Team DailyPedia
A few days ago, actor Polo Ravales posted a disparaging comment about call center agents on his Facebook account. It has since been taken down, but an intrepid Instagrammer was able to screen cap it and then re-upload the post. The actor’s post earned the ire of a large number of netizens who are employed in the industry.
In the post, Ravales states that a good education is wasted upon joining the call center industry. He also asks if the salary an agent gets is worth it when weighed against the stress and fatigue one gets when working. He then encourages people to join his “team” instead, where they can experience what he calls the good life.
On Instagram, user @callcentershow uploaded the screen grab of the Facebook post and countered with a message of their own. “Some people just don’t learn. We don’t know what we did to you but a little class would be fine Mr. Polo Ravales.”
Other users responded with vehemence. User @addicted2derek thinks that Ravales thinks too highly of himself, while @jordankulangsabuwan asks, “Ikaw ano tinapos mo mr. Ravales? Bakit napunta ka sa pag aartista at eventually nalaos din. (What course did you take up, Mr. Ravales? Why did you become an actor only to eventually be washed up?) Hahaha. Networking pa more !”
@oyzreal fires back “what’s your problem? Same thing, we were not sent to school just to do networking.” While @tl_nino offers these fighting words, “I CHALLENGE YOU TO JOIN THE CALL CENTER INDUSTRY… Let’s see how far you can make it… you may have an idea of how our job goes but please do not insult us.”
User @solpremacyph, on the other hand, chose to defend the industry. “…I don’t want to stoop down to your level but then again, this douche just belittled an army of BPO professionals who has spent years of their lives contributing to the economic growth of the country. Mind you Mr. Ravales, the industry that you have chosen to use as an instrument in your so called advertising scheme, shifted the unemployment rate into a better shape and has contributed a lot to where the BPO industry is now.”
A couple of others chose to point out an irony in Ravales’s post, such as this from @kae.abrenilla “O, eh diba yung pinsan mo na kasama mo sa gimikan eh sa call center din? (Isn’t your cousin, whom you hang out with in gimicks, also a call center agent?)”
Yet another user, @anthony_ordonez, pointed to Ravales’s mistake in trying to promote his business. He states, “multi level marketing is about building people up and not tearing them down. Speak to their potential but never insult their profession.”
The multi-level marketing team that Ravales refers to seems to be HPi (Hyper Program International) Direct Sales and Trading Corporation. As the company website states, they specialize in the “marketing and distribution of modern beauty products based on quality imported collagen.”
Yesterday, September 26, perhaps realizing his mistake, Ravales posted this apology on his page, “To all the people who I offended..again sorry..i didn’t mean that way..again my sincerest apologies..godbless.”
Coincidentally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a warning to the public against investing in HPI for unauthorized solicitation for investments last May. The SEC said that HPI did not have “a secondary license to publicly offer or sell securities and to solicit investments from the public.”
