GOOD MORNING, AUSTRALIA! - Pt.1

Have been working at a call centre for 5 months now and it has been a crazy mishmash of experiences for me - of fear, pride, tears, joy, anger, sadness and amusement. When I first took on this job, it was (and still is) with fear and intimidation that I would not quite cut it as as a telemarketer. Everyday, I call different cities across Australia making appointments for conferences.

For obvious sensible reasons, I shall not disclose where I work, but it is very near where I stay. So, I have been very blessed in the sense that I don't even have to drive if I choose not to, it is just 7 minutes brisk walk from door to door.

I could write a book of the many different characters in my workplace. The team I work with consists mostly of ladies in their fifties. But there are also younger girls and mums like myself who struggle to cope with managing a family as well as make it on time to the sometimes unearthly hours of work (i.e. 8am). And because Australia has 3 different timezones, we could be starting really early one week and then starting at normal 9am the next, depending on which cities we call for the week.

During my calls, I come across interesting names, funny, serious people, the very old and the very young, very rich and very poor, very rude and very polite. I get a taste of Australia's different households, how they live, work, eat, think and function as a family. One thing I had found is that Australian life spans are generally much higher than in Asian countries. I have talked to many retirees in their nineties, late eighties and guess what? Some are still working, so it tells me, they are a pretty fit lot... I have talked to quite a number of people who tell me they are dying of cancer, people who tell me they just had a baby, just got engaged, just had a divorce, just got a new house, new immigrants from India, Africa, China, perhaps some illegal ones, doctors, nurses, miners, engineers, accountants, teachers, mango farmers, cattle farmers,.. all walks of life, but with one aim in mind, to invite the right people and hope they show up for my conferences.

On a good day, I get 4-5 people, on a bad day, I get none or just one. It's insane, and a little trivial to feel good about having managed to invite 3 or more people a day after having called like close to 220 people. So, yes it is not the most fantastic job on earth but hey, it helps to pay the bills for now.......If you think it's an easy job to sit there everyday and talk to people, you are so wrong. I admit it can be pleasant to meet nice people on the phone who will tell you their life stories and joke with you but there are also many crappy instances of putting up with horribly rude, drunk and OD'd people who shout at you and insult you.

There were many times in my earlier days of this job that I wanted to just give up and walk away because I felt so lousy about having to annoy people and intrude upon their lives and being screamed at for daring to call them. But I know this is also a season of dealing with my inner self - to learn to take rejection upfront and not take it personally. To learn that a job is still a job at the end of the day and that when you tuck away your headphones and go back home, you DON'T need to carry back that 'f' word spoken to you, or that lousy feeling of walking away with zero bookings for the day... I have found that it helps to segment and clearly and precisely shut the door when you step out of work, otherwise, you could feel crappy the whole time.

But then, there are also the happy triumphant times when I look back at how the grace of God prevailed at a crucial time when I was told I had that week to show results or face losing the job. This is the episode I will always remember and a lesson in faith that God teaches me. Being a newbie at this kind of work, I had very low bookings. However, I marvelled at how I still managed to have people show up for my conferences. That had saved me for the first part of my career as a telemarketer eventhough I had very few bookings.

One day, my manager pulled me aside and told me they wanted to let me go that very week but she stood up for me and insisted I could do it, with proper training. So, I asked if my show rates were good for that particular week, would it be the determining factor to keep me on for coming weeks? She said yes. That very morning of the show rate results, as I walked to work,I prayed really hard for a '5' for showup rates. It seemed impossible, considering my miserable booking figures... and why '5'? Because it is the biblical number for grace and I needed a real clear sign for me that I had His grace for me to stay on..then suddenly, a van shot past me and drove ahead of me..and strangely, it had the word GRACE?? written clearly on the back. Hmm, pretty apt, I thought. Things got more interesting towards the afternoon when my boss came up and shook my hand, telling me I had done very well for that week. I was pleasantly surprised. When the scores were announced, I was one of the highest performers. And guess how many showed up that week for me? 5 people! Awesome, the grace that covers me. That kept me on the job for the next following weeks....stay tuned on this channel for other interesting stories......