After accepting a senior process executive post at an Indian-run BPO company, it seems I have been doing nothing but to complain. First, when asked by trainers what I was feeling now that I am being part of one of the world's biggest bpo companies, I told them tactlessly that I was honestly unhappy. The company after all tricked me with my salary! Yes, my gross pay may seem high at face value, but upon further scrutiny, and after learning how Finance computes our daily rate versus our basic pay, my net pay was actually below the amount I was expecting. Plus, the allowances which gave my package a "bulky" facade wasn't also explained, that is, that variable pay and other bonuses would only be given upon regularization, or on your seventh month of stay with the company, subject of course to your individual performance, etc.
I also complained about how their training plan sucked, whenever given the "airtime" to say my piece. Well, this was my opinion and I based this on personal experience. My peers and I knew for a fact that the account I was assigned to was still on its launching stage, and the training manager was still figuring out how to give structure to their training plan. And yes, I was also not told at the onset of my application that I would actually be working as a TSR for a US-based telecom company, not as CSR or sourcing and procurement specialist, as what I indicated in my application. Now, after only four calls and no floor support (from my TL and SME), the end result was that I am now being transferred to a Cisco account. Yes, I also complained about how they came up with such a decision. I thought it was unfair and made haphazardly, considering that they couldn't show me any rating vis-a-vis the established metrics or even my documented AFI (area for improvement), which you would expect in other centers catering to the same account.
After talking to a more tenured agent to release these frustrations and pent up emotions, however, I realized I was acting so wrongly. I got the wrong attitude and I let all those negative perspectives dictate how I perceive things. That agent I was pouring out my emotions with turned out to be experiencing worse. She was getting far lower pay and she was not even assigned to the very account that made her apply to our company - Cisco - which is the very account I will be transferring to. I heard that the account has better processes, more structured training plans, and more handsome rewards to encourage excellent performance from its agents than the account I was originally from. She told me: "If you would just complain about this and that, please be sensitive enough to know that there are other people here, me included, who experience worse and who would even exchange everything to be in your position now." That made me shut my mouth. She made me realize that there's a reason why things happen. Perhaps, I was pulled out from the account even though I knew and felt that I was way better than some of those already taking calls on the floor because God has better plans for me. I was too narrow-minded, such that I missed to see the good in my own circumanstance. That instead of complaining, I might as well start appreciating things, thanking God for the experience and the lessons it brings. Yes, I thought this BPO company was a barren land, that it's a place where people just stay for the money, where one's talent is just being wasted doing tasks that are mechanical and routine. But I was proven wrong. At least now, I'm picking up something sublimal and ethereal from this surprisingly fecund territory - this lesson of keeping a positive outlook and maintaining a heart of gratitude. It will help me a lot in life.
