$$Dollar Calling$$. Review on General Views on Call Centers

1:00 AM

It is a marrow numbing winter night in Delhi.

A lad in his early twenties is sound asleep, ensconced in the cradle of pleasant dreams. As  most of you would have known by experience that these wee hours are the best times to dream. So our man in question was riding high on the train of limitless dreams. Our hero is probably dreaming of his beloved, walking arms in arms with her in the dark, dense and beautiful woods, by the side of a brook. Suddenly a monster comes out of the woods and makes eerie noises like that of a car horn. The train of dreams is derailed and our only passenger(the other passenger was virtual) was badly injured(emotionally). After all, it is not every day(or night) that you see dreams of this kind. Anyways by this time our hero knows that the monster of his dreams is in reality the cab guy honking outside his door, meaning to say* “Wake up dude, time to go to work”*.

The chap thinks why the something-or-another do you have to come you something-or-other piece of something-dirty but says aloud “Bas do minute bhaiya(Two minutes bro)”. In 5 minutes the chap is sitting in cab smelling strongly of deo which often is an alternative for not bathing.

At the same hour of night:

A not so significant street in Okhla industrial estate is slowly becoming alive as multitude of cabs are coming and dumping fashionably dressed males and females ageing between 20 and 30. The crowd with a drowsy and dreamy look in their eyes enters a multi storey building and Voila! There is a whole new world slowly coming to life in there. The buzz is slowly filling the air with energy. Guys and girls of all shapes and sizes are picking their headsets and taking their places. Within a few minutes the place is full of activity.

Thank you forrrr khalling Rachel(In reality the name is Ritu)

How may I assisth you?

I am sorry my supervisorrrr is busy at the moment, I wish I khould be of any help.

I know how I would have felt if I werrrre in your shoes sirrrrrr.

And thus the night moves on while dollars are being fetched for all these seemingly made up and dramatic lines spoken with false accent.

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Call Centres, a serious business:

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India being a country full of educated, english speaking and available(or unemployed) people was meant to be an ideal site for setting up call centres. In a layman’s term, when you do a part of somebody’s business in exchange of money you are a BPO organization and if the part of somebody’s business you are doing is calling customers and giving them service then you are a call centre organization. So what started as a distant possibility in early 90’s involving entrepreneurs like Raman Roy Chowdhury has become a deep rooted business today, providing bread n butter to thousands of families. No matter how much cribbing and ranting happens to beat it down, it is very real and it ain’t goin nowhere close to out.

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Downsides:

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As I stated it’s a serious business like any other yet the easy availability of these jobs and it not having required any special qualification, has created some issues too. A large group of people use these jobs to fulfill their silly needs like fashionable clothes, drugs, liquor, night clubs etc. I am not here to comment on the morality but what I seriously believe is that one shouldn’t mock a business which may give bread and butter to a millions of those who are needy. Who can support their families and put end to their miseries with these jobs. It is because of those non serious people that a call centre job is not considered as a respectable job.

Respectable! What are you talking about sir? A person is working odd hours, he or she is using their communication skill to earn this money. In my opinion it is a trade like many others and it is blasphemous to question its respectability.

Job Insecurity In most of the inbound call centres they have set parameters for callers, to meet them consistently is almost impossible. By not meeting them you put yourself in danger zone which may mean you are the next one to go back for training and probably will be shown the way out. Yes the customer is god but gods aren’t supposed to be this cruel.

Health hazards 7:30 pm to 4:00 am, 11:30 pm to 8:00 am, 1:30 am to 11:30 am…these are the shift timings for a call centre employee. By the time you are accustomed to a specific shift it will change and your sleeping and eating schedules get totally disturbed, which may lead to serious health issues.

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Positive sides:

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Till a few years ago a normal graduate devoid of those fancy and specialized degrees couldn’t dream of having a nice job which could help him/her maintain a lifestyle. Parents would spend their lifetime’s savings to buy their ward a degree which in turn could earn them a job of somekind. But this call centre revolution has presented them an option which could make their dreams come true without giving a serious daint to their parent’s pocket.

Of course there is nothing like a free gift in this world so one has to pay price in this case too. Working in odd shifts one lose touch with the rest of the world. Your only friends would be your colleagues and it would be recommended that your spouse should be in the same field else it is highly improbable that the marriage would last long.

On an average a call centre employee earns$3000 to$5000 per annum. In a country where per capita income is far far less then these figures, it could be considered as a blessing.

Jai