SM and Robinsons invests in more BPO buildings

Pasay and Ortigas have become major BPO hubs in the Philippines and continuous development of these areas for BPO business occupancy is the proof. SM and Robinsons are erecting new buildings:

SM Land Commercial Properties Group's TwoE-comCenter in Pasay City, the second in a series of four buildings geared toward BPOs and IT occupancy, is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2011 and fully operational by the first quarter of 2012.

Two buildings, Cyberscape One ( 23-stories) and Cyberscape Two (36-stories), will expand Robinsons Land Corporation in Ortigas Center. It is expected to be completed by middle of 2013.

We are to benefit for this, Pinoy BPO workers, to have lots of opportunity to find suitable work location and BPOs will fill in these new buildings for their new or expansion sites.

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C3 / CustomerContactChannels in Fort Bonifacio

I saw a full page ad in Manila Bulletin today about C3 or CustomerContactChannels, one of the newest BPOs to set foot here in the Philippines. And according to their website:

"C3 provides a full range of customer contact management services for corporate clients in the healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, energy and utilities, media, travel, hospitality, and government services industries, from both U.S. and international locations. C3’s founders are considered pioneers in the industry having successfully grown global BPO companies over the last several decades. As a result, the Company is uniquely positioned to deliver outstanding results for its clients through proven operational best practices and its veteran leadership team."

Its brand new site is located at the 17th-20th floors of the E- Services building in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. It's always cool to be a part of a brand new team, to be a pioneer. Pinoy BPO workers, don't miss out this opportunity if your on the look out for fresh job options!

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Call Center Dictionary

Absent - A phenomenon that occurs when you were not able to sleep during daytime.

Salary - Force that motives you to go to work.

Late - Happens when its raining and/or payday.

13th month pay - The thing to wait for before resigning.

ID - Something to confiscate when you are using your celphone and sleeping on the floor.

Call - Makes you fall asleep faster than a sleeping pill.

Clinic - Home of best actors & actresses.

You may add more! hehe!

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Convergys' new sites in Cebu and Baguio

Convergys Philippines is expanding its operations through its new sites in Cebu and Baguio. Currently, CVG has more than 20,000 people across 13 facilities nationwide: eight in Metro Manila, three in Cebu City, one in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and one in Bacolod City.

Existing CVG sites in Cebu City are located in Banawa Hills, Asiatown IT Park i2 and i3 buildings. The 4th and new site will be in TGU Tower, still in Asiatown.

CVG Baguio is set to open over 3,000 business process outsourcing seats in Camp John Hay. This was made possible by Ayala Land acquiring 12 hectares of Camp John Hay property and will develop it to become the city’s techno hub.

It's cool to go back and visit our provinces. Now it can be more than a vacation destiny and offer employment opportunities for us Pinoy BPO workers.

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Call Center Phobia?

Phobia is defined in Wikipedia as an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people. Is there such a thing called "call center phobia"?

I worked in a call center before that has a 10,000 pesos training bond. A training bond is an amount that you will have to pay to the company if you did not finish training or did not stay with the company fo at least 6 months. A wave mate went on AWOL during training, and was very afraid that he will hunted down by the company to ask him to pay or will not be able to work in another company again because of what he did. He was asking if NBI will reflect this if he will apply for an NBI clearance. He is now working in a giant retail company and still occasionally texts me about what if his current company founds out that he went on AWOL on first BPO job.

I had a text conversation with a friend recently who is used to be my wave mate in a call center. She resigned after transition training and went on AWOL at that time. Our text conversation went about our current jobs as she is now working for a utilities company. She is now proud to be as not a part of a BPO company and declared: "mas ok na 'to kesa magpayaman sa call center" I think she is now acting this way because of the harsh conditions we went through in that previous call center, and I explained that not all call center acounts are the same. She is firm in her conviction that even though her salary is much smaller and sometimes required to work 6 days a week she will not join any BPO company again.

My point of view of the matter is that BPO work may not be for everyone but I could stress enough that it may offer an opportunity that could uplift our lives financially and help our families. And for me, the more important thing here is to improve as an individual by facing our fears head on and survive the challenges of the Pinoy BPO industry.

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Retirement benefits for Pinoy BPO Workers urged

I have been in a few call centers for the past 5 years and I thought what if I stayed in just one company for that time span? I thought, what's the advantages or disadvantages, could have I stayed 5 continuous years?

I don't regret the fact that I joined multiple companies in the last 5 years as it enriched my learning and experience, which is irreplaceable.

Recently, a House Bill was created to mandate all BPOs in the Philippines to provide retirement benefits to emloyees who have served at least 5 years of continuous service and penalize the violators.

House Bill 04221 by Representative Gunigundo of Valenzuela is timely and appropriate. This will basically reward all the hard work of the Pinoy BPO workers and as they continue to do so, it would be beneficial to BPO companies because it will definitely cut attrition, once this becomes a law. Training new hires costs a lot for BPO companies.

One concern though is that some unscrupulous BPO companies may take the cost of the employees retirement pay from their employees' current benefits: freeze annual increases, remove allowances and adjusting night differential rates.

Nevertheless, I believe the Bill will be beneficial with specific safe guards from abuse in place. I strongly support this Bill and mabuhay to all Pinoy BPO workers!

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