So how does one become a Professional Chat Operator?
“First, one must be mature, open-minded and sexually liberated.” John tells. “You may never know what the person on the other line would ask you to do as you have your role-playing session with the User.” He further explained that Operators are always encouraged to be imaginative and creative with their responses since telecommunication laws of the Client do not allow the sending of graphic sex words.
Instead, an Operator handing a “premium adult account” must use idioms and/or slang terms for human sex organs and sexual acts such as “kitty,” “meatie,” “melons,” “getting it on,” and “cherry.”
“Lastly, an Operator must try to have a substantial knowledge of US Culture and Geography,” he added. “When the company was just starting, there were some Operators who would spend time locating Baltimore, or what kind of restaurant Hooter’s is, but this had to be done as quickly as possible in order to avoid making the User impatient and opting-out of the chat service.”
To further give me an idea about the fundamentals of text chatting, John allowed me to briefly take over his post so I could see for myself how the text chat worked (it was a good thing that he was a supervisor and could pretend that I was an applicant).
As a last piece of advice, he told me to always remember that no matter how rude or aggressive the Users became, I was to keep in mind that deep down, they are just looking for someone to drive away their loneliness. As an example, he told me how a colleague was promoted to the Quality Assurance department for being compassionate and friendly with the users.
I nodded and waited for my first keyword. Soon, it came: STACY.
John explained that the User was looking for a textmate named Stacy, as advertised in the Client’s TV spots. I began by introducing myself to the User asStacy. After a minute or two, the User responded by giving his name, age and location. “My name is Kevin, 24 yrs old frm Nashville, bend ova fo me baby, I want to see if ur shaved down there.”
His reply gave me goosepimples. I could not imagine flirting with another guy, even if it was just mere text messaging role play.
John noticed my apprehension and hesitation. Worried that the QA department might notice his response delay, he asked for his chair back and told me to observe instead. “My lovely pink kitty is shaved and Im touching it ryt now baby. Tell me your stats.” He completed his response in less than a minute.
I was taken aback by his casual ease in typing out the reply. Clearly, his job had already completely desensitized him from the awkwardness of flirting with guys. “They would sometimes ask you to take them from behind,” John said. “You don’t want to know what my response to such a request is, right?” We both chuckle at this.
I looked around the office and noted that there were seven other male operators in the adult account. The females only numbered three. When I asked him about the greater ratio of men compared to women in the adult account, John explained that most of the girls feel degraded by that service. “Nababastusan sila kaya they quit after a day or two. Siguro, dahil na rin sa kultura natin… hirap ‘yung mga babae na mag-roleplay,” he told me in Taglish,
John added that a single preference does not dominate the account. As I was about to ask him to further explain what he meant, a new User appeared on his computer screen asking for a guy text mate. The texter turned out to be a married guy in his mid-twenties who lived a double life, one that his wife was not aware of.
“One good thing about this service is that when a User is assigned to you by the system, it is your responsibility to prolong the conversation as much as you can.” He admitted that his responses to the Users have made his colleagues think of him as the most perverted person they had ever met.
In the time I spent watching John do his job, I saw him effortlessly change his character from a submissive policeman to a kinky blonde nurse, shifting to a dominatrix teacher who loved ordering the User to wear a tight school girl’s uniform and be spanked as punishment. Lastly, John;s character changed again to become a caring housewife who took care of the kids while the User worked in a mining site far away from home.
“The possibilities of getting into a new character are endless,” John said. “There were many times I had steady chat-relationship with Users for months, until they just quit on me, frustrated that I never ran out of excuses to avoid meeting them.”
Operators like John are bound by rules, also known as the “Terms of Service.” They are not allowed to say “I love you” to the User no matter how many times the User professes his or her feelings. They should also refrain from giving personal details such phone numbers – even if it’s just a made up one, or give tell the User to meet up at a certain date and time.
They are not allowed to talk to a User considered underage by the chat service (below 13), nor do outrageous roleplaying such as those that involved Incest, bestiality and extreme sado-masochism.
“There were a lot of Operators before who got fired by management for disobeying such rules,” John said. “Sometimes, the carelessness of a chat operator, especially when ignoring the underage rule can cost us an entire account. The Clients monitor us, along with our Quality Assurance Team. They are always on the look-out for Terms of Service Violations.”
As the final hour of the afternoon shift approached, I noticed the brief notes John added to the system about the basic information of the Users he had chatted with. “This is for the next shift.” He explained. Chatzone had a non-stop 24-hour operation, and the notes he provided for the next Operator who would take his place served as a guide for any continued conversations with the Users.
I told John I was going down for a smoke and would just wait for him downstairs. Actually, I wanted to give him more room so he could complete his daily quota of 300 messages.
Downstairs, as I smoked, I realized that no matter how the Operators appeared pleasant and concerned towards the User, at the end of the day, everything was just impersonal role play for them. I remembered how John confided to me that sometimes, he felt guilty about making a User fall for a person he will never see in his life.
“I just tell myself that my only real purpose in this weird job is to give the User a sense of belonging and a feeling of being cared for by someone, even if they have never touched, hugged or kissed that someone yet... nor will they ever do so.”
Reflecting on John’s words, I told myself that sex, or the promise of sex, at least, sells indeed, but this may only be because as society progresses technologically, our sense of connection to others gets compromised.
Perhaps it’s the concept of universal longing for companionship at work?
John came down a few minutes later. We agreed to go to a bar to unwind. As we waited for a cab, I received a message from one of my anonymous text buddies. “Hi there! I hope ur interview was a success. I miss u so much baby. Talk 2u soon,” the message said,
Smiling, I suddenly realized what John meant when he said that each and everyone of us wanted to belong to someone. Beyond the sex chat, what the Users really wanted is to feel human.
John noticed my smile and asked me what’s up. I told him, “Pare, sabi mo weird ang trabaho mo. Actually, naisip ko, hindi naman, e… Nakatutulong pa nga kayo sa ibang tao, di ba? Ang laking bagay nu’n!”
He smiled back. It was one of the warmest and happiest smiles I had ever seen.
“First, one must be mature, open-minded and sexually liberated.” John tells. “You may never know what the person on the other line would ask you to do as you have your role-playing session with the User.” He further explained that Operators are always encouraged to be imaginative and creative with their responses since telecommunication laws of the Client do not allow the sending of graphic sex words.
Instead, an Operator handing a “premium adult account” must use idioms and/or slang terms for human sex organs and sexual acts such as “kitty,” “meatie,” “melons,” “getting it on,” and “cherry.”
“Lastly, an Operator must try to have a substantial knowledge of US Culture and Geography,” he added. “When the company was just starting, there were some Operators who would spend time locating Baltimore, or what kind of restaurant Hooter’s is, but this had to be done as quickly as possible in order to avoid making the User impatient and opting-out of the chat service.”
To further give me an idea about the fundamentals of text chatting, John allowed me to briefly take over his post so I could see for myself how the text chat worked (it was a good thing that he was a supervisor and could pretend that I was an applicant).
As a last piece of advice, he told me to always remember that no matter how rude or aggressive the Users became, I was to keep in mind that deep down, they are just looking for someone to drive away their loneliness. As an example, he told me how a colleague was promoted to the Quality Assurance department for being compassionate and friendly with the users.
I nodded and waited for my first keyword. Soon, it came: STACY.
John explained that the User was looking for a textmate named Stacy, as advertised in the Client’s TV spots. I began by introducing myself to the User asStacy. After a minute or two, the User responded by giving his name, age and location. “My name is Kevin, 24 yrs old frm Nashville, bend ova fo me baby, I want to see if ur shaved down there.”
His reply gave me goosepimples. I could not imagine flirting with another guy, even if it was just mere text messaging role play.
John noticed my apprehension and hesitation. Worried that the QA department might notice his response delay, he asked for his chair back and told me to observe instead. “My lovely pink kitty is shaved and Im touching it ryt now baby. Tell me your stats.” He completed his response in less than a minute.
I was taken aback by his casual ease in typing out the reply. Clearly, his job had already completely desensitized him from the awkwardness of flirting with guys. “They would sometimes ask you to take them from behind,” John said. “You don’t want to know what my response to such a request is, right?” We both chuckle at this.
I looked around the office and noted that there were seven other male operators in the adult account. The females only numbered three. When I asked him about the greater ratio of men compared to women in the adult account, John explained that most of the girls feel degraded by that service. “Nababastusan sila kaya they quit after a day or two. Siguro, dahil na rin sa kultura natin… hirap ‘yung mga babae na mag-roleplay,” he told me in Taglish,
John added that a single preference does not dominate the account. As I was about to ask him to further explain what he meant, a new User appeared on his computer screen asking for a guy text mate. The texter turned out to be a married guy in his mid-twenties who lived a double life, one that his wife was not aware of.
“One good thing about this service is that when a User is assigned to you by the system, it is your responsibility to prolong the conversation as much as you can.” He admitted that his responses to the Users have made his colleagues think of him as the most perverted person they had ever met.
In the time I spent watching John do his job, I saw him effortlessly change his character from a submissive policeman to a kinky blonde nurse, shifting to a dominatrix teacher who loved ordering the User to wear a tight school girl’s uniform and be spanked as punishment. Lastly, John;s character changed again to become a caring housewife who took care of the kids while the User worked in a mining site far away from home.
“The possibilities of getting into a new character are endless,” John said. “There were many times I had steady chat-relationship with Users for months, until they just quit on me, frustrated that I never ran out of excuses to avoid meeting them.”
Operators like John are bound by rules, also known as the “Terms of Service.” They are not allowed to say “I love you” to the User no matter how many times the User professes his or her feelings. They should also refrain from giving personal details such phone numbers – even if it’s just a made up one, or give tell the User to meet up at a certain date and time.
They are not allowed to talk to a User considered underage by the chat service (below 13), nor do outrageous roleplaying such as those that involved Incest, bestiality and extreme sado-masochism.
“There were a lot of Operators before who got fired by management for disobeying such rules,” John said. “Sometimes, the carelessness of a chat operator, especially when ignoring the underage rule can cost us an entire account. The Clients monitor us, along with our Quality Assurance Team. They are always on the look-out for Terms of Service Violations.”
As the final hour of the afternoon shift approached, I noticed the brief notes John added to the system about the basic information of the Users he had chatted with. “This is for the next shift.” He explained. Chatzone had a non-stop 24-hour operation, and the notes he provided for the next Operator who would take his place served as a guide for any continued conversations with the Users.
I told John I was going down for a smoke and would just wait for him downstairs. Actually, I wanted to give him more room so he could complete his daily quota of 300 messages.
Downstairs, as I smoked, I realized that no matter how the Operators appeared pleasant and concerned towards the User, at the end of the day, everything was just impersonal role play for them. I remembered how John confided to me that sometimes, he felt guilty about making a User fall for a person he will never see in his life.
“I just tell myself that my only real purpose in this weird job is to give the User a sense of belonging and a feeling of being cared for by someone, even if they have never touched, hugged or kissed that someone yet... nor will they ever do so.”
Reflecting on John’s words, I told myself that sex, or the promise of sex, at least, sells indeed, but this may only be because as society progresses technologically, our sense of connection to others gets compromised.
Perhaps it’s the concept of universal longing for companionship at work?
John came down a few minutes later. We agreed to go to a bar to unwind. As we waited for a cab, I received a message from one of my anonymous text buddies. “Hi there! I hope ur interview was a success. I miss u so much baby. Talk 2u soon,” the message said,
Smiling, I suddenly realized what John meant when he said that each and everyone of us wanted to belong to someone. Beyond the sex chat, what the Users really wanted is to feel human.
John noticed my smile and asked me what’s up. I told him, “Pare, sabi mo weird ang trabaho mo. Actually, naisip ko, hindi naman, e… Nakatutulong pa nga kayo sa ibang tao, di ba? Ang laking bagay nu’n!”
He smiled back. It was one of the warmest and happiest smiles I had ever seen.
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