The Worst Day of My Life!

Last Wednesday June 18, 2008 I got up early and head for the office. It was supposed to be my day off, but a good friend of mine asked me to get her shift due to personal reasons. Agreeing to take the shift was the worst decisions I have ever made. An hour after I got in the office one of my colleagues approached me and said that the account’’s operations manager is asking for a meeting at 8:30 pm. “That’s weird.” I thought because I just saw her in her cube a few minutes ago and she didn’t said anything to me. I approached my supervisor and he confirmed that there will be a meeting later and it’s imperative that I attend. I called my wife and told her that I won’t be going home yet after my shift (which ends at 2 pm). I didn’t think about the meeting for awhile when the same person who informed me about the meeting sent me a message via Jabber and told me the worst news that I have ever received during my tenure here at the company. Apparently the meeting will not only involve the operations manager, but the site director and general manager as well. That basically knocked the wind out of me. Meeting with the ops manager is ok, it means there might be some problems with my performance and needs some improvements. But meeting with the company’s corporate people could only mean one thing, being fired. I dreaded wait that I had to endure. I can’t eat anything, I can’t work. Heck, I can’t even breathe. During the course of the day, I learned that there were five of us being summoned. I met up worth the other guys and speculated. One of them said “There’s nothing good that will happen to us during this meeting.” I quietly agreed and tried to say a short prayer.

8:30 pm arrived and we were all escorted to the board room. We waited for the bad news. I saw one of our managers in the office and tried to squeezed some information. The way she reacted has answered my question. This woman is always on top of things and never failed to greet you, but during that time she couldn’t even look at us. So I prepared myself for the worst. The meeting started and the general manager, greeted us one by one. When she asked me how long was I working for the company I told her that it will be four years this August. “Wow! you’re in the pioneer batch!” she said. I smiled and said yes to her. I thought “This can’t be bad, because if there was bad news they won’t do small talk, they get down to business.” I was wrong. They announced that our client is cutting down on personnel and it just so happened that the five of us were chosen to get the ax! We have until the 20Th of July. My world was crushed. Who wouldn’t be right? Four years you have stayed with the company. That’s got to be something right? After declining several offers from other companies, after declining to go to the U.S. to work. This is how the company that you have bled for treats you. Call centers in the Philippines are a dime a dozen. To lure the top people in the industry they have to offer great salaries to people who have the experience. I don’t like to brag but I have been a technical support representative for four straight years and you can’t get that experience anywhere. When other people would jump to the next offer after the other; I stayed, because I had really planned to stick it out with this company. The only company in the Philippines who doesn’t give Christmas parties during the season, the only company that doesn’t give you automatic vacation leaves (that’s the labor code here.) The only call center in the Philippines who does not allow denims during the weekdays. I didn’t mind them all. Loyalty is one of my strong suits and sadly it didn’t mean anything to these people. The company’s motto before was “We put people first” during my first year here. They changed it recently to “It’s different here.” Now I found out why. I admit I’m bitter about it, very bitter. I was loyal to them, still am. Too bad it was all for nought. I hope the next company I joined would appreciate loyalty, I mean it’s more precious than money.