I was not a very good student back in high school. My grades were dismal. One of the subjects I could not survive was Biology. I just lacked the interest to learn it despite the abject fear I had of our teacher then.

My interest in Biology was aroused only when we were made to watch a series of scientific documentaries on germ-borne diseases. I can remember how we grimaced and groaned every time symptoms of the diseases were shown on-screen in splendid detail. From chicken pox, to anthrax, to dysentery, to herpes, to roundworms, etc. But the gross-ness of it all was what made the lesson stick. It gave us a straight up view of reality. Seriously, to whoever it was that thought of, decided to, worked on, and ensured that students would watch those videos, that was brilliant.

I vaguely remember over-hearing a teacher say that it took a while for the admin to agree to the showing of...

Okay. So I remember having an argument with someone online about a year ago over whether “socialism” is an economic or political system/ideology. The guy insisted that socialism was a political system. So, did he mean that back in the day, when the USSR, was described as a Communist-socialist nation, that was being redundant? When I asked “What about "communism”? He said communism was the economic system.

I told him he got it backwards. That communism was a political ideology and that socialism was the economic ideology. I even cited a few sources online to clarify.

He then pulled out his “I have a so-and-so degree in Social Sciences! Yadda-yadda-yadda….” card. So I was like: “Oh-kaay… If you say so, Mister Genius…‘.

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I wonder if he knew that there exist countries that are classified as socialist democracies (or democratic socialist countries). If socialism were a...

We are all having difficulty understanding the magnitude of the calamity wrought by typhoon Haiyan.

I have a feeling that unless any of us here in Manila was ACTUALLY there in those places that were destroyed by typhoon Yolanda, DURING THE ONSLAUGHT, NONE OF US can really understand or even get a clear picture of WHAT ACTUALLY TRANSPIRED THERE and what the residents, victims and survivors, went through, have been theough, and will continue to go through for God knows how long. So, I do not think that any of us have any right to make any form of judgement on anyone — victims, mayors, army, relief workers, looters, congressmen, cabinet officials, the President, the US, etc, etc, etc, ….ANYONE.

Eventually, when all this is over, we will have the tiem to make a full assessement of what happened: how strong the typhoon was, how powerful the storm surge was, what brought about the...

Mike Doria
2013 February 09

(Click here to read Part 1)
(Click here to read Part 2)

It is not uncommon for Filipinos, who do not work in call centers, to exchange stories about call center employees whom they’ve presumably observed standing outside call center offices, cigarettes in hand, smokingconversing in English with annoying fake American acccents. Yet in the over ten years that I have been exposed to call center environments, I have never actually been witness to such scenario. In actuality, most call center employees, when on break, use the vernacular. Except in cases where the ones having a conversation are English Trainers having a lunch meeting, that kind of scenario is quite rare. I would say 99% of those stories are just made up by story-tellers for the sake of making a case against English usage among call center agents. Most of it tainted with bias. Besides, the ones...

Mike Doria
2012 October 10

(Click here to read Part 1)

Most call center officers, when asked whether their EOP program works, will readily answer with a witty remark sheepishly admitting the reality of its failure. But there will always be those that are not ready nor willing to admit the truth. They will claim success and come up with justifications for their statement, even to the point of backing it up with statistical data. But a close appreciation of any sort of data regarding EOP will reveal a downward pattern from seeming compliance to eventual non-compliance. If several launches of EOP programs were made, the cycle of compliance and non-compliance will be very blatantly obvious. So, why is there no EOP program that has ever really worked in call centers? In Part One, I mentioned that there are underlying reasons for agents’ non-compliance to the EOP rule. I also mentioned...

Mike Doria
2012 October 05

It is the call center program that is most dreaded, most hated, most defiled, most ignored, and most violated by agents. The “English Only Policy”, or EOP, as it is more commonly known is probably the most worn-out among all policies implemented in the typical BPO office. No other rule is more openly and collectively defied than this. Yet, many trainers, team managers, and quality analysts alike still choose to use this idea in the hope that it might just work this time around. Maybe for lack of an alternative idea. Maybe for sheer force of convention. Or maybe for the sake of exercising control over the agents. Whatever the reason, the depth of denial is evident in that many of its implementers fail to recognize the inexorable fact: It just does not work.

Why it does not work is something that you would expect most EOP implementers (and enforcers) should...