This post was first published on March 23, 2020 on my blog for The White Dog Collective - a Digital Marketing team I used to head.
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I knew I had to do it. It was a risk but it was one I was willing to take.
Making the leap from a stable job to a home-based career had always been something I’ve been wanting to do but never got around to doing. There were always bills to pay. There was always that new gadget or gear to buy.
There were too many excuses that were holding me back.
Now that I’m married with a 22-month old daughter, I was putting their welfare as a priority. Would I be really willing to trade in a steady paycheck for the chance that I might not get a job working from home?
I just knew I had to risk it and today, I’m glad I did
Backstories
I’ve been involved with the BPO Industry here in the Philippines since 2008. I began as a communication assistant for a relay-service and from there I worked on sales both inbound and outbound. I also handled customer service, technical support, and back-office support.
I’ve handled voice, email, and chat accounts.
I’ve done Data Analytics and I was trained with the use of SAP.
I’ve handled trainees as they are transitioning to production.
I worked on [3] Gaming accounts, [3] Telcos, [2] Ride-sharing apps, [2] Retail accounts, and [1] Home-rental/sharing service.
I’ve led my own teams and Lines of Businesses. I was even drafted to handle an entire account at one point as a Manager-in-Training.
With my last job, I took care of services that work with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux as well as some routers and I had to chat with 5 people at the same time with different concerns.
I think it’s needless to say that I’ve been around yet with more than a decade of being part of this industry, I always felt that I was going nowhere fast. This was more pronounced when I became a dad.
One-Man/Woman Justice Leagues
Now I speak from my own experience and in no way discounting the hard work and dedication of many BPO workers. We sacrifice so much not just for ourselves but more importantly for our loved ones.
BPO workers are heroes. We suffer through so much be it rude customers, rude teammates, insensitive supervisors, and heartless management. If you live in Manila, you have to live out Game of Thrones’ Battle of the Bastards every single time you ride any public transport going to and from work not to count the traffic.
BPO employees can be Supermen and Wonder Women for those that depend on them: their families. They can be The Flash for their customers when handling cases, be Tony Starks when handling technical issues, and be as charming as quirky as Spiderman when having a conversation. Most also have to be Batman most of the time cause they’re up all night. I remember hearing my neighbours in Cubao talking about me and my sister saying we were aswang because they never see anyone leave the apartment in the daytime.
In the rainy season, they have to be Aquaman for their TLs and Managers.
The jobs we have can be tough mentally and emotionally. The industry we’re in can be as cut-throat as can be – as someone who was politicked out of a position, I can attest to that.
After more than a decade in the BPO industry, it was time to punch out.
It was simply not my cup of tea.
She Won’t Let Me Go…
There were also a lot of factors that caused me to consider jumping ship.
Apart from my dissatisfaction with the industry in general, there was also the matter of my health. I suffer from sciatica as a complication from the slipped discs (yes, more than one) in my lower spine. This keeps me from moving around. I can’t also be in a sitting position for too long otherwise, I’d feel intense pain when I do get up.
Perhaps the main reason I decided to quit working at an office and work from home instead is because of this my daughter. She’s growing up so quickly that in the 22 months she’s been with us, I’ve already missed many of her milestones.
There was a time during one of my days off from my previous job, I was working on something on my desktop when she walked towards me.
I did not know she could already walk then. The nanny told me that she’d been doing it for almost a week and it was never brought up to me cause I was either out working or sleeping the day away.
The straw that broke the camel’s back happened in October last year. I was about to leave and spend 10.5 hours at my last office gig, she ran over to me and said “Bibi, up!” meaning she wanted me to carry her. She hugged me so tight and would not let me go even after I explained to her that I was about to go to work. I could hear her crying and saying “Bibi”, over and over as I got into the car.
I cried. My heart broke.
I know how it feels to lose parents. It hurts like hell and I would not wish that feeling on my worst enemy and her, being this young, she must have felt like she was losing me every time I left.
That was the day I made up my mind to pursuing home-based jobs.
Nobody ever said on their death bed: I wish I spent less time with my child.
They are only kids for a short time. Sooner or later, she’ll be off doing her own thing and I’ll just be a spectator in the side-lines of her life. “The days are long but the years are short,” as they say.
The Economics of Change
I am 35 years old and unless I find a way to break the laws of Physics, I am only going to grow older. We are each one of us, running out of time.
It’s funny the things you retain from class. In one of my Economics classes in college, I learned the concept of Opportunity Cost. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines it as
“the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. This is an important concept in economics, as it defines what James Buchanan described as “the basic relationship between scarcity and choice“.
In this sense, the scarce resource I have is time. Keep in mind that opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the real cost of output forgone, lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility should also be considered an opportunity cost.
Basically, it’s the things you miss out on when you do something else.
The way I looked at it, the time I spend working my old job was costing me more than I could have imagined.
First of all, I was losing out on the two most important relationships – my wife and my daughter. I am hardly at home and if I were, I’m asleep trying to recover from the mental fatigue I get from the people I talk to.
Secondly, I am missing out on healing myself. As it turned out, I was already developing depression. Yes, I do have bouts with depression but the latest one drove me to contemplate suicide. Couple this with the problem with my spine and it’s a disaster waiting to happen.
Thirdly, I am missing out on career growth. Let me explain.
The longer I spend doing something else other than doing a home-based job, the more time I lose in up-skilling myself in order to eventually get a good client. There are a lot of career paths one can take online Also the longer I stay working a regular job, the less time I have on building my portfolio.
Like my wife always says: Opportunity is never wasted, somebody else just gets it.
Like Pulling a Band-Aid
Sure, reading about it now, might make me look like I knew what I was doing. Believe me, that is so far from the truth. It was an easy decision for sure but making it caused as much emotional and mental distress as pulling off a Band-Aid from a semi-healed wound.
I can picture you imagining that now. Fun right?
I know that at my age, switching careers can be tough and that by taking this risk money can be tight but that’s alright. Nikki and I knew what we’d get into.
Life isn’t a race. So what if you decide to basically start from scratch and switch careers when you’re 35? In the end, it’s the things we did not do that we regret the most and that for me would be me missing out on my daughter growing up and spending more time with my wife.
No one on their death bed ever said: “I wish I spent less time with my family.”
Success is relative. To some, it’s having a lot of money or cars or women. If that’s you, that’s okay; you do you, man. Success for me, however, is going to sleep happy and healthy beside my girls. Sure, our finances can get hit now but ideally, if you keep doing what makes you happy, the money will follow. I know, many would think what we’re doing now is naive. Hell, when this began, I thought so too but I’m taking it on with faith in me, our family, and most of all, faith in Him.
As the father, I am the captain of our household, and staying the course we were on would have only run our metaphorical ship aground. Risk is better than regret, they say, but it isn’t too much of one. God would not put a Goliath in front of you if he didn’t know you had a David inside you.
So yes, I made that decision and jumped ship. I know we all have our motivations in doing the things we do and yours might be a lot different from mine. Making this transition can be hard but with the right motivation and perseverance, you can also make this change.
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