A source from inside KGB Philippines sent a tip about the latest mass lay off of agents in KGB Philippine’s Sta. Rosa contact center. The head count — 600 and growing.
Employees that were affected came from the SMS Account (where customers sent in SMS questions and agents quickly reply answers pulled from research and online searches).
The news was came out last Monday (February 9, 2009) where people in the Sta. Rosa site were informed that majority of the agents will be let go. One employee recounts what happened over at PinoyExchange:
Patay ang halos lahat ng teams sa SMS Acct… Kahapon 9 Feb 2009, Parang nagmistulang funeral parlour ang KGB Phils…. After our 1 hour break, bigla kaming pinag log out at pinapunta sa training room.. Doon maraming teams din kami sa loob
Bigla na lang sinabi sa amin na kailangan na daw kaming tanggalin sa trabaho meaning “TERMINATED” na kami lahat (ANG NATIRA LANG AY TEAMS 1-8 AT ANG TEAMS 9-39 TSUGI LAHAT INCLUDING THE TEAM LEADERS)..(Sorry correct me if Im wrong with the figures this are just based on those tsugi persons that I have talked to yesterday). Hindi daw nila inaasahan ang mangyayari pero kailangan na mag MASS LAY-OFF.
More reactions and explanations were posted there.
It looks like KGB was banking on projections that their SMS service would grow so they were aggressively hiring only to realize demand went down over the last quarter and a lot of employees were left without nothing to do on their shifts. However, seems like 600+ heads are too many for a simple overshoot of personnel management. Obviously, the global financial crisis is once again the culprit.
KGB provides services for incoming calls requesting information about directory assistance, movie showtimes, restaurant reviews, traffic, weather and other information with clients in the US and the UK.
Isa ako sa natanggal nun.. ansakit! sakit! lalo na pag napamahal ka na sa work mo, sa company mo at sa ka-team mo… Ako nga mas doble sakit eh.. ka re regular ko lang nun a week ago, tapus nag file me ng una ko na VL, ayun wala na akong nabalikan na trabajo. Almost 1 year ako walang work, ako pa naman ang bread winner sa family. But life must go on, na hire ako ng October sa isang company, gang ngayun nandun ako. Ayun nabuhayan uli ako ng pag-asa! Mas malaki ang swueldo ko sa KGB, pero sa company na to, tiwala ako! Assurance at stability ang panghahawakan mo dito. Salamat, TELETECH!
@katotohanan:
I beg to disagree, wla s account or site yang sama ng ugali. nasa upbringing yan.
hindi kmi tinuruan ng mga bosses namin at tenured agent n maging masama. I was CSR for 3 yrs DA in makati & TDO on my last yr but I never experienced n binastos or winalanghiya kmi ng mga tenured or any of our bosses. in fact they(bosses) were very respectfull & accomodating to our needs.
ano alam mo s qualifications ng SMS agents? it wasn’t based on tenureship neither on intellectual capability or stats. nasa agents yun kung gusto nila lumipat for convenience. wala ngang screening yan eh. training agad! they had to deploy a lot of CSRs during that time because of volume anticipation. in fact isa ang team namin s nag-test nyang project n yan s MKCC before pa i-rollout yan. and because of its potential sa team namin unang in-offer yan. kasabay dapat namin ung team ni TL Mae Evangelista sa pilot account nyan. but we weren’t interested, we had another goal in our mind & i thank my former TL Jimmy Sarsoza for leading us the way to the UK trip.
at tinatanong mo kung tine-train ang mga MKCC agents? don’t you know na sa MKCC galing ang mga trainor nyo? and to tell you the truth, hindi lang s MKCC nanggagaling ang mga stupid answers meron din from SRCC. wala sa agents ang problema kung bakit nagsara ang SRCC. it(SMS) just didn’t worked out the way they(Mngt) expected it. that is why we were all disappointed and most of us were devastated. affected din kami s DA dahil reflection yun of how the business is doing. aside sa mga friends namin na naapektuhan, we were also worried for ourselves. company stability & job security was questioned.
I resigned more than a year ago after we came back from UK. I was saddened by the fact that Kgb is implementing major changes that most of us(employees) cannot cope with and it compromised the quality of service that we provide. I don’t blame them, they have a business to run. so I decided to go.
buti pa nga yung ibang SMS dati may backpay. kaming mga nag-resign wala. at sa ngaun marami pa ang naghihintay nalang na maredundant.
nakakalungkot lang na nagkaganun ang kgb. sobrang saya namin nung newbies pa lang kami. parties left and right open bars all the time. maraming pakulo, freebies, prizes for OT. kaya mataas ang moral ng mga employees. maganda, magaan at masaya ang working environment before.
suddenly na-pressure ang higher mngmt. they have to come up with new ideas that will increase the profit of the company to sustain incentives and other expenses. unfortunately hindi maganda naging outcome kaya maraming umalis at inalis pati mga big boss.
well ganun talaga, DA is DA. kahit ano pang enhance services ang idagdag mo jan. d2 nga sa pinas hindi naman mabenta yan eh. bakit ba nagsara ang cariff CC? pati ang conduit? because the business is no longer doing good in general. people there(UK) found ways to resolve their problems aside from relying on DA.
sa mga mag-aaply, good luck sa inyo. swerte kayo kc hindi nyo naranasan yung dating kgb na masaya so wala kayong comparison. you will just work, work & work. hindi na masama ang Kgb. I was earning more than 11k(net, bonuses included) for 10 days(2 wks) when I was a CSR. mainit ang ulo ko pag 10k lng ang net ko. just give it your best and work hard on your stats.
Is that you EJ?, It’s me, Mrs. Villanueva, Dec. 19, Tagaytay
Thank you so much for writing a lot of this great information! I am looking forward to seeintg more blogs!
DA accounts will die a natural death. Dahil na rin sa katandaan and also, smartphones. Why the hell would I ask someone if the info that I need is all over the net? That’s why Google created Android OS in the first place.
ask ko lang po sa mga dating nag work sa kgb… BDO debit card po ba ang gamit sa salary
CRYING OVER THE SPILT MILK WILL GET US NOWHERE.. First time again to check this site out. Sad to hear, things happened the way we are not expecting it to happen. I’ve already charged everything to EXPERIENCE. I understand,that, sometimes to get away with hurt feelings is to talk it out. At other times, things are better left unsaid.
Business strat kasi ang laying-off of people. Better be equipped. We might want to take short courses(certificates)instead and learn other helpful skills to survive. I may sound very positive though. Please don’t get me wrong.
Move on na po. charge it to experience.
Equip yourselves with other skills para pwede kayong makipag sabayan kahit saan kayo mapadpad. Step out of your comfort zone. Alam nyong madami pa kayong pwedeng magawa to be successful. Di lang puro call center para dun sa mga taong alam nyo sa sarili nyong may ibubuga namn kayo sa ibang nature of work. don’t waste your time thinking about the what you thought was a “bad” experience with the company. In fairness to them, napaka galante nila.
kgb_ was not at all bad though. I was a part of the SMS SRCC pioneers and part din ng last redundancy. I had happy days with the company, I enjoyed working with my team, I love receiving a good net pay every payday. I felt excited every monday to see the result of my QA. I am always looking forward to go to work. – It was a heck of a good job. but not all good will last – that’s the reality of life, that’s how business works. That was my experience with kgb_Philippines.
Ang part na malungkot sa experience ko ay pag di ko nakuha ang 100% QA score because of a missing comma or full stop, or pag na delay ang bonus ko because namali ang QA people sa pag analyse ng sagot ko….hahaha!!
I’m happy at least I became a part of that “ONE OF A KIND JOB”
Be glad that once in your life you experienced being paid high for months or years. Everything has a downfall. It just happen na sa atin nagyari yun.
Me, working as an Office Administrator now and earning as much as I was earning in kgb_ before.
I still miss my old team, na halos di naghiwa hiwalay since we started in June 30, 2008. I also miss our mother earth na nag lalamyerda na ngayon sa SG. *peace boss. hahahah!
You can also do it! tigas lang ng dibdib ang kailangan and try to be out of your comfort zone.
Thanks for your marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.I will be sure to bookmark your blog and will often come back someday. I want to encourage one to continue your great work, have a nice evening!
ask ko lng po…..pede po bang maregular sa agency kapag naka 8 months contract kse po sabi nila samen kapag naka 2 balik ka sa loob ng 10 months ay regular kana kaso po binago po nila….nakapag 5 months at 3 months lng po kaya naka 8 months lng po ako sa kanila….ang huling usapan po namen kapag deretsyo po ang contract namen regular na po kame kaso binago na naman po nila ang contract pinapapirma po kami ng 1 year pero d pa po kame regular nun……dapat po ba kmeng pumirma,,????…anu po ang dapat nameng gawin…???
wag na kayo mag-away. pare-parehas naman kayong mga tanga at bobo dahil hanggang call center lang kaya ng utak nyo.