Digital Ink on Paper » Work

Color Blind

Vikki — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:17:46 +0000

It’s another day at work. “Thank you for calling Sprint together with Nextel, this is Cara. How can I help you?” While saying the same old spiel, I heard myself and the rest of the team help people with their bills, fix mobile phones, and try to sell more stuff to those lucky callers until I heard one of us make an offer.

“By the way, ma’am, did you know that you could get a free phone today?”

Oh yes, if he can make that successful sale the lucky guy gets an extra thousand pesos on his paycheck. But wait, there’s more.

“Yes, that’s true! In fact, if you order it today, I can even give you additional 100 free text messages and a month of free mobile internet. An x dollar value absolutely free.” More upselling. “Okay, so you want a black flip phone? I apologize ma’am but the black ones went out of stock last week. The only colors available at the moment are brown and pink.”

Pause. Customer must be insisting on a black phone. “Actually the brown one is so brown it’s almost black.”

Blag. I fell off my chair.

What a Busy Month That Was

Vikki — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:53:20 +0000

I wasn’t able to blog as much this month because I’ve been very busy working on multiple projects (thesis not yet included). Guess what? Next week is late registration week. Plus, tons of things to do at work. I also needed to complete my Annual Physical Exam (APE). I also have a little tête-à-tête with someone somewhere at Jupiter Street. It’s been a crazy month of:

crash course in VB programming
learning stuff about project management (the hard way)
writing about loans and mortgages
transferring from one survey tool to another

Hopefully, June won’t be as busy as this month. I really need to take a week-long break but I am just trying to figure out how. Hope the month of May was awesome for you.

It’s Just Another Manic Monday

Vikki — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:05:07 +0000

Hello folks! It’s Monday again! You know what that means. You don’t? OK, let’s put our thinking caps on. *Jeopardy music here* Oh, I can name that song in two notes! “It’s just another manic Monday. Ooooh.”

I wonder what my email inbox looks like. Too scared to open it because it must be totally flooded! Anyway, I’m on my way to work now. I’ve got to start early so I could finish more stuff. Ciao!

PS. What’s your Monday like?

Easter Sunday

Vikki — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:22:48 +0000

First off, Happy Easter to everyone! Easter Sunday means a lot of things to people. For example:

Celebration of Jesus rising from the dead
Easter egg hunting contests
The end of a long vacation
Parties (remember this is what the Easter bunny costume is for!)
Just another day
A start of a new week
A start of a new work week

For me, it’s both a beginning and an end. An end of a great, long vacation and a beginning of new opportunities in many aspects: work (school and day job) and school. How about you? What does Easter Sunday mean to you? Please feel free to post your comments.

Could You Quit Your Day Job?

Vikki — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:56:26 +0000

You hate the sound of the alarm clock. You tell yourself you just need 5 more minutes but really meant 5 more hours of sleep. Then you take a shower and drive to this thing you call work. On weekends, coffee breaks, and sometimes while working, you think, “If only I could quit this freaking job…” And finally, you wake up from that daydream to the nagging voice of who else, your boss. Sounds familiar? Tell me about it.

Though some people may not admit it, sometimes at some point in our careers, we feel this way. This situation usually happens when people stop trying to make things work and start looking for ways to make the horrible situation end. I don’t like to criticize people’s choices if ever they felt that they needed to move on and go somewhere else. But I was hoping I could help you in the thinking process before jumping off the ship. I have a couple of questions here to help you decide, hopefully, before it’s too late. Let’s get started. If you quit your day job…

Where are you going? Why am I asking this question? Because you’ve got to have a direction. If you quit your day job and not know where to go, you might find yourself feeling the same after a month or two. Don’t let your emotions blur your judgment. I suggest you read on.
Are you taking a pay cut or will it result to a pay increase? If it’s the latter, I bet quitting is a very tempting idea. You’re one lucky person. But to some, it will mean as a pay cut. Some people care, some people don’t. So if it’s a pay cut, would you care?
What are you going to do? Are you joining another company? Will you become a freelancer? Are you going back to school? Or are you going to be unemployed for the mean time? You’ve got to know what you’re going to do next because if you quit now and find yourself bored and penniless because you are doing nothing, this may be a tougher situation than where you are now.
Can you afford it? One of the things that you need to be sure of is whether you could afford to quit. I think it’s more advisable if you have at least 6 months worth of your salary stashed in the bank if you have no plans of transferring to a new employer. If you are going to join the freelancers’ bandwagon, you have to understand that work is not constant in the freelance industry.
Is there a better opportunity waiting for you? For some people, better opportunity means better pay. For some, having the time for the family and friends. To others, it may mean being able to do what they want do, i.e., photography, web design, blogging, entrepreneurship, etc. If you do what you love to do, then work shouldn’t be such a drag. Since you’re leaving, make the move worth it.

Now I’m going to ask you again. Do you think you could quit your job? Yes? No? Maybe? But I hope these questions helped. Let me know what you think. Feel free to leave a comment.