The Plight of Call Center Agents

She hates answering calls and the abnormal time-shifts of her job. But she’s shut in doing the same thing for six years because it’s her only means to feed her family, pay the bills, and survive every single day… or night.

Erin (not her real name), 27, is a single mother and a nursing graduate. She didn’t pursue her career as a nurse because she thought the salary was “petty.”

She started working for Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) companies right after graduating in 2007. She’s hopped in around three call center companies around IT Park, Cebu City then landed on the biggest-paying call center agency in the city last year.

According to her, it’s the money that keeps her staying.

“Balhin-balhin ko kay nangita kog daku og bayad. Maayo na lang nadawat ko sa akong gitrabahoan karon (I transfer from one company to another in search for a bigger salary. I’m lucky that I was accepted in the company that I’m working now),” she said.

Erin receives P 25,000-27,000 every month– a salary every young professional could hope for.

“One of the perks, the best perk in fact, of being a call center agent, is that you get paid higher as compared to other jobs around,” Erin told Metrocebu in Cebuano.

But Erin admitted that her salary is still not enough to feed not one, but three families.

For the family

Erin, the youngest of the three siblings, belongs to a broken family. Her father left them for another family when she was nineteen and her mother raised them on her own since then.

Her boyfriend has another family so he could not support their two-year old son. Erin is holding up everything, including her two brothers’ families.

Both of her brothers did not finish college and they’re currently unemployed. The eldest, Ray, 34, has four children while Ben, 29, has one child.

Erin’s the only one working for her family, her two brothers’ families included, and frankly, according to her, her P 27,000 income is not enough to feed three families altogether.

“Lisud. Ka-surrenderon nako pero naningkamot ko para nila (It’s hard. I want to surrender but I work hard for my family),” she said.

When asked if she could turn back time and choose a career, she said she wouldn’t be a call center agent.

“Kapoy ang matog nga dili normal ug dili guaranteed na stable siya (It’s tiring not to sleep normally and my job is not guaranteed to be stable),” Erin explained. “Wala lang gyud ko’y choice (I just don’t have a choice),” she added.

More Erins?

While Erin continues to answer calls every day, some 23,000 fresh graduates of Cebu every year might also head the same way.

Nile Dano, 21, a fresh graduate from one of the most premier universities in the country, said that she applied to be a call center agent because she needs the money.

“Kung practicalay lang, mupili gyud ko og call center kay dakug hatag (Practically, I’d choose to be a call center agent because of the money),” she said.

Nile is receiving P17,000 per month, which according to her, could well suffice her needs.

In an article published in Business Mirror, Cebu is attractive not only to BPO companies but to other sectors as well because of its labor force and because of the lower cost of living and doing business. According to the same article, there are currently over 500 foreign investors in manufacturing, services, and tourism in Cebu, which include names worldwide such as IBM, Olympus, JPMorgan, Timex and Pentax.

With the growing number of high-paying BPO companies in the city, would it still come as a shock if Erin and Nile choose to work there?

* Names of Erin’s brothers are not their real names.

(Catch Part 2 of this story in the next article.)