'I Made an Indian Girl Cry, You Can Do It Too!'

[Guest guest]

MUMBAI (JAN 11, 2005): "I made an Indian woman cry and promise to

quit her job in 60 seconds. You can do it too!"

 

This is only a random (and printable) selection from the thousands

of messages in cyberspace calling for a campaign to harass Indian

call centre operators, to put an end to the offshoring of jobs.

 

The same person goes on to describe some more of his experiences

while calling these call centres, an activity to which he promises

to devote "one hour every day".

 

"Actually the usual response is confusion. I get the impression

these are not the brightest bulbs in India's chandeliers. Often,

they give me a 'courtesy laugh' as if I were joking and ask how they

can help me.

 

"Usually, I limit the calls to 60 seconds anyway, so I can call back

and really hammer them. I've been doing this about 20 minutes a day.

It's great fun!"

 

The person goes on to give the names and numbers of some popular

MNCs with Indian call centres.

 

In the last few months, and particularly since the US presidential

elections, people working in call centres in the country say that

they are receiving more abusive and racist phone calls than ever

before.

 

"Earlier, people would get abusive if we didn't answer their

questions satisfactorily. Now, I get calls — on some days up to five

a shift — from people who are calling only to abuse," says Shalini

J, a 22-year-old engineering graduate who works in a major call

centre in Malad.

 

In fact, call centres are even training their employees specifically

for this. "There is a 'mute' button on our system which we have been

trained to press as soon as we get a call," says Aslesha M, another

engineering graduate who works in a call centre in Pune.

 

Aslesha says the button mutes any sound from their end so that

inadvertent responses to abusive language are not heard by the

caller. "When the person has finished saying all he/she wants to

say, then I press the 'talk' button and reply," she says.

 

While earlier, abusive calls would usually come from drunken

callers, now they come from sober people who are calling only to

vent their feeling about their jobs being offshored, or 'Bangalored'

as it is now called, says Suneet V, a Mumbai call centre executive.

 

Suneet says that they have been told never to hang up on the caller.

Instead, "de-stressing, yoga, and special training on how to deal

with this is given to us," says Suneet.

 

Most call centres have caller-ID systems, and habitually abusive

callers, they say, are sometimes screened out after 12 to 15 calls.

But they're up against people who are not only angry, but also

smart. Take this post, for example:

 

"I have inside knowledge of call centres, having worked in several.

It's crucial that the agents be efficient. Barraging them with 60-

second calls will ruin their stats and also lower their morale.

Eventually, they'll start thinking 'another damn rude American

a******' every time a call comes up. All of this will have a

cumulative effect. If 100 people across the US would commit to

spending 10 minutes a day, we could cripple them, and bring those

jobs back to the US."

 

SOURCE: The Times of India. TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, JANUARY 11,

2005 11:00:31 PM ]. By RUKMINI SHRINIVASAN

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/987643.cms