American anger over outsourcing flooding Indian call centers
Despite rigorous training on accent, grammar, and diction training and intensive American lifestyle immersion sessions, nothing prepares the most diligent of Indian call center agents for the barrage of abusive language that are increasingly becoming a regular part of their daily calls. These range from irritability over job losses, name calling, racist slurs, to downright degrading insults peppered with four-letter words
These hate calls are now commonplace, what with the swelling resentment over the loss of American jobs to India. A November 2004 survey conducted by Indian IT magazine Dataquest showed that the main reason for workplace stress cited by as much as 25% of agents has been these ‘irate calls’. These are ‘psychologically disturbing’ for the agents.
These have resulted in various physical manifestations such as high blood pressure and chest pains, prompting quite a number to quit. Quite a considerable number return though.
According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies, the outsourcing industry can be credited for US$5.1 billion dollars of the yearly revenues, and employment for more than 350,000 people. Growth for the coming year is pegged at 40%. The inviting manpower pool of low-cost, English-speaking and tech-savvy Indian workers serve to attract the back-office service operations of companies like American Express, Sprint, Citibank, General Electric, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and other similar firms processing US tax returns and welfare benefits.
To deal with the mounting pressure, some of the offices providing outsourced services hold stress-management workshops, set up gyms and pool tables, and even offer classes in meditation, breathing techniques, and yoga.
Rohit Gadhoke, senior quality analyst with Daksh call center points out that such calls were routine and added,
"This is a high-stress business, and most of our agents are between 22 and 25 working during the graveyard shift. I have noticed a sudden plunge in their confidence level after an irate, abusive or racist caller. . . They begin to fumble with words and get nervous. I counsel them not to take it personally."
A number of call center companies are now allowing agents to reveal their identity and location, but most still insist on withholding these telling information for fear of backlash from their clients.
Some call centers have even taken to displaying the weather in different US cities, scores from the latest New York Knicks game, or even the latest Broadway plays on giant screens in the office to help the agents make small talk with the callers and mask their actual location.
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