The photo you're looking at is from day 1 when the Manila call center went live. That was three weeks ago. We started taking twenty percent of the total call volume that week. This week, we were at fifty percent and seemed to handle it. Earlier in the week we certainly noticed the bump. The shuttle van got me into work a half hour early, and the CSEs bombarded me with questions as usual before I had a chance to boot up my laptop. We had an outage one night after 5 a.m. when I was the only mentor available, and five or six CSEs came up to me asking me questions all at once. Bry, one of the analysts we're training, laughed and said, "Wow. You're queuing, man."

"Yeah," I said. "I am."

I was tired, but the humor wasn't lost on me, and these guys have it in abundance.

Working down here hasn't been without its challenges. Readers of my blog are well aware of my sleeping and commuting issues. The shuttle service we use changed van drivers this week as well as the schedule, which I'd thought we'd had squared away. Edgar, the previous driver, picked me up at Rockwell at 10:30 p.m. and Three World Square at 8:00 a.m. I was getting the service I expected, and I was happy. Then Zek, Edgar's brother, who also happened to be taking over his shift, informed me the other night that there was also an impending schedule change. They were to start picking people up at Rockwell at 8:15 a.m. because of heavy traffic, meaning they wouldn't pick me up until 8:30 or 8:40. I wasn't happy at all. I have to work an extra hour a day more than I did in New York, so being inconvenienced with my commute is not something I'm going to accept in silence. When I got into work that night, I was somewhat irritated, but I kept my cool and approached Mike Peterson, the Global Technical Support Manager for the Manila office. He was sympathetic to my dilemma, which I appreciated because he's a guy who knows how to get things done. He spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone straightening things out, and once again the van is picking me up at 8:00 a.m. Thanks again, Mike!

While my commuting problems seem to have been resolved, my insomnia has actually gotten worse. This past week, I haven't been able to get more than two to four hours sleep per night. I can't explain it other than my body is naturally inclined to stay awake during the day. I've been taking melatonin, but I need something stronger. I went to the drug store in the mall and asked if they had any heavy duty sleeping pills, but I couldn't get anything heavier than melatonin and herbal extracts without a prescription. This is a real problem that is self-perpetuating. Because I'm so sleep deprived, I don't have a lot of energy to do much in my free time, and I haven't worked out since Monday. The exercise would do me good and help me regulate my sleep. I finally received my membership card to the Rockwell Club. It only took them a month to get it to me. Now, I consider myself pretty laid back for a native New Yorker, but that is just unacceptable. In New York, I would have had the card the same day. Now that I finally have it, I have access to the workout facilities without having to get a guest pass every few days. There have been days I blew off my workout just because I was tired and didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting the pass again. Now I have no excuse, so hopefully that will help a lot.

I haven't really done any traveling since I arrived other than what I've already mentioned in my previous posts, but I heard of a three-country trip between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I may go with a couple guys from the company sometime in September. That should be a fun trip. I also want to look into extending my layover in Hong Kong a few days on the way back to New York, but I'm not sure what I'm doing regarding that yet.

Labels: call center, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam