Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Seven years in the ocean...

Why I came to sea...
There were many reasons why, and a combination of factors that brought me here. 
All of a sudden I found myself in a job that was not fulfilling any more. I was a sales supervisor in a call center, doing pretty good, making fairly good money, with aspirations for a promotion into management, I knew my product very well, and I was very happy with that. Going to work every day, even when commuting was difficult and long (about two hours each day), I enjoyed my routine, waking up at 11am, shower, shave, going to my parent's for lunch (they live next door) and then taking the bus for about 30 minutes  to the train station. Having a coffee at the station at Toto's Bar (espresso macchiato, in a double shot glass and with cold milk, so if the train shows up unexpectedly I could finish it in a gulp... I never liked paper or stereo foam cups) Taking the train, which it was never good, but since I was not going during the rush hour I always could get a seat and read. I read so much during those train rides... From the classics to poetry to novels to management and methaphisics... my mother's influence...

- Eddie, you gotta read this, it will change your life... 
- Mom, I like my life, why would I like it to change?

Well my life was going to change even if I wouldn't like it to change, but I didn't know it by then...

After the train, walk three blocks to take the subway to the office. Get to the building, go to the 5th floor, meeting with the other supervisors, check the metrics, meeting with my boss: 
- Eddie, we have to increase the revenue per call, they opened another call center in the Phillipines, and they are getting a chunk of our call flow... We don't want to lose this account, so make it happen!
- No worries, Boss, I'll implement some big prizes contest and you'll see the results tomorrow...

Then I will hit the floor, talk with my team, praise them when they close a sale, audit some calls, take a few escalations, read my email and send the EOB reports. And my business day was done... Take the shuttle to the bus station, by then would be around 11pm, get a slice of pizza and glass of cheap muscat wine standing at the counter, with all the at Banchero Caballito, the traditional pizza place (it went out of business just two week before I quit the job to come to see, I should had read that sign too) I would enjoy some little conversation with other guys of the job, or with the other working class guys that were going back home late at night. 
After a few years with the same routin we got to know each other, the door man of the 5 Star Hotel 
- Eddie, come to work to the hotel, I know you are a good bartender, and you speak English...
- No, thanks, mate, I like where I am...
The Bolivian cook from the fancy restaurant downtown, that worked with me in TGIF and was always sending his regards to Juan... That was a Cook, a real line cook, Bourdain style... The security guard from the electronics shop; the prostitute, with sweat pants and t-shirt, always baggy, always trying to hide her curves, sometimes with too much make up for the sporty clothes she wore. That was the 1am bus gang, and of course, the bus driver, who knew us all and didn't even ask for the destination anymore, good old Pepe, always smiling and greeting everybody, something that does not happen at all in a big city bus. 
Then, another 75 minutes to get to my stop, sometimes more, if it was a weekend, but another hour to read, or dose, and that was a good thing about the routine, we could sleep trusting that in the right stop, if we didn't get off the bus, Pepe would say the name of the stop out loud to wake us up so we wouldn't get to the end of the line.

I had a girlfriend then, young, with a big smile, and with two big... how to put it without sound vulgar well, yeah... Big boobs, I was always a boobs guy, what can I say. We were dating for about a year by then, and we were talking about weddings and stuff, but she was way too spoiled, and loved to spend my money, or to be fair, to make me spend it on her. But I was having fun, and I was getting used to the routine.

That was the time, also, that after fifteen years of inactivity, comings and goings with my sisters, a lot legal matters, three lawyers and quarrels we managed to get rid of my father's last girlfriend from his house (he past away in 1992, and she was living there since then, with our agreement, paying no rent but taking charge of the taxes, which she never did) so we sold it, and I found myself with exactly u$s 3000. Not a fortune, but the biggest amount of money I ever had, all together, in one pile, that was completely, absolutely and totally mine.

The next day I got the stash, I was downtown, waiting for the girlfriend to come out of work and I get  call from my boss
- Eddie, are you around?
- As a matter of fact, at two blocks of the office.
- What the hack are you doing in town on your day off? That girl of you is going to drain you! Anyway, come here now, we have a call with client, and I need you here.

The conference call was short, quick, and with a long lasting pain, like a punch right below the sternum. An internal change on politics in the client's strategy was removing their operation from our sphere and taking it all in house. Basically, in gone next couple of week, our project got dismembered and everybody was tossed around different floors in the building, some were fired, some quit, and I was in charge of leading the retreat and be the last man standing to take the last few calls. The reason for that was also that I was ready to get promoted, we were growing, but with this quick change of course, and me being "available", nobody wanted me because I could take anyone's management aspirations just because being in their own floors. So I was sent to training in a new project, a technical support project... I'm a Sales Person, for God' sake, not a freaking technitians! I measure my success of a day by how much money I squeezed out mus customers pocket in an average of seven minutes per call, not by how many people I get reconnected to the internet, in an average of 45 minutes! 

But they sent me to training, a 30 day training so I could lead a team of twelve kids that were going to be talking with every single grandma and grandpa in America about how to go online. It was during that training that I started to play online games, something I always criticised all my colleagues about. The training was boring, the trainers were former agent of my team which I helped getting promoted, so I didn't respect them much, and when they tried to push me with tests or warnings, I just plainly ignored them in the middle of the class, I was an ass those days, and hated everything and everybody. And I hit the floor, and was put to audit "my team" which I hated them too. They were not kids I could push to close a sale and buy them a beer at the end of the shift because they sold a plasma TV for $5000, the biggest thing I could do for them was to chill them down when going to give up troubleshooting the connectivity of the the wifi router and the modem that Aunty Anna just bought from the nice guy in Best Buy, and since she didn't want to hire the Geek Squad to install it she is calling the internet company for them to get it connected, on the phone, and without her knowing how to understand the difference between the modem (the black box with five lights) and the modem (the grey box with the little antenna, the one that has the blinking red light, and, no, a red blinking light does not mean that is an emergency)
Anyway, I was on one of those calls when I see that my personal email recieves a new mail, and Yes, I had my personal email and my personal MSN Messenger open during my shift! 
It was an email from Princess, they were sending me emails since 2004 offering me positions on board their cruise ships since I applied for it the first time and it end up being a scam by a Chilean guy that got the representation of Princess to hire crew in South America and ended up selling the jobs on board... But this time, bored and tired as I was, I took the headset were I was listening Aunty Anna struggling with my tech off my head, opened my cell phone and dialled the number.

- Selection Partners, good morning, this is Luciano
- Hi, I just got your email where you are requesting bartenders for cruise ships...
- Wow, that was fast, I just sent it less than 5 minutes ago...
- Are you going to charge me u$s 1500 to apply for the job?
- No, we don't do that, you only pay for the expenses, medical exams passport and visas... No more fees...
- Ok, let's talk, then are you going to be in the office tomorrow at 11am?
- Well, I might be busy, and...
- Listen, mate, I'm qualified for the job and won't make you lose your time, and, in fact, I don't have much myself, so, let's do it straight away so I can beguin the process. I'm sending you my resume by email right now, take a look and tell me if you want to interview me.
- Ok, I'm reading it now, let's meet tomorrow at 11...

And that was the end of my career at the call center industry...