You're Beneath Me

Call center agents, for what it's worth, are generally decent, hard-working, honest people. I should know, I've worked with many of them and have been one myself. However, I learned a while ago that each call center breeds a different type of agent. Hell, even separate accounts within a single company can breed drastically different types of agents. Completely different animals, as it were. And 'animals' is a very, very appropriate term for the breed that works where I am.

We've already firmly established these people are complete slobs. They're also lying slobs, frequently blaming their messes on the dayshift IT people. Even with photographic evidence and eyewitness testimonial from IT and tech support people, they still have the gall and the audacity to pin the blame on us.

But let's not dwell on that flaw when we can discuss their apparent "air of superiority," not to mention their over-possessiveness of their stations. Or their lack of a sense of time.

You see, the typical call center agent in Ascend Asia's other division (not the one that is currently relocated; they seem like decent enough people) are a bunch of...well, animals. They have this tendency to act like they own the computers they're using for work and treat their stations as such. Sure, it's fine to personalize their stations a little, but don't you think it can be a bit much when you're actually claiming literal ownership? Especially since the real owners saw fit to let the IT people use those computers during the day?

News flash: These are not your personal property, folks. You're not even paying rent on them. You're just being allowed to use them to accomplish your tasks for work. The company didn't give them to you, and it is theirs to do with as they please. And it pleases them to let us use them until the computers taken by the NBI are returned or replaced appropriately. Deal with it.

Here's another bit of information you may want to get through to your thick skulls: when your shift is over and there's no mandatory meeting or anything, you're supposed to get the fuck out of the office. Isn't it common courtesy, common decency to leave when you know that the people next in line for using those computers are there, waiting, and are already starting their work at least half an hour late because you refuse to leave ON. FUCKING. TIME?

The fact is, we've already had our shift moved down an hour - with all the serious effects that has on commute time and sleep schedules - and we're still starting our work later than we should. All because these agents can't get it through their thick skulls that, Hello, you're not alone anymore and you have to act like decent human beings for once in your miserable lives. More on this at a later date.

No, you don't get any right to complain when we do about your sloppy habits, your dirty computers, and your lack of common courtesy when leaving. You don't get to act like you own the place and tell us we have no right to ask you to go. You don't even have any right to tell us off when we make you get the fuck out. Your shift is over and other people need those PCs, so act like the mature human beings you're supposed to be and leave, dipshits.

So here's a message from me and the other disgruntled members of the IT department, and I'll say it in Filipino, so the agent's simple minds can actually process it without having to strain themselves in the process:

"Wag kang aangas-angas. Agent ka lang."






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