Somebody else has made me realize he's not worth the attention after all... -xoxo

The last day of this week ending for us (Friday) was all I could ever imagined it would be. Being the only Sales Coach around from 11pm - 8am (and mind you, it's not the time I really log out), it was me against the whole floor along with TL BJ. We answered inquiries, helped agents, gave spiffs, did floor walk and everything that would make the last day of our historical week active.

Team D's GA was scheduled that day as well. After the über exhausting day of roaming around the Matrix floor, it was a relief to look forward to an enjoyable event afterwards.
I immediately went home (or not that immediate, coz it was around 10am already), tried to take a nap from 12pm - 2pm then prepared to go back to the office (which was our meeting place).

I arrived last and I got on TL Dona's car along with Saif, Dad and TL's bf. When we got to the gasoline station near our office, we met up with Cris' car, with Edel, BJ, Daigan and Ced on board. We bought some ice and we spent some time figuring out how to carry the weight of the whole group without making Cris' car suffer. :)

Then, a funny thing happened. A beggar (well, I'm not judgemental, but you can identify one once you see one, right?), ok, a poor woman, suddenly went inside Cris' car as we got out off it. Edel was the only one left inside and timingly we were shocked and did nothing but watch her get inside and sat beside Edel. TL Dona's bf had the urge to pull her out of the car and warned her not to act like that. I felt sorry for the woman who was barefoot with signs of miles of distances walked by her feet.

We trudged along Las Piñas and Cavite borders until we arrived at Lenny's friend's resort - Villa Alberto. It was a fun ride filled with laughter and background music inspired by BJ's iPod ("Better Days"?! "Endless Love"?!) Gosh.

The resort was awesome. Even though it was a public resort, the venue was kept from the hustle and bustle if the streets. It was dramatically lit, much like a Spa Resort with Bamboo cottages.

Here's one snapshot we took (and I'm not THAT visible here. :p)
From bottom-left: Saif, Cris, PJ, TL Dona, Lenny, Ced and Edel



I was too busy singing at the videoke and here's an evidence:


or too busy posing with Edel. :)


There are a lot of food served (well, mainly because it was potluck), we brought most of the food:
There's FISH!


Thanks to our Grillmasters! :p


And here's what's left? :)


We also played along with some shots taken. :) emo-ing!


and went crazy like in a Drama series: :p



Did I say I was busy posing with Edel?


And munching on food...


And speaking of shots, here's what made the night more enjoyable:


And of course, the POOL!


From 2AM onwards, Ann and I just went on and sang our hearts out on the videoke.
Here I am busy picking the next song...


Ann, TL Dona and Me


But BJ suddenly stepped up and sat beside me all the way and sang his heart out too! Made the night more interesting hearing him sing. Gave me some good chuckles and made me forget about something I was thinking that night.


Yeah, he sings really good...


Before we went home, we took some more shots from the walkway:


PJ with his bodyguards :)









And off we left...


----------Robb----------

Tired but worth it

Yesterday's shift was a bit tough. I got challenged by the amount of technical questions and tools issue that I need to handle. Good thing I was able to accomplish most of them and my focus teams are getting great improvements.

We had a strategy plan meeting along with the bosses and it was a good way of laying an outline on the activities and obstacles we need to overcome.

When I got home, I was sooo tired that after lunch, I got asleep fast on the bed.

Today, when I checked the running revenue where our program is right now, we're 74% to Goal! :) And we still have 2 more days to accomplish that! Great vibes, great vibes. :)

Got to get back now, just slipped away from the floor for a while :)


----------Robb----------

Starting February

It's the 2nd day of work now. Still hectic and tight when it comes to the job to-do's, but that's what I'm paid for.

First day had some great moments at shift:

- We had a "major" meeting on the distribution of tasks (or was it "do-your-job-very-well-I'll-check-on-that-when-I-get-back-from-vacation") by our Shift Manager.

- Before the meeting ended, we played a game called "Taboo" and our team won Php500 straight from Boss' pocket :)

- Drastic latency issues on the tools (darn!).

- Was able to to go home earlier than before! An "Achievement"! :p

- Wasted a LOT of money on food!

My first-line supervisor is on-leave from Tuesday - Friday, then off on Saturday-Sunday. So all the responsibilities assigned to me were expected to be performed with double effort.

Today, everyone seems to be going as planned, more revenue were generated and we're able to hit around 40% of the revenue we usually generate on a week basis. Good vibes, good vibes. Even though the tools experienced some downtimes yesterday, I was a bit surprised our revenue is going pretty well.

A lot of technical questions here and there, more participation from my focus teams. Great going. More spiffs awarded to agents, good PR to them. More news and gossips roaming the office floor.

New people to join the boat. Old people leaving the boat. You know. Changes come. And the wave ripples and affect the others.

Time flies. But I suppose I'll not just go with the flow. I'll sail above the waves and rock along with the boat.

Good thing I'm very much "aligned" still with the online world I have. I get to point out my stress and release them through it.

One thing that gives me a smile is remembering it's my Neopets (childish much? :P) guild's 2nd Year Anniversary. And I'm the guild leader! :)

http://www.neopets.com/guilds/guild.phtml?id=1753924

----------Robb----------

Diverting Attention

This week has been different. Different in a sense that I felt the redundancy. The boring factor. The thing that I most hated in doing repetitive activities. Like there's nothing new.

Good thing there are people and ideas that makes every moment worthwile.

My job's not an easy one.

Ok, well on a typical agent perspective, being a Sales Coach is a cool and easy job. You get to just
walk around telling people to, "Hey guys, benta benta naman tayo jan!"; write on the whiteboard about the participation rate of every teams; award recognitions; go on break or lunch whenever you want; and the ultimate "perk" that every agents think - not take in calls like they do.

Well, it's not just that.

I have to agree with the above mentioned at some point. We get to have that great time to go on break and lunch on our convenience (without a schedule). But the whole 'in-betweens' of our breaks is where every detail of our job description lies.

We motivate agents to sell, that's our primary goal. We give spiffs, walk around, answer their technical questions, collate data, do coaching, report to bosses, then walk around again, in an everyday fashion.

The problem is, this week, I had an argument early on Monday with a family member, the start of my week was not good. Then, middle of the week, shortcomings of some people tend to give an impact on you as well. You either cover their asses or ignore that they're not around. Like nothing bad is happening. You get to do what they're supposed to do. Do extra effort. And so on.
Overtiming is no problem for me. I can always do that. But without a clear perspective on what to overtime for is another thing. You just can't say no to business tasks. Like what I keep mentioning to our agents, "You have to embrace it. Period." when I do my explanation on the transition of our program from Technical Support to Tech-Sales Support.

I was able to not pass out on all these things to accomplish with a good chuckle provided by peers. Colleagues such as Khatie and TL BJ seems to make every moment alive by providing great ideas on spiffs to implement and the whole implementation itself.
Rod was able to restore my "upbeat" attitude by reminding me that he's used to seeing me in that way, always smiling. :) The teams that I handle were very active on driving to hit their target goals and making sure that I'm aware of it.

And thanks to the third book of the Percy Jackson series for keeping me company:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse


I try to make sure to catch around 3-4 chapters of this a day this week and voila! By Friday, I was able to finish the PDF file about it. :) Great story again. :) Kudos to Rick Riordan for giving myth lovers a dose of reality-touched story of gods and goddesses. Happiness.

I hope this next week will be a good week for me. And did I mention it's going to be pay day? That's a good motivation. For me. :)

----------Robb----------

Greek Myth

Weehoo. Haven't blogged for ages again.

I'm getting intrigued by this new "Harry Potter" series (I'm not really sure if it's new now, but it has just arrived the Philippine shores) :
Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series.

You see, I'm a big fan of gods and goddesses. And I can name a hell lot of gods like in a quiz bee. I'm very much fascinated with mythology and this "domain-over-something" idea that they have.

Thanks to TL Ricci Laxa (whom was my "monita" on our exchange gift last December), I got myself the first two books of the Series.

The Lightning Thief



and the Sea of Monsters



Well, I've finished reading both and oh yeah I'm ecstatic flipping the pages!
It was all the way I would've wanted a Greek myth novel. :)

Congratulation Rick Riordan, you've made one Happy Robbie G! :)

The 5-part series are on sale at the bookstore by the way in a "Pandora's Box"-way. Very creatively designed.

I would be on the lookout for the third, fourth and fifth book of the series.

But right now, I'm "cheating" by reading the third book (The Titan's Curse) on a PDF File sent to me by a friend :p

----------Robb----------

1st Runner Up

We ended as 1st Runner-Up. But hell yeah we played a good damn game! :)



----------Robb----------

And so the games have started...

The Jaime Zobel Ayala Volleyball Tournament.

This was the volleyball league that eTel is joining for a couple of years now. And this is the first year I was in the team. :)

The opening day has its ups and downs for me.
First, I arrived early at the office in Alabang for our shuttle service is set to leave at 5:30 AM. Don and I went to grab some morning snacks at 7-11, then found Leslie, Chynna (with 2 others), and Rhoda coming along with us.
Lucky arrived later than all the ALabang-coming peeps and we left at a couple of minutes before 6AM.
We did a turnaround of service to pick up Coach Agoy (with around 5 other peeps), Kitty, before going all the way to UP Human Kinetics Gym.

The opening ceremonies were kind-of-great.





----------Robb----------

The Game...is on tomorrow!

Our volleyball game is on tomorrow at UP Kinetics Gym! Hope our team wins! And I hope I will do good in the plays as well :)



----------Robb----------

From Voice to Chat to Volleyball...

And here I am, so tired from all the busy-ness of my job. Now being active in this athleticism.

(Ok, Kat, here's the rant you've been waiting for! :p)

First, last June was my last month taking in calls inbound for Dell SMB Voice.
There came a time when there's a major "rigodon" or reshuffling of team compositions all over the program.
I was a bit surprised because it was a bit dramatic. STL Alain gave me a special coaching just for that.
He said it's going to be different. I thought I was just going to be transferred to a new Team Leader.
The moment he opened his mouth and said, "It's going to be different." I knew it. He said, "Chat."
And then my jaw dropped.
"Woah?! CHAT?! Why Chat?!"
And he explained to me that one of the Shift Manager picked me to be transferred to Dell SMB Chat. It's another part of our technical support team that handles troubleshooting through what else, chat.

And the week after I got my 2-3 days training. Sunday after that I found myself in the 7PM-4AM shift with my new TL - Tony Magsino.
Well, at first I was just having a so-and-so time because I really didn't feel about being in Chat and all that.

First month, I told myself, I'm not going to perform good here. I'm going to make them realize I deserve to be in Voice. My ACHT (Average Chat Handling Time) blows up to around 38-50+ Minutes. My CE is not bad, however, that's something I am proud of.
The first three weeks (supposed to be two only) I am only receiving 1 chat session. Fourth week, that's when I realized the true essence of chat that is receiving two chat sessions at a time.
When it came to my first coaching with TL Tony, he said I'm having good stats, it's normal that my ACHT is high because it's definitely easier to express yourself in words speaking it, than typing them.
He also left me a scary-but-with-a-good-intention message, "Chat will never let you go".
Great, that's just what I needed, compliment with a bittersweet effect.

The week after, I was surprised because we all received an email from TL Tony that our team's going to be disbanded (another team transfer, again?!). Me, Yani and Bryan are going to be transferred to TL Dona Aquino's team.

By July 2nd week (I think) I'm collaborating with my new teammates, Rhea being the closest because I've known her by Yani and we all get to smoke some cigarettes together.
TL Dona was quite interesting, she's been an L2 before and "some-kinda-low-profile". I know her name has been spammed a couple of times all over the floor but I've never known her personally.
Our L2's kinda strict, I remember my first day on the team (or was it 2nd?) I am LATE (haha! attitude!), she immediately commented something about it. So my first impression was that - we're not gonna jive.
But time came and everyday seeing each other was fun. I get to meet all these different faces that I wouldn't have noticed roaming the floor even at random times.
There's the "martyr" Rhea, accepting all chat sessions as much as she can and stresses out herself with late logging (which I adopted these days :p);
Mommy Olive, very nice, always fixes the resolution of her screen to 800x600 (^_^);
Denise, I've known her thru Jeni, my former Team Alain teammate, sossy with brains;
Bryan, from TL Tony's team, the "sleeping Giant" as how I call him, a lot of brains inside the big "husky" bod;
JP, timid guy with a very white complexion :);
Mico, joker of sorts, but soloist at times, along with
Charm, team "maldita" who prefers to sit on workstations at the end;
Marilyn, the girl who always stutter and I think her middle name's Nervous;
Lenny, with an employee number that is close to TL Dona, one of the resident tenured agents on the team.
and of course, Edel, Team D's very interesting "good boy" that disappears as soon as our shift ends. :)

It's been almost 4 months now that I've been with the Team. 1 GA has passed (Hello Gilligan's Lunch) and now on the 17th we're expecting our 2nd (or my second with the team).

I had a lot of good experiences, equivalently some bad ones on my stay on the team. I was awarded two months in a row with "Top Agent" of Team D for July and August. Hopefully this Septembr I'm still THAT. So that I can prove to everybody that I deserved to be awarded as SMB's Chat Agent of Q2 (which I forgot to mention I was awarded last August) and ultimately, Chat's Top Agent of Q3 as well. Vying for promotion (and it's about time!), I really think I deserve that. :)

I'm thinking of not coming to Bacolod anymore for that. Jello started a trip for me, Marvs, Let, and a friend of hers this October 14-18. But 3 events are expected to happen within that time period. Damn. And the trip included.

The other two were our Team GA and my volleyball elimination round for the eTel Team (my next topic, :p)

I was ecstatic when I saw an email one day in September about some tryouts for volleyball. Weird thing is, it's going to be held on Ateneo Sports Complex. Well, basing it from my current location in Alabang, I turned it down that week.

The week after, another email was sent for second callout for tryouts, this time in eTel Shaw.

And that's it. It's decided. I'm going.

Hesitant about how to get there, I gathered all possible directions from both my Mom and from some people on the floor. And Sunday came, I just found myself showing how I spike a ball in the center spot.

Luckily, I got picked. These past 3 weeks, I'm training along with other peeps from different eTel sites. And by 17 and 24 Oct, our game's going to be held at UP Kinetics Gym. Hopefully our team wins.

So there, my mind's boggled right now with my 3 days off. Cannot think of anything else to say.

Ah, eTel's integration to Stream, but that's another post. :)




----------Robb----------

Ok so let's start the promise. 

First stop. December-January Holiday weeks (or should be Holiday weeks). December 24 -January 2. were supposed to be Holidays but I'm off to work at those times. What motivated me on those times was the fact that it's double pay and we get 30% night differentials and holiday leaves (talk about money!) at that time. Even if it's the first time that I'm not spending the Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve at home, it's still fun having it spent on the office. I made sure that on both 12AM's of the eves, I went down to look at the midnight sky and pray. Woo yeah, new experience indeed.



----------Robb----------

My Bad

I know.. I started this blog with the full intention of telling about the whatevers and the what-nots of my everyday life. But the thing is, with my PC breaking down before 2008 ended, it affected my whole online life. But this time, I really do promise and hope at the same time to make a very detailed blog post (or posts) about everything that happened since late December to this month of April.

I miss my blog, the blogs of others and the wonderful ideas everyone has on their posts. Huhu...

Hopefully I can still catch up.

MOTIVATION! Ideas, come here!



----------Robb----------