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By Volt Contreras
Inquirer

WHAT is love like in the time of call centers?

It’s about going on dates in the morning, obviously the only time available for couples or spouses who work in these high-tech firms while the rest of the city sleeps.

It’s also about seduction, infidelity and other dangerous games of the heart that thrive in the isolation of workstation cubicles.

Call centers are said to be one of today’s brightest spots in the economy, but they have their own share of dark secrets when it comes to office intimacy, according to insiders.

There have been so many extramarital affairs at one call center, for example, that its management finally cautioned its employees in a general assembly recently. According to one of the workers, the company owner himself gave “tips on how to make relationships last” — with legitimate partners, that is. For the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who work in such companies, the romance — illicit or not — must conform to their nocturnal schedules and altered body clocks.
Instead of moonlit walks or leisurely dinners, a quick morning bite at any 24-hour store or café would often do for the likes of Joyce and Paul Tabake, a young married couple who work in different call centers at about the same night-till-dawn slot.

She reports to Ambergris Solutions in the Ortigas Center in Pasig City while he to People Support in Makati City. Whenever she and her hubby go out on dates before coming home together from work, the metropolis is just starting its day and Cupid must still be curled up in his diapers.
In those hours, what spice and variety could the city possibly offer to such a bonding pair?
“It could be Starbucks, 7-11, Ministop or any fast-food chain that offers breakfast,” sighs Joyce, 24.

Good thing, she said, there’s now even a videoke bar in the Ortigas area that opens in the early morning for the benefit of call center people.

“It was a big challenge for our relationship because, initially, he was the only one working in a call center,” said Joyce, who used to be a freelance interior designer before deciding three years ago to join her husband in the same career path — and time zone.

“Now I understand his situation better,” said the wife, who admitted feeling insecure during those days — and nights — when her partner was often away amid “the different culture you encounter in a call center” and she was home alone in bed.

“We were reduced to being boarders in our own house and could only talk on the phone just before dawn. It was a great sacrifice,” she said.

Before their common jobs finally put them in sync, their communication deteriorated to one-liner “hellos” via text messages. He came home in the morning just when she was about to leave for her day job, and they could only go out on “real” dates during his days off, Joyce said.
Daytime dating

But now, at least they’re back solidly as a couple on an after-office stroll. The only difference being: “We have to be home and asleep by around 3 p.m.,” she said.

Of course, there are “advantages” to daytime dating, smiled Ricci de los Reyes, a supervisor at Teletec, a call center based in Pasay City.

“You can avoid the big crowds since you are the first to enter the malls and catch the day’s first movie screenings,” said Ricci, boyfriend to Andrea, a former officemate who is now with another call center.

Another hassle-free aspect is the ride home after the date. While the rest of the rat race gets stuck in traffic jams on the way to offices and factories, call center employees find themselves taking the opposite less-congested routes, Ricci noted.

Ricci observed that “it’s easier to fall in love with someone who is also working in (this) same industry. Your expectations from each other get cleared up right away.”

In fact, before he and Andrea went steady, they started out as rivals for a promotion and “hardly spoke” to each other. Eventually, they found a common path to their hearts just the same.
Only abnormal thing

“I’m confident we can continue with this lifestyle,” said Ricci, who intends to marry Andrea in April.

Perhaps the schedule is about “the only abnormal thing” about having a lover or suitor working in a call center, according to Cheska Javier, an assistant manager in another Makati-based center.
If one is in a regular 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. office job and the other does a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift in a call center, “that means you just have this window between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.” for trysts or courtship, she said.

And what about sex? “Margie,” wife of a call center night owl and mother of one, said it’s all about seizing the opportunity during her husband’s day off or (on weekdays) engaging in what the adventurous would knowingly refer to as “afternoon delights.”

Romance aside, though, there must be some other things “abnormal” about working in a caffeine-charged environment tailor-fit for insomniacs.

Breakfast is like dinner

As Joyce put it, “we take breakfast (after leaving work in the morning) but our bodies somewhat feel like it’s dinner.”

That’s because break time for call center workers on the night shift is strangely referred to as “lunch” even though it’s taken at around 3 a.m., she said.

“You miss prime time shows on TV, games, evening concerts and all that. You rev up for the night’s work with coffee and more coffee,” said Christopher Marasigan, an operations manager at Teletec, who together with Christopher met with the Inquirer at around 11 p.m. at a Starbucks near their office.

New recruits assigned to the graveyard shift complain of headaches before their bodies finally make the adjustment, he said. Pregnant women are moved to the day shift.

The majority acquire the smoking habit. “Nicotine helps keep you awake,” Ricci said, himself halfway through a cigarette during the interview.

Morning beer

For young, single male employees in their 20s like himself, there are 24-hour convenience stores where cold beer can be had in the morning. He has gotten used to having a for-the-road tipple with his buddies by midday that having an occasional drink in the evening “now makes me drunk much quicker.”

But for every Joyce and Paul, or Ricci and Andrea, who proudly declare love’s triumph in the seemingly haywire world of call centers, there are others who prefer to speak in whispers about the scandalous side of it all.

“Angel,” 22, said she had just been to one of the weirdest office assemblies on Saturday, when her Manila-based call center held a “talk” in time for Valentine’s Day. The reason: Management was “concerned” about the alarming cases of infidelity among the office workers.

She said the company owner himself spoke for about 45 minutes before the 100-plus agents who made up the staff to stress that he personally “values morality more than all the profits we can bring to the company.”

Unwanted pregnancies

Angel said she had about 10 female co-employees who were on leave because of “unwanted pregnancies” from extramarital affairs, some with their team leaders or supervisors who had families of their own.

Angel, who currently has a boyfriend not working in a call center, said she herself was being courted by an older married coworker.

His wooing, she said, comes leeringly with some kind of assurance that “it’s supposedly a natural thing in call centers to have a lover while you’re inside and another one outside, both at the same time.”

“Para lang daw masaya (Just for a little happiness),” she told the Inquirer.

Asked what she thought made her call center prone to such indecent overtures and liaisons, Angel said: “When you’re in one, you tend to spend more time with your coworkers than with your family or partner. You practically have a life nowhere else but there.”