try to make the best out of it. (Pumapasok ng bangag...)

yeah .. i know how you feel :rolleyes:... but it's fun :D :rolleyes:

[fairychild]

1. Jacket
2. Spill-roof mug/tumbler
3. Coffee/Energy drinks
4. Cellphone (to call TL's when sick, ehehhe!)
5. (alrighty, add more to the list)

[hugs]

yung e*******e siguro, evocative? hehe..;)

samin, bawal ang cellphone while on the floor..dapat nasa locker..kung dadalhin mo, dapat nakaoff ksi nakakadisrupt ng calls, may "galloping horses" kumbaga..

5. blanket and pillow- for graveyard shifts, kung may pambili ka at kakasya sa locker, bili ka ng sleeping bag
6. pad or piece of paper/ballpen- pag di mo maintindihan pinagsasabi ng caller and you want to take note para di mo malimutan, or kung walang pumapasok na calls, magdoodle ka na lang

[alexza]

gaano ba kalaki minsan ang locker?

[snapple]

I learned to cuss when i worked in a call center. When I resigned and had a better work environment, I gradually removed this habit.

[speed_demon]

In every environment, there is a certain pattern of actions, habits, and attitudes adopted and passed on from generation to generation by its inhabitants (ala-animal kingdom ito!). These shared characteristics create a "culture" in a niche.

With this in mind, is there such a thing as a call center culture?

Some feedback I'd hear quite often are as follows:
People in call centers tend to:
-smoke a lot
-drink coffee a lot
-speak with an American accent even when out of theri workplace
-be quite arrogant (nagmamarunong or pa-sosyal)
-etc.

What do you think?:*)

agree! sa 1 & 2 totoo yan. sa 3&4 mas agree ako! pero hindi naman lahat ganun. pero lahat ng asa ilalim ng 3 & 4 yung mga aroganteng nakakainis! mga feeling!! pa-sosyal porket english english sa trabaho, nakakainit ng ulo! karamihan naman masagwa yung grammar kaya kung ako sa kanila, magpakatotoo kayooo!

[gadƒly]

1. da vinci code- textbook ng mga reps
2. galera - favorite summer vacation

[aina_crazy_girl]

-smoke a lot I don't smoke
-drink coffee a lot I don't like cofee.. baka tea pa, oo.
-speak with an American accent even when out of theri workplace I've always spoken this way since I was a kid. So no dice.
-be quite arrogant (nagmamarunong or pa-sosyal)LOL. Matagal na po akong mayabang. Basta may ipagnmamayabang naman di ba?
-etc.

and yeah, I cuss ALOT.