sacred pasture

SOCIETY'S DISEASE



It was around three o'clock in the afternoon when I went online to check my mails. Much to my surprise Cindy, a good friend of mine back in college was online too. After I "buzzed" her, the chat went on and on.

She's not happy. That's the bottom line. After taking up a four-year course and crash courses in music, she complains about her work. She's a call center agent. I was not surprise, a lot of my high-school acquaintances have ventured on that industry that aren't happy as well. When I asked her why she isn't happy, she only needed to say the right few words.... "THIS IS NOT MY PASSION."

Financial constraints. Most probably, this is the reason why most people specially the younger aged bracket are very much interested in working in the call-center industry. After all, they are the predominant target market of such industries. Who wouldn't want a high salary? These industries offer such high compensations for their employees which technically mobilizes the growth of call centers in the country. About a month ago, I passed by Baclaran, and was stunned to see the billboard of a call center company filled with three phrases. But the one that really made a recall to me was the line "GREAT PAY". Even I was enticed by that copy. In the economic status that the country is going through today, who wouldn't want a great pay? We all do. But the mere fact that the billboard promotes the company's ability to "pay you good" and considering the hype of it at this point in time, that only goes to show and justifies the lowness of the society. They seem like talking to a dumb money-sucking society. Eventually, those people who are bent down in their blue collar-jobs and the students who are supposed to be at school and educating themselves are so enticed. The result? The booming industry of call centers.

The seemingly-iconic lifetyle of call center agents. When you roam around the places of Libi's, Malate, Greenbelt and other places that used to be leisure haven for upper market, you see lots of young people. Most of them are call center agents. I remeber bumping into an acquaintance, we had a little talk while we were standing in front of a mall. She looked very different. She used to be a nobody in school but seeing her in her glittery make-up and nice set of clothes she could strut a photoshoot at that moment. She works for a call center company and she tells me proudly the different bars she's hopped on. She enjoys the night-life-- getting drunk, partying, socializing. Good for her. Atleast she's exploring. Hehehe. Most of the call center agents I know have one commonality. Its their lifestyle. And its amazing how I can easily identify agents just by how they look like and how they speak. But the point is this--- We live in the society where everyday of our lives, we get to have atleast a pinch of poverty and everyday we see how hard it is to live in a nearly-jeopardized economy. And because of these circumstances, people are more encourged to answer calls from irate customers just so they could live a much comfortable life. It is a wealthy industry. So wealthy that they could make you live you like a superstar.

I sympathize for my friend Cindy, not only because she was just dragged into working in that industry for some reasons but also for her passion. Everything that is not nourished could possibly be gone. Among the thousands of agents answering calls everyday, how many of them are great artists? how many of them have greater skills than just speaking "hello good morning this is..."? The truth is? There are alot of them. And Cindy is one of them. But this industry is slowly becoming a temple of desperation.

As long as the economy is catching its breath to survive, people could still turn their backs on their passion and drive on the fast lane where regrets could be met somewhere. And i foresee it as a step by step process to becoming a stigma.

The bottom line is that we all want a comfortable life with absolutely no shortcomings.