Call Center "Culture"

[Una_dagmar]

In every environment, there is a certain pattern of actions, habits, and attitudes adopted and passed on from generation to generation by its inhabitants (ala-animal kingdom ito!). These shared characteristics create a "culture" in a niche.

With this in mind, is there such a thing as a call center culture?

Some feedback I'd hear quite often are as follows:
People in call centers tend to:
-smoke a lot
-drink coffee a lot
-speak with an American accent even when out of theri workplace
-be quite arrogant (nagmamarunong or pa-sosyal)
-etc.

What do you think?

[syk_man_agoqui]

di ako american accent pag out of the call center hehehe
coffee oo pero di a lot smoke yes pero after lunch hehehehe

[mikeabundo]

They cuss a lot.

[ahrjhey]

ehehehe, yeah, those are quite true. peeps in call centers do drink coffee and smoke a lot. it's probably becuase they need it however, i work in a call center but i don't smoke neither do i drink coffee
and i certainly don't speak with an american accent outside the office bldg.

[StArBuXs]

There are agents who can't really converse in English. Barok pa nga daw sabi ng friends ko.

[mikeabundo]

Some outbounders bring their aggressiveness and assumptiveness out of the bounds of the office.

[kengkay]

Originally posted by Una_dagmar
In every environment, there is a certain pattern of actions, habits, and attitudes adopted and passed on from generation to generation by its inhabitants (ala-animal kingdom ito!). These shared characteristics create a "culture" in a niche.

With this in mind, is there such a thing as a call center culture?

Some feedback I'd hear quite often are as follows:
People in call centers tend to:
-smoke a lot
-drink coffee a lot
-speak with an American accent even when out of theri workplace
-be quite arrogant (nagmamarunong or pa-sosyal)
-etc.

What do you think?

[COLOR=crimson]i agree to this tsaka nagiging alak depended *** iba... cyempre gusto mo lagi mag unwind [/COLOR]

[syk_man_agoqui]

hehehehehe oo nga eh tapos puros ka age mo so gimik inuman hang out cofi etc...

[mintfreak]

medyo true.. okay lang.. hehehe

[ambertookme]

and those pretentious trench coats...

[kengkay]

add those knee high boots as well ,tas pag sobrang lamig na sa floor ang mga lola mo naka scaf pa

[spadia]

totoo ba yan!?
I work for a call center ...di naman ganun ah..
lmostly naka casual .....about the accent...di naman ah...
coffee..and smoke due to shift i guess..
well im happy na nomral 8-5 ako

[chinghe]

pinakabarok na atang call center samin. pasok ka nang nakapambahay. pwede kang kumain, matulog, sa workstation; mag-chat at mag-pex and mag-friendster. pag maginaw kumot uso dito hindi jacket.

[beefeater]

Originally posted by chinghe
pinakabarok na atang call center samin. pasok ka nang nakapambahay. pwede kang kumain, matulog, sa workstation; mag-chat at mag-pex and mag-friendster. pag maginaw kumot uso dito hindi jacket.

Dapat nga na proud ka sa ganung culture eh! At least they give you a chance to be yourself

My take:

1. CC peeps cuss a lot
2. CC peeps tend to call friends or even other people "dude", "tsong" more often than before
3. CC peeps drink after the shift -- they do that by going to the nearest convenience store (i.e. 7-11, MiniStop, Binggo)
4. Non-smoking CC peeps learn to smoke yosi (and in social occassions the bong)
5. Mas madalas mong mapapasuot ng jacket ang taga-CC kesa nung hindi pa sya nagtatrabaho sa CC

[mickaela]

hmmm... ang alam ko CC peeps tend to smoke a lot.. and when they do they can maximize their 15min break for that yosi break.. i quit smoking before and when i started working for a cc.. i started to smoke again.. and a lot at that... dami ko kse kayosim8s.. hahaha... pero that was 9 mos ago.. until then, nde natigil ulit..

people do wear jackets all the time.. matatawa ka nga kase kahit mainit, may bitbit na jacket.

and yeah, people drink a lot of caffeine..

and people drink alcohol early morning.. whehehe.. looks weird.. pero dahil graveyard.. maiintindihan mo.. =)

[kengkay]

Originally posted by mickaela
hmmm... ang alam ko CC peeps tend to smoke a lot.. and when they do they can maximize their 15min break for that yosi break.. i quit smoking before and when i started working for a cc.. i started to smoke again.. and a lot at that... dami ko kse kayosim8s.. hahaha... pero that was 9 mos ago.. until then, nde natigil ulit..

people do wear jackets all the time.. matatawa ka nga kase kahit mainit, may bitbit na jacket.

and yeah, people drink a lot of caffeine..

and people drink alcohol early morning.. whehehe.. looks weird.. pero dahil graveyard.. maiintindihan mo.. =)

yeah me bitbit kang jacket papasok ng office during summer when everybody you see e halos kapiraso na lang damit

tapos pag uwi mo ng morning from drinking session lahat ng kasabay mo sa bus bagong ligo ikaw ang bukod tanging amoy alak

[mintfreak]

inaaya na nga *** ng sup namin na maginuman 1 morning after ng shift namin..

[spidervein]

these are what apply to the agents in the CC that i work for (at least among the people in my group):

-smoke a lot (ako i dont pero i get to take in the secondhand smoke)
-cuss a lot
-palaging may dalang jacket, sweater, coat (not for porma, it really is damn cold in the office! and when you work in gy, even when you go out for breaks malamig kasi madaling araw)
-you get to be alcohol dependent (anti stress, to unwind, or just to have a good time after working so damn hard)


...we've learned to limit our caffeine intake, 'cause it's very hard to get sleep in the daytime once you've drank too much coffee
...after the shift and outside work, nagtatagalog kami kasi nakakasawa na yung may accent!

so far i'm loving the cc culture. it's loadsa fun!

[haberdasher]

here in our callcenter, there are those who are pasosyal ... it's true

[rabbaddal]

New opportunities that require new skills...

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Demand for Spanish-speaking call center representatives seen to grow

The Philippine Star 12/23/2003


Global contact center specialist Source One Communications Asia believes the market for Spanish-speaking customer service representatives (CSRs) will continue to grow next year.

Source One deployed recently 20 Spanish-speaking CSRs and nine translators for two major clients with Spanish-speaking customers. The translators translate and assist the CSRs in case there is something they do not know or understand.

"There has been a steady demand for Spanish-speaking CSRs. In May 2002 when we started this segment, we needed only about five CSRs. Now, we’re close to 30 and there’s demand for more," said Nathan Shapiro, director for Asian operations.

The 2000 United States census results show that Hispanics now make up nearly 13 percent of the US population and have surpassed African Americans as the largest minority group in that country.

Source One currently does not have Spanish-language training. With Hispanics representing the fastest growing market in the United States, Shapiro said it makes business sense now to require new hires to be fluent also in Spanish.

"We assess their fluency through a series of tests. They must be fluent or we don’t get them. We are looking at adding language training by 2004 to meet the growing demand," added Shapiro.

Source One expects 2004 to bring new demands on contact centers in the Philippines. "Aside from Spanish-speaking CSRs, which is likely to grow tremedously, we may see a spike in technology-related contact center services," Shapiro said.

Source One Communications Asia provides outsourced inbound and outbound services in English to North American corporations, including customer care, help desk, technical support and consumer affairs.– Mary Ann Reyes