Day 2: Can we get any less organised?

Yup, that was the general gist of the day. And it began with the taxi ride. We stumbled out of our hotel somewhere around 5:30am, hailed a cab, explained where we were going and got in. The taxi got to the first set of lights, started yabbering to the driver of a taxi next to him, then told us we'd have to get out. He pulled around the corner muttering something about "taxi transfer"...and sure enough, his buddy pulled in behind him. At a loss for words, we got out into the middle of the street and clambered into the second taxi. And off we went to work.

I stumbled into the office just before 6am to find a stranger holding out her hand to greet me. It was the previously MIA trainer, who had decided to join us. I found her poring over piles of printed but unbound and unsorted training materials, apparently waiting for another member of staff to help her.

To make up for yesterday's catastrophe, we organised our first full day of training to include a half day induction by the Manila trainer. I hope she covered everything that was missed yesterday. Meanwhile, Crissy and I were left to spend the morning ferreting through piles of paper printouts to organise the traning modules into some sort of order. Feedback to be provided to the office at home: next time, save your trainers a heart attack and mail the manuals over in advance.

Lunch was a bit of a giggle. They have a cafeteria (called "pantry" here) that serves authentic Filipino food for about a dollar a plate. We were having lunch today when we heard just about all the other employees in the room start up cheering and whistling, clapping and stamping. What was the hullabaloo about? Nothing else but the Miss Universe pageant on TV!!! These guys got as excited about Miss Philippines (and Miss Australia for their guests) making the top 5 in the comp as some Aussies get about their footy team winning a grand final. It was great :p

The afternoon was spent trying to break the trainees out of the shells they seemed to have retreated into during the morning. From all reports, the Manila trainer seems to have a bit of a militant training manner, and this has a detrimental affect on staff participation and exubrance. I like training to be fun, and I hate lecturing a bunch of scared rabbits...so that had to change. We played games until they were giggling and chatting again. They opened right back up...even to the point of oversharing. We played a game where we shared our most embarrassing moments...and some that were shared I'd probably NEVER share with a group of work colleague I'd just met. A sample:

• One girl told us she always sleeps naked
• One guy told us that when he gets stressed, he wets his bed
• Another spoke about a time she got so drunk that she got her top off at a party
• Yet another told us about a time she was so drunk that she peed on her brother's bed.

So I guess you could say we're friends :p

I'm a little frustrated with the way things work here...IT support seems to be minimal at best, the Call Centre Manager is only new to the company and completely overwhelmed, and people seem to give you the answer they think you want, rather than the real answer. For instance, our IT issues were going to be sorted yesterday, then this morning, then this afternoon. Real answer: no one knows when the hell its going to be fixed, and we have to wing EVERYTHING.

Add to the mix I'm tired after a long day and a bit grumpy and lonely. And I'm watching Miss Universe on TV :p