The Best Team (and Team Lead) There Is

(Photo credit: Ms. Mei's multiply site. Photo was taken at a beach in Iba, Zambales during our team's summer getaway. Thanks to TL MJ's digicam.)

Last Sunday, we were informed by TL Cali (our former but will be our forever-and-a-day Team Lead) no less that she was announced as the top ranking Team Lead for the combined December 2007, January 2008 and February 2008 scorecards during the site's townhall meeting last April 2nd. This means, among many other things, that we are the Best Team too since our Team Lead's monthly scorecard is the aggregate of our individual scorecards.

This is an unexpected feat. For one, we had an attrition last December of 2007 as Ms. Floe Fuentes got married and settled in Singapore. From what I know, a Team Lead's scorecard is considered failed already for any incidence of attriting agents. Two, our CSAT scores for the first two months of the year were barely passing. Lastly, our team's cumulative Quality scores is far from passing...

Thanks to AHT, Transfer rates and what else, attendance? LOL! TL's attendance policy saved us from the "kangkungan!"

Kudos and keep up the good work guys! 81M02/TeamCali is definitely excellence-personified! Here's to more VSAT metrics and all-green stats!

Utter Rejection

I do not know you. And you do not know us yet.

Right now, am so dismayed when I heard from my colleagues no less that you do not want us. After hearing that, I would like to believe that you have good reasons for arriving at such a prejudiced statement. You might say that I believe too much on rumors and hearsays but I could vouch for my colleagues' integrity. I think they heard it right.

I do not know you. And you do not know us yet.

What led you to come up with such a statement? What are your underlying reasons? Isn't it premature to come up with that statement? It might just be a joke. Anyhow, I still think it is utterly wrong to make such a statement given the context from which we're moving around. We're both victims of circumstances here.

I do not know you. And you do not know us yet.

Empathic understanding goes both ways. I'll just wait for your rebuttals, till then.

Today I Write The Saddest Blogpost

(As I write this blogpost, I am in the middle of taking in calls. Im not so much in a good mood to play nice and sweet to irate callers. Thus, I'll not be very surprised if I'll have a failed QE or a very dissatisfactory POSE once I get back to work come Thursday. ***Photo credit: photo used for this blogpost was taken from teamcali.multiply.com, perhaps this was shot using TL's digicam***)

Starting today (March the 30th), I think Team 81M02 will never be the same again. It is with a heavy heart that we said our goodbyes to TL Cali San Diego on her last day with the team yesterday (March the 29th).

To speak about parting is an ordeal. Letting go is a Herculean task that could never be accomplished overnight. And yes, Iam sulking. I am disheartened. I am sad.

Please don't get me wrong. Sure, I am really happy for TL Cali that she was favorably chosen by the junior-level management of the company to head one of the three teams for Project Greenlight for we could all vouch for TL's superb leadership and management skills. The team itself is a living proof of what TL can accomplish. There's no denying that TL surely deserves to be given new and more challenging responsibilities.

What saddens the team, or myself for that matter, was the urgency and the immediate effectivity of TL Cali's pull-out from our team. We never thought that after spending our much-deserved early summer getaway trip at Iba, Zambales, we got back to work last Thursday only to find out that we have like a day left to spend with TL. Surprise, Surprise! I can't speak for the other older and more tenured agents in the team if they are sad as I am simply because basic psychology taught me its wrong to assume about how other people respond on a given stimulus. But here's an obervation on the first day without TL Cali: the shift started a bit gloomy, our once imprenta-like QuickComm was only being filled with purely work-related concerns (e.g. pa-add ng ganito, pa-add ng ganyan, pa-order ng ganito etc.), 2 colleagues are absent and miracle of miracles, 81M02's SILENCE IS SO DEAFENING...

I could write here for all I want how disgusted I am with the decision of those never mind... An orgmate in college told me how I should be accepting of this event since Sociology taught us how capitalists are devoid of any human emotion and that this rationalization is done all in the guise of profit maximization! Grrrrrr! Sigh, the pains of being a part of the working class...

Anyhow, back on reflective/sulking/sad mode:

In sociology (or psychology, that I no longer remember, forgive my utter ignorance...), a person's performance in a group or in an organization is sustained or improved by having a "significant other." And in the workplace, TL Cali was the "significant other" that allowed me to persevere and somehow do some "hardwork." TL was also instrumental in changing my views about this work that I do. From her I learned that there is indeed pride in being a call center agent. I was then able to put so much respect on this kind of work since TL helped me to dispel whatever negative notions I initially have.

Now that TL is no longer our "Boss", I'll surely miss the curls and how shy she was when we noticed her straight hair but still insisted to her press release, "shampoo lang yan."; the constant reminders to TLi, Kuya Jeps and Rain not to go on ACW for more than 2 minutes; the day she implemented the EOP on our QuickComm long before the managers thought of it and how bloody our noses and ears were afterwards; the great deal of patience that she and Ms. Annie exerted to teach Mai and myself how to properly issue and comment on a credit. I'll also miss the yosi sessions and those conversations ranging from what is deemed as personal, to professional and work-related issues (performance coaching). And above all, the discourses on socio-politico-economic issues confronting our third world graft-ridden society which only shows that we never turned our backs from what U.P. instilled in us.

It would definitely take time before we'll get use to not having TL around. We might have moved on but one thing is for sure, 81M02 will never be the same again without TL California San Diego.

TL Cali: She'll be the standard from which our next TL/s will be measured. No pressure!