The call floor was almost bare that afternoon. Finally, we have a chance to work with new hires and give them practice calls as part of their training. At this point, I was already taking calls for at least 2 months and have gained confidence in handling customers. “My turn to give you a hard time,” I thought. “Let me give you a hard-to-please customer for practice.” Deep inside me, I wanted to show the new hire I am better than him/her. “You’re just new. This is how we roll,” I mumbled. Little did I know, Karma said, hi, faster than I could duck.
I was 21 and a call center agent. A newly graduate of UP that had angas written all over her body.
But I had my fair shares of bad calls. In fact, I cried during the first few weeks of work on the call floor. And the driven young lady that I was, I took everything as a challenge.
So when I had the opportunity to make someone cry, I took it. I was naive, stubborn, boastful, and a bitch, to say the least.
That afternoon, I was determined na magpahiya. I wanted to impress these newbies with my skills. The egomaniac me was laughing.
The Call
Toot Toot.
New-hire: City and state, please?
Me: Manhattan, New York
New-hire: How may I help you in New York?
Me: I am looking for a tat-too on 5th Avenue.
New-hire: I’m sorry, may I have the listing you were looking for?
Me: Didn’t you hear me? I said tat-too!
New-hire: This is on 5th Avenue, correct?
Me: Oh my God, are you for real? I just told you!
New-hire: May I have the listing again?
Me: Tat-too! Are you deaf?
New-hire: Can you please spell that for me?
Me: This is ridiculous! I want a tat-too shop! Don’t you know how to spell?? T-A-T-T-O-O!
New-hire: (now feeling confident) OH! You meant TATTOO!
Karma Said Hi
The ground of the floor opened and ate me whole. Afterwhich the lava consumed every inch of my body. I burned so bad.
Here I was there trying to belittle this new hire and was aimed at making him cry, but I felt like I wanted to piss my pants in shame.
I mispronounced the word tattoo.
Ugh.
How could I have made a simple mistake?? Nakakahiya!
I wanted to crawl out of the call floor so that no one would know I was that agent who tried to pull a bad customer card on a newbie only to be embarrassed.
Nakarma ako kaagad.
Who are You Trying to Impress?
I don’t know about you, but I have encountered a lot of times when karma bit me back when I tried to embarrass someone. I always end up embarrassing myself and more. My early 20s were filled with troubles because of my narcissistic behavior.
Karma is a bitch.
Before you do something stupid like I did, ask yourself: Who am I trying to impress?
We live in a world where society expects us to be bold and confident. But don’t let yourself cross the line to rudeness. There’s a line between confidence and narcissism. Don’t be like me, well, the younger me. Ha!
Am I the newbie ☺️ just kidding.. I’ve encountered that in my life I can really relate on you ,
Haha! On behalf of the bitches like I was, sorry.
Bwahahhahaha. Sabi nga ni Mommy sa Bisaya…TAGAM! 🤭 aliw ako sa angas written all over your body. I can imagine 🤣 ayan, ayan, ayan na nga…always choose to be kind tayo besh 🥰
Hahaha! Korek! Buti na lang mabait na ako ngayon. Char!
I guess we all went through that mayabang stage but then true enough, karma is real
Good thing that most of us go through this stage at a young age kesa naman kelan tumanda di nagtanda. Haha!
Lahat naman po tayo napqgdaan ang pagiging mayabang stage sa buhay kaso sobrang bilis lang po talaga ni Karma. Para sa akin po kase kung di ka daraan sa ganitong stage, di ka matututo sa maling ginawa mo.
True. Mainam na din na dumaan sa ganyang stage habang bata pa kesa matanda ka na saka ka pasaway ano?