[Blog Entry] Anecdotes from the Cyber Mall

Anecdotes from the Cyber Mall

I did not exagerrate when I previously blogged about meeting acquaintances in Eastwood. It seems that every day I'm there, there's a story to tell. I found myself there, an hour early for my meeting. It wasn't even a five minute stroll when I bumped into a classmate of mine from high school. As expected with people who've spent more than three quarters of their life studying, one of the first questions we ask each other is what we do for a living (aside from bumming around that is). After trying to explain what exactly an editorial assistant does (a chore only rivaled by explaining what exactly a producer does, and my boss being the spontaneous person that he is doesn't help), he replies that he works for IBM. Thankfully, not in the call center industry, which is what you'd expect from a) fresh graduates and b) people working in Eastwood.

Once our farewells have been said and done, I resume going to my destination. Except I run into another acquaintance of mine again, this time a blockmate from my freshman year. I don't really need to write what's the first question we ask each other. I say my spiel (magazine, yada yada, editorial assistant, yada yada...) but what surprises me is that she gives me the same answer from my previous encounter. Oh, you work there too (figures as much if they're coming out of the same building at almost the same time).

While I'm grateful that my two acquaintances aren't in the call industry, my heart goes out to all the tech support agents of Dell (being one in the past), even those in India. The recent spontaneous combustion and recall of Dell laptops is going to be a nightmare, either for the consumer or the tech rep you're calling.