Comparing lives

I brought a piece of cloth to a dress shop I happen to come across as I went the rounds of Dasmarinas, Cavite. I was met by a nice woman who was on an “interview mode” -- reason why she found out the nature of my job. Suddenly she got all worked up and excited. It was as if speaking to a call center agent was like “manna from heaven” or a chance to compare professions. She said “you know I heard call center agent’s salaries are huge? And all you had to do was sit down and talk on the phone inside an air-conditioned building. How lucky can you get?” She continued her ramblings and even complained that they, on the other hand, have to work like carabaos and work till their backs get humped to bring meager food on the table. I felt trapped; I wanted to run for dear life. I felt that anytime she would wield a bolo and practice her stunts on me. Well, I was overreacting of course – I wanted to shed light on her fabricated idea about how our jobs as call center agents are relatively easier than theirs. Nothing is ever easy! Our jobs require communication skills, patience (tons of them), being able to think out of the box, a lot of empathy and very good analytical skills. So to all out there who thinks that having a call center job is easy…I would say you would have to be a nocturnal person who does not tire of explaining things to people from across the world every day for 8 to 11 hours (depending on your scheduled shift). To add to that, the people we get to talk to can be a 90 year old who is hard of hearing, an angry customer, or someone who just has too many questions these are only a few examples of people we get calls from… the rest I’d rather keep to myself.