DEMANDING

It's scary how the business relationship between our company and the
client on which account I am assigned to has become sort of
sadomasochistic. The client do know very well it is the "bread and
butter" or the biggest client of the company, and that their departure
will definitely mean the break or make of the latter in the global
outsourcing industry.The former uses this fact to its advantage by
demanding seemingly impossible things in exchange for their continued
patronage of our company's services.

In just a matter of a year, the client have managed to demand at least
25% increase in the sales quota for our company while going tougher on
the requirements for incentives. Additionally, the client also have
indirectly imposed upon us calibrations on the quality standards that
have us almost begging customers for sales. It is a known fact that
they do not have the same high quota, strict metrics requirements for
incentives, and tough quality standards in their own center in the US.

I understand the position of our company on this matter-- the account
serving this client employs anything from a couple to three hundred
people; losing this client means letting go of these people. I would
like to believe that our company, especially now that it has been
bought out by a bigger conglomerate, can survive loss of such a big
client, and that it's main reason for keeping the client was to
continue providing employment for us, agents of this account.

Recently, the managers of the account came up with a mandatory 8 hours
overtime for agents to render within the month. The directive was so
sudden that it makes anyone think the spike in number of calls was
never announced by the client. We have no news about it but certainly
this should mean reduction in queue for our US counterparts,
presumably because of the bad economy of the US and they want to cut
down costs by increasing the volume of calls in the Philippine center,
as our hourly rates are less than half of their agents in the US.

I hope the client soon realizes the injustice they are doing with the
demands they have to our company. On the other hand, I hope also our
company can stand for its employees as we have done in its name. I
believe everyone do have compassion in their hearts.