resignation - Cerebral Insights

On Resignations and Breach of Contract

Sometimes in life we reach crossroads wherein the the path we are currently taking has take a sudden demise and we must choose another path. This is an inevitable part of life.

For Miguel Zubiri, his stint as a Senator has been tainted by doubt and controversies prompting him to resign from service and being dubbed as the first ever senator since 1987 to do so. At least, Zubiri still has a conscience. For indeed, how can a public servant continue serving the people if his own credibility is being questioned. In my opinion, he really didn’t want to be involved in all those cheating but he was included in the dagdag-bawas none the less. He thought he can get away it with, that is rather get away with it than try to oppose an administration which considered him an ally. Well, the tables have changed and his name is drag to the dirty waters. It’s time then to resign and accept defeat.

In the same light, I admire US Congressmen in particular those who were involved in scandalous sexual controversies. If you think about it, these seemingly noble statesmen just made the mistake of forging flirtatious relations with other women despite their being a family man. Posing semi-nude pictures were considered as a disgrace for these public servants. Faced with such controversies, they then stepped down from office even though they’ve had years of service behind them.

For me, these public servants had enough honor to know when the end is near and to admit defeat and resign from their office. Rather lose with dignity than pretend to be clean amid constant controversy. How I wish other public servants would do the same. But sadly, there remains many, some even in the highest echelons of power, who would never give up despite endless years of controversy. A case in example is none other than Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, ex-president and now congresswoman. Her name has been dragged into controversies after another ranging from judicial killings to nationwide electoral fraud yet she refuses to yield power. Rather than save face and lose with honor, she pushes forward, still acquiring power. Despite numerous evidences, court cases and massive protests against her, she remains steadfast in her goal to “serve the people”. But is she really serving the people if the people doesn’t want her?

Thankfully for these people, no one will hold it against them if they resign and do not finish their term. It would even be a welcome respite. But in the case of the corporate world, resignations when a contract has been agreed upon is deemed as a negative thing. It is basically unlawful to breach one’s contract especially when the only reason to do so is because the stress and pressure of the work was more than what was bargained for. To the employee, this should have been expected and anticipated prior to signing the contract. Often, resignations in this light are deemed as unethical and non-honorable.

The bottomline: before undertaking something like a job post, ensure that you got it through credible means, that while in the position you do your best to protect your credibility and that before you actually sign up for the job, you know all the costs (even the worst case scenario) involved with it.

scared sh*tless

That’s what I feel right now. Not because it’s Halloween – I don’t believe in ghosts in the sense of all the horror stories the media has fed us with but rather because of all the lies I’ve been forced to commit the past days and because of the prospect of seeing her. Apparently, and ethically that is, I have to explain to her why I opted out. And I fear that encounter.

Not that she is scary (which in fact she is) but I hate the prospect of lying again. She didn’t became my friend or someone I can safely confide in. My superior in my previous work was someone whom I have formed bonds with and I can confide in him the real reason for my resignation. And though lies were needed to sort of cover my tracks, at least I knew someone knew the truth. Then again the HR of this last company was another person I can safely confide with and so it was easy for me to tell him the truth even though again I needed to lie to cover both our asses.

But this next person I have to talk to, I’m afraid I must muster enough courage to tell her the acceptable reason I’ve concocted for my resignation.

You see I am allergic to lies. I am not allergic to foods like chicken or fish or even to dust and fibers but when it comes to lies, I have a very hard time coping up. My parents raised me to adhere to honesty and integrity so much that I would rather get scolded and punished than lie. I can never keep a straight face while outright lying.

I hope there was some other way out of my predicament than procuring all those white lies which are lies whichever way you look at it. Although there is a shred of truth to them, I can’t still shake off the feeling that I’ve been lying all along and someday I may pay for them. I have repented, yes. But my conscience still gets the best of me.

I hope this is over soon. I can lie no longer.

And I am scared shitless (pardon the language).

new beginnings

Finally I’ve done the inevitable. I made the jump. I crossed the bridge. I did it. I resigned from my call center job and moved on to a new job. Fortunately for me, it was a very swift transition. Right after my last shift as an agent last Sunday night, I had my final interview with the new company Monday morning and tonight I’ll begin training. Somehow I still can’t quite believe how fast everything was or is. The transition wasn’t smooth. Because of the speed of everything I am unable to render the 30 days requirement after passing the resignation letter. As such, my supervisor informed me I will be terminated which according to him would be like a black mark in my employment history.

But I don’t care. Talking to other agents who’ve also been terminated from the BPO companies, it doesn’t really matter to the next company whether you resigned or you were terminated. The thing they’ll look at eventually are your skills.

And so I am excited to enter my new world tonight. I will begin training as a medical transcriptionist – MT in short – the closest thing I could get to a medical career. I graduated (or technically graduated) with a degree in Biology. The reason why I chose Bio was because I’m fascinated with life and its processes. I do not want to be a doctor – my constant forays to hospitals told me as much. Patients would die in my hands rather than be healed. Yet I am fascinated by the study of medicine – of how diseases affects the body and how procedures are performed to mitigate or cure them. Then again, to study medicine without really pursuing a career as a doctor is a luxury I cannot afford right now.

But with this medical transcriptionist job, I am able to meet the best of both worlds. I get to learn about medical procedures – diagnoses for certain illnesses, drug treatments, even surgical procedures – and at the same time I am paid for it. What’s even better about this job is we have quotas. I know for some people that would spell doom but for me it does not. Because we are paid by the quality and quantity of job we do. If we exceed our quota, we are paid extra. If the quality of our work is superb, we are additionaly compensated. Unlike in my previous job wherein you’re all paid the same rate even if you took more calls than the person sitting right next to you.

Another grand thing with the MT job is if I happen to finish all my work ahead of time, I get to do whatever I want. And since we have unlimited net access which is not blocked by some blocking program like —- , I can write blogs, play in Facebook, even watch YouTube videos right at work and they won’t mind. The freedom is overwhelming. I came from a job wherein every second is timed and controlled. CR break is 10 minutes for the entire shift; breaks are only 30 minutes and a second longer constitutes a reprimand; calls have AHT’s; etc. Now I am in a job wherein so long as you get the work done, they don’t care how you handle your time.

And the promise of a promotion is more tangible than the previous one and if I don’t want to get promoted, I can always opt to be a home-based MT which would entail more freedom.

I haven’t started in this job yet I am already loving it. I can already see how it will benefit me. Yes, it will be more toxic than the previous job in terms of workload. But that is the point exactly! It will involve more brain cells and my mind won’t be in danger of rotting away.

I can’t wait for tonight to begin. 😀

mistakes and chances

Do you correct one mistake by creating another even if the other mistake is a lesser evil?

I know, somewhere within me, that the resignation I have dreamed of a few weeks ago wouldn’t come quite as easily. Somehow I now know that I will not be resigning this early and I will be stuck in this stupidity for a much longer period than I wanted. Yet I wonder if I could somehow mitigate the circumstances by transferring to another company. There is a neighboring BPO company who is, as always, hiring. It’s a small company, judging by their building and facility but maybe I just deem that because there is a much larger and better facilitated company, the one I work for, beside it. The accounts involve medical transcription and teaching English to Korean kids. I must say they sound more appealing than the one I now have.

There should really be nothing preventing me from transferring to the other company. It’s not like I have much of a prospect in the company that I now work for nor does a promotion in this company promise a higher salary (internal promotion does not allow for a higher increase as compared to external promotion). For all I know the reputedly smaller competitor may even give me a higher position and a higher salary as evidenced by my current experience. There is the possibility that it may not be as stable as the company I work for now, but in the dynamic BPO industry, who really cares about stability?

Yet this is not really the job I want. I have no doubts that once the novelty wears off, I will be constrained to boredom once more – subject to dissatisfaction, disillusionment, and depression. Changing BPO companies is not the solution I am looking for. It is not the satisfaction that I am craving for. Yet now, for the meantime, while I am still debating what I should really do or if I even have the guts and ability to do it; while I am still determining who I am or the path I should really take in life, maybe another mistake wouldn’t hurt so much. Maybe another mistake wouldn’t do much harm. Maybe this mistake will actually do me more good pointing me to the direction I would really need to take.