[update] still around, i swear;
I think I bit off more than I could chew with this shift.
As much as I love my team, when it comes to schedules and shifts, a democracy we are not. Well, not more than any other company in the BPO industry. I don't talk much about work here, except in passing fashion, because this place is public (I like keeping it that way) and as an employee you have to keep mum about your employers as a rule. But there are certain things that I can touch on without giving away trade secrets specific to where I work and what I do...
My schedule, for instance, is one of them.
About six months ago when I was moved from my old department to this one, I was briefed on the fact that we would be offering a 24/7 service. Having been spoiled under a strictly morning shift, you could say that the forbidding possibility of working the mid- or night-shifts sparked alarm bells.
I will be frank with you all: One reason is that I try to avoid anything that takes away too much of my day/free time. I need my free time. For my sanity. Unlike an aunt of mine (who I love and admire a lot), I'm not much of a workaholic. Work is just one part of my life. I balance it in the way I balanced school when I was still studying full-time. I don't live to work. I work to live and reap the benefits of the paychecks I get on a monthly basis.
Second, reason why I avoid nights, is because my therapist highly discourages me working nights while I'm still under her care -- I need regular sleeping hours and not another excuse to slip into bouts of insomnia.
But, going back to when I was first advised and offered the chance to join the team -- I decided that I wanted to give it a shot. And hence, me, here, typing away while I keep an eye on the queue.
I have no reason to regret moving to my new team because for the first time since I actually joined the working community, I can honestly say that I love these guys and consider them something like friends. We've had dinners, we joke around on the floor, celebrate stuff when there is stuff to be celebrated. Calling the team 'one big family' that I've the privilege to be part of is not all that far from the truth, and whenever my family or my friends-not-of-work ask me how I'm doing so far, I actually like that I can say: "They're a ridiculous bunch and I love them."
So, clarifying: I love my team, and as such, being on the midshift is not a hardship.
...well, mostly anyway.
As of last week Tuesday, I've been working 5pm-2am. Typically, I'm on the 1pm-10pm schedule, but since we're all on the second half of our training, the schedules had to adjust. And since none of us can totally abandon the floor in favor of said training, we're doing it in three batches.
I'm part of Batch Three and will be taking it easy for about two sets of three consecutive days sometime towards the end of this month. When I mean by 'taking it easy' is this: no cases, all studying and being a good little trainee. Still, I'm not there yet, since Batch One just started this week... and well... it's been a crazy couple of days on the understaffed floor.
As I was telling Owen just the other night on our team chat: Ha ha ha. Subong-subo na ako sa cases ;-;
What does that mean for the non-Tagalog speaking people who follow this blog? Oh, well... you know that feeling when you've had way too much to eat or drink at a buffet and you feel as though everything you crammed down is about an inch from the opening of your throat? Yeah. That's about a close approximation -- only this isn't food, it's work.
Don't get me wrong, we're not flooded the way my last department was flooded with cases, and thank God for that; but considering that over the last four nights I've been to work there are only at most three of us on the rotation, it's... well... you get the picture.
._. Please, please, please. Can we catch a break? ;; This is not just me. This is also for those who are on shift with me. UGH.
Will post something a bit more coherent when I'm not so swamped. ><;