Typical Help Desk characteristics (except the pay is lower).
Is this better than serving chutney Squishees at the Kwik-E-Mart?
Posted on 07/13/2003 7:27:05 AM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
BANGALORE, India (Reuters) - Rajit Gangadharan thought his dream had come true when a call center offered him an attractive job soon after he finished a bachelor's degree in commerce.
With shopping coupons, free passes to entertainment shows, a fun office environment and a decent salary, his work involved dealing with customers located thousands of miles away.
But the dream soured for the 24-year-old when he began to see the flip side of his cool job: Long night shifts, irregular eating habits, and few opportunities to meet his old friends.
"Social life is nil in such a job, as you spend 10 to 12 hours at the office at nights and then spend the rest of the day sleeping while others around you are active," said Gangadharan, who quit after two years to go back to business school.
India's call centers provide cheap English-speaking workers and high-speed telecoms to provide customer service helplines for companies around the world. They're a boon for India's army of job-hunting youth, but there is a murkier side to the industry.
Retaining stressed and bored workers is one challenge for their managers. Poaching by mushrooming rivals is another.
"The aspiration levels of these youngsters is very, very high and this is a big challenge to meet," said Aashu Calapa, human resources chief at back-office services firm ICICI OneSource.
FUN AND WORRIES
While Calapa frets about the issue inside his glass-walled office, employees dressed in T-shirts and jeans pass by brightly painted rooms festooned with balloons to welcome new recruits.
Call centers and remote services such as accounting and payroll processing mainly serve U.S.-based clients nearly halfway around the world. The sector is forecast to grow a stunning 54 per cent in the year to March 2004 from $2.3 billion in 2002/03.
The sector aims to raise exports to $25 billion by 2008 and employ one million people. More than 100,000 jobs have sprung up in the past two years, doubling the total workforce to 170,000.
"Due to the exuberance of the youth, many people are looking at instant gratification in this industry," said Arun Mansukhani, vice-president of human resources at Zenta, one of the smaller players in the 400 company-strong sector.
"Career growth is expected to be fast and youngsters don't have any qualms about leaving one company and joining another."
Global giants such as Dell Computer Corp, HSBC bank and AOL-Time Warner are rapidly expanding back office work in India, throwing up new job opportunities for a country that churns out more than 1.5 million university graduates every year.
JUST A JOB, NOT A CAREER
Entry-level graduates in India are paid about $215 a month, a 10th of what their U.S. counterparts get. The industry trains youths to adopt American accents and corporate culture to put customers at ease.
But managing body clocks and the monotony spell trouble.
"Nowadays, I have to think 10 times before having a chilled beer, as I can't take the risk of having a bad throat and upset my work schedule," says Kishore Kumar, 26, who has been taking customer calls in the night for the past 18 months.
Abraham Karimpanal, a senior official at corporate researcher NFO MBL India, said staff were happy at work, but did not consider call centers as a long-term career option.
In a recent survey, NFO found that managing the expectations of a young workforce was the main challenge facing companies.
"People are invariably joining with the hope that six months down the line they have moved up the ladder and are no longer doing what they are doing," said Karimpanal.
Nevertheless, such jobs are hot in a country where most liberal arts graduates find it difficult to get decent work.
"My job allows me to afford a bike, mobile phone and have weekend parties, besides helping me support my parents," says 25-year-old Santosh Kumar, who works at a global computer maker's Bangalore unit, adding he loved his job but would not want to hold on to it.
To soften stress, employers sweeten working conditions.
Enjoyable working conditions and extra-curricular activities help firms retain workers, said Arjun Vaznaik, chief operating officer at Tracmail, which has about 950 employees.
"Unlike in the software industry, where attracting people was a big problem, this sector has an issue to retain staff," said Calapa, whose firm has hired 1,000 people in the past six months.
For an industry grappling with an annual staff turnover of 40 to 50 percent, doling out rewards and recognition is crucial.
Other benefits are also at hand for staff.
"A stress-related job and bad dietary habits are a lethal combination, which makes this sector susceptible to lifestyle-related diseases like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure," said consultant Sheela Krishnaswamy, managing partner at Nutrition Information Counselling and Health Education.
Krishnaswamy said many companies were now actively looking to change their cafeteria menus to balanced diets. Eyesight problems, backaches, sore throats and hair loss are some of the stress-related problems cropping up.
Psychological issues are also a fallout.
"People face personality disorders, as they are living in one environment and dealing with another," said Tracmail's Vaznaik.
Most call center employees assume American-sounding names and carefully hide their location and true identities. Heartbreaks resulting from affairs with fellow 20-somethings add to the woes.
Companies have begun to offer counselling services.
"Trained counsellors help our employees deal with stress, home-related issues or a relationship gone sour," said Calapa.
Typical Help Desk characteristics (except the pay is lower).
Is this better than serving chutney Squishees at the Kwik-E-Mart?
2 posted on 3/6/02 7:30 AM Pacific by grammymoon:
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Lol, yesterday I had a telemarketer call me.
He said his name was Robert Johnson, funny thing though, he sounded just like Apu. I said, "Robert Johnson, huh?" and hung up on him.
US workers work longer hours and more days than any other nation. When some country wonders why it can't get out of the third world, it might consider working their asses off.
So9
Now there's a comforting thought. Someone in Bangalore, India is preparing your paycheck. So he has your social security number and your tax information.
He has everything he needs to sell your identity to criminals. He's not paid very well, which is why he has the job in the first place.
How long before you suddenly find a lot of purchases have been made overseas on a credit card that supposedly belongs to you?
According to the Economist magazine, this is only partially true. US workers do work a lot more hours than say, the French, Germans, and other European workers. But even though Asians may work more hours than Americans, their productivity is a lot less. The reason is that while Asians work more, Americans work smarter.
It is nice to be able to get someone to answer the phone when I call tech support-- I really don't mind talking to someone overseas. I only wish the poor sap would just (a) post his troubleshooting flow chart on the web so I could read it directly, and (b) develop the skill to creatively deal with the unexpected so he could fix my computer.
But those workers that can do that, end up costing more or working elsewhere.
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