he was already half-awake when the familiar sound of the alarm on his mobile phone broke the silence of the cool and calm mid-september night. it was 4:00 in the morning and it was time to get up. as he reached over to shut the alarm, he noticed that there were three messages he had received. “TL, i’m in the hospital now and i can’t come to work. i experienced stomach pains and i’m under observation for gall stones,” one message from his agent read. “sorry, but i cannot come to work because i have fever and cough,” read the other two. breathing a heavy sigh, he thought to himself, “here we go again,” and proceeded to take a shower. the cold water was all he needed to get his senses going as he thought of the things he’ll be doing for the day. 20 minutes was all he needed to get ready for the workday. his car being banned on the road that day, his sister drove him to the gas station to get a cab. she didn’t have to do that, but being concerned that his brother might not get a cab near their place thus making him late for work, plus having asked him many times to bring her to school on his day off prompted her to return the favor.

“where to, sir?” the cab driver asked him as he closed the door of the vehicle. he gave the destination and fastened his seatbelt. the trip was uneventful, as most taxi rides are, as he continued to psyche himself up. it is already a wednesday, but for him, it’s just the second day of the work week. like taking notes on a PDA, he quickly ran down the activities needed for the day on his mind. read e-mails, update the program-wide project assigned to him, check his team’s stats from yesterday’s shift, monitor his agents side-by-side, coach them after listening, remind his agents to answer the weekly client quiz, check their timecards, do more monitoring and coaching, have a team meeting if possible, and do the end of day reports. it seems like a solid day on paper, but he all knows too well that the tasks won’t be accomplished in that order, if not all of them may be accomplished at all. after all, managing 20 egos in one team is already a handful. entertaining questions from agents from other teams, taking supervisory calls and projects being assigned to him by his OM (and by other OMs) further complicate things. but he takes it all in stride and just continue what he’s being paid to do–his job.

he arrived at the office 10 minutes before 5AM. “good morning sir,” the security guard greeted him. “morning,” he sheepishly replied back as he swiped his access card and entered the operations area. like firmly placing a mask to cover what he really feels about coming to work that day, he put on his workface grin as the sound of agents talking to customers on the phone at the same time filled his ears. “another work day,” he whisphered to himself. he walked over to his workstation amidst greetings from his colleagues and stopping once in a while to ask how their day was and/or cracking a joke or two. after logging in and reading his emails from earlier in the night, he proceeded to check on his agents. he chatted with each one of them for a few minutes, sometimes longer as the volume of calls was strangely less than yesterday. as he headed back to his station, his OM asked him the status of the project he was asked to work on. like a lieutenant giving a report to the general about what’s been happening in the battlefield, he calmly and straight-forwardly explained the details on what he was working on. “ok, very good. keep working on it, alright?” was the OM’s short reply as he headed straight towards the main lobby, his shift ending at that hour. he can now smile a bit, as all the other OMs are already ending their respective shifts, with no manager on the floor during the daytime. that is one perk he can live with, which can probably take the place of not having a night differential on his salary. no bosses around means he can move on his own pace without being interrupted by a voice asking, “hey, can you do this for me?”

the day went quite slow, he noticed. even after having done what he’s supposed to do on the list he made in his mind earlier, including taking his lunch hour, it was still three hours away until the end of his shift. he decides to go to his agents, no clipboard or headset in hand, and just sat in their midst entertaining questions about work and everything else there is about himself his agents want to know. this proved to be useful, as he laughed, shared stories, answered questions, and joked around with his team as time passed by without him realizing that it was the end of his shift. though it was, he still stays beyond to do the end of day reports. one by one, his agents left, some of them passing by his workstation saying a quick goodbye and thanking him for the coaching sessions. having ended his day, he took no rush in finishing the reports needed and even surfed a few websites before finally logging off his station and calling it a day.

as he stepped out of the main door with his eyes lighting up a bit, he quickly put the day’s events at the backburner of his mind, breathed a heavy sigh of relief and said, “thank God this shift is over,” and proceeded to walk to the bus stop. in an hour, he’ll be in the confines of his home once again, doing more thinking, except that of work. during the travel back home, he thought of mp3s that he’ll be downloading to complete his 6th all-female CD collection. songs from mariah carey, paula abdul, janet jackson, cathy dennis and alanis morrisette quickly came into mind. having thought of it placed a smile on his otherwise stressed face. and as he arrived home and closed the door of his room, he thankfully said, “i’m home. three more workdays to go.” but he couldn’t care less about work. that’s still 12 hours away. for now, he can put all of that on hold. “time for me to update my blog,” he said to himself as he got changed and headed to the computer downstairs.