Call center workers often face stressful work conditions with customers cursing on the phone and leaving abusive and sometimes sexually harassing messages.
Here's a sample from New York News Day: "You Indian slut," came the man's voice, the 22-year-old recounted, "in some — Third World country, roaming about naked without food and clothes, what do you know about computers? Have you ever seen one ... ?”
Of the millions of calls patched daily between Indian agents and American customers, roughly 5 percent — or more than 200,000 — involve bigotry, say workers and industry analysts,” reports New York News Day.
Call centers became targets of a vicious campaign a couple of years ago when the American economy took a nose dive. Prominent television news hosts like Lou Dobbs, in provocatively named segments like “Exporting America”, launched scathing attacks on outsourcing, blaming it for the loss of American jobs. The problem gained national prominence within India with the story of the hosts of an American radio show placing a highly abusive call to an Indian call center. Philadelphia FM 99 hosts 'Star and Buc Wild' (ironically both are Black) placed a highly abusive call live on the show to a hapless Indian employee of a bead manufacturing firm. Clear Channel, the owners of the radio station who had just fired Howard Stern on morality issues, refused to take action against the show hosts beyond a mild reprimand. Hypocrisy galore!
The Washington Post, in its article titled India Call Centers Suffer Storm of 4-Letter Words, written about a month after the radio host incident reported, “Call center executives and industry experts say abusive hate calls are commonplace, as resentment swells over the loss of American jobs to India. According to a survey in November 2004 by an Indian information technology magazine called Dataquest, about 25 percent of call center agents identified such calls as the main reason for workplace stress. The survey said the calls often were 'psychologically disturbing' for workers.”
The Observer, writing about the same issue reports, “Workers face a spectrum of rudeness - from sexual harassment to fury at unsolicited sales calls, to open racism. Industry analysts have seen the phenomenon of racist clients grow in recent years, as customers in the UK and the US become increasingly sensitive to the political issue of jobs outsourced to India.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jumper Bailey
Right there with you. We need to be a bit nicer to the people we talk to on the phone.
The irony here is that those phone calls are actually an opportunity for friendhip (or at least friendliness). I remember a call I made to a technical support call center while trying to install a wireless router in my home. I had messed it up pretty good.
The guy on the other end of the line was in India. I could tell by the connection and accent. I asked him where he was located.
He paused and braced himself for another barrage from yet another American jerk. "I'm in Chennai," he said.
"Oh!" I said. "I have a friend who just came back from Chennai! He is from Orissa, but he went to a spiritual center in Chennai on a recent trip to India."
I sensed his relief through the phone line.
We visited some more and exchanged email addresses. He sent me an email with a cultural question he had after getting another phone call. In response to his question, I replied with an email explaining what an American cookout was.
A few months later, the tsunami hit. Chennai was hit particularly hard. I sent him an email expressing concern.
About a month later, he replied. He had survived the tsunami, but it had been a close call. He had been at the beach all day one day prior to the tsunami.
The technical support guy has since moved from Chennai to New Delhi to take another job.
A little courtesy can go a long way. If I ever make it to New Delhi, I now know at least one person who will probably be quite happy to show me the town and treat me to some good Indian home cooking. We might not have a barbeque cookout exactly, but I bet he could persuade someone to fire up the tandoori and throw down.
2 - Aaman
Comment#1 is my pick for COTD - we are all ambassadors of our cultures, and we often fail to realize this.
Good post, Gaurav
3 - gonzo marx
ummm...while i definately applaud the sentiment...i do have some difficulties here
it is never polite to be harassing, i totally agree
yet i greatly dislike being harassed, in my home, by unsolicited phone callers...especially since i am on the national and state do not call lists
i have also been insulted by an outsourced phone caller from a call center that is sub-contracted to my mortgage company
after the incident, i asked for the callers ID number and then to speak with the manager...i lodged a formal complaint, hung up and then called my mortgage company directly and informed them if i received another unsolicited call from any of their agents, i woudl find another broker to deal with...
it turns out the harassing caller was NOT supposed to call me, the center had taken it's legitamate list and used it in another department of it's own business
a little research will show this is NOT unusual, in fact in many cases it is common practice
is this the fault of the individuals working in the call centers?...of course not
is it a problem?
you decide
but don't call me at home
nuff said?
Excelsior!
4 - Matt Paprocki
Great job on this one Sood. Incredibly well done.
5 - Aaman
Gonzo, what does your being cold-called have to do with the issue of outsourcing, per se?:)
6 - gonzo marx
tangential at best aaman..you see, by being out of the coutnry they can avoid many of our Laws and regulations concerning the Industry...like illegally trading/selling lists, ignoring the "do not call" statutes and not facing harrassment enforcement
just to touch on a few
the rest i will gladly leave alone, suffice to say, i am a fan of being Polite, and do not endorse harrassment
but for the Record, i tend to be closer to Lou Dobbs assessment and facts concerning outsourcing and offshoring and illegal workers than i am of other Sources of information concerning these matters who, when examined, have a vested finanacial interest in the practice
nuff said?
Excelsior!
7 - larry
the only problem i have hav with these calls are aree t he caller doesnt doesnt speak english very well wel and they talk to
fast.leading me to
feel i am being conned. larry
8 - larry
i am still a gentleman
9 - Aaman
Doesn't look like you're very coherent yourself, larry, at least in e-print
10 - Dave Nalle
Be polite, it's always possible the outsourcing is to someone in prison and they will get out and come looking for the callers who were rude to them.
Dave
11 - Shark
I love talking to the Indian phone callers. I like to practice my limited Hindi on them. Freaks 'em out.
Especially fun when they identify themselves with a THICK hindi accent, saying...
"Hel-lo. My name is... um... STEVE... May I help you?"
I dunno, man.
Something about that makes me feel kinda warm and fuzzy.
The global village is filled with Indian guys named "Steve".
Awesome!
12 - Andy Marsh
It really doesn't do any goodto get nasty with the person at the other end of the phone line...they rarely if ever have anything to do with got you so pissed off in the first place!
I always get a kick out of being called...Mr. Andy!
13 - larry
personal attack? depends larry
14 - Catana
While I don't condone racial abuse of callers, I think it's ridiculous to blame hostility to call center personnel on loss of American jobs. I doubt that most people even know or care that the person they're responding to has taken (potentially, at least) an American's job. What is a major source of irritation? Trying to get a problem solved when you are dealing with someone who (despite all the media fluff about how intensively these people are trained in English) is difficult to understand, and who may not even understand you if you use words that they're not familiar with; someone who understands only those aspects of the problems they've been trained in, which means that anything out of the usual throws them for a loop. Getting problems solved via phone is difficult and frustrating enough without having poor communication added to it. Hiring people to read from a script is not the way to win customer loyalty.
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Hmmm,
A lot of outsourcing of calls comes right here to Israel. But, having worked in this business, I can tell you, we don't get nasty comments from Americans... not with our American accents.
The people with the English accents call England, etc. Though I've noticed that Americans are dfinitely impressed by English accents...
The pay is not terrible - for Israel. But the hours stink.
16 - Matt Largo
I think that part of the cause for this trend of outsourcing is that even if we did have an open cattle call to hire people for Call Center positions, especially technical, we probably couldn't find enough qualified people to fill all of these positions. Americans have been slipping in the academics department. Literacy and Math skills statistics look pathetic compared to other countries. It seems to me that a lot of Americans feel that they are entitled to jobs even though they don't have the skills to perform. I can't tell you how many times I have made purchases at fast food franchises and other stores and the clerk does not have the brain cells to count my change back to me correctly. Yeah, I want to get this schmuck on the other end of the phone line when I call with an issue for my computer. He probably couldn't even count to two in binary.
17 - Aaman
Everyone knows you can't count to 2 in binary
18 - larry
that is a job i dont think i would at be good at!!! larry
19 - Stephanie Milano
such a shame
20 - insomniac
There has and shall unfortunately continue to be realm that is governed by standards of stark and unnerving bigotary.The equation is all to unequal, with the all powerfull west weilding its might to suit its need.Kick the dog and then blame it for yelping seems to be the strategy.The irritating irony is that despite of deriving a vast economical mileage as compared to the peanuts that the orients are paid for bearing the brunt of disgruntled social perverts,the west continues to cry hoarse of a plan to rob its denizens of what they beleive rightfully belongs to them.The attitude reeks of crass racism and a selfishness that is so resonative of imperialism; the west is ok when childish innocense is cramped in shanties to be battered with unending hours of gruelling slogging stitching together soccer balls for a pittance but is highly inconvenienced when the same class of people come even a little bit close to being on equal terms.
21 - Jason in L.A.
Your article is a very one sided view, placing the full blame of caller's rudeness upon their economic concerns. This is a ridiculous claim.
I, too, have been quite rude with call centers, and justifiably so. First of all, I don't appreciate being lied to. I second the comment stating the "globabl community is filled with 'Steves'". Give me an honest name so I can keep a record of who I speak with.
Secondly, apparently in India, it is commonplace to speak over another person already speaking. When I try to explain the reason for my call, I am ALWAYS interupted, with the call center employee speaking nonstop until I finally reach a point I can't concentrate on what I am trying to say. I make no apology for telling them "You need to be quiet and let me speak before you try to respond". I would make the same remark to any call center, regardless of geography.
I have had call center employees get vicious with me when I tell them they have incorrect information (example? A Toshiba repair center in California kept my serial number on file after they worked on my laptop. They were committing fraud by continuing to use my serial number to order parts for free, as my laptop was still under warranty. The call center employee took it upon himself to call me a liar and rudely tell me I took the computer back to that location multiple times. Finally, I was outraged and simply said "This is BS (yes, I abbreviated it!), I want your manager!". I was then shouted at "I AM THE MANAGER" and he hung up on me". I later proved the fraud to Toshiba.
Couple that with the dishonesty, the failure to ever get anything resolved, the inability to understand the accent of the person that I am forced to speak to, the long hold times to get their supervisor, as the call has to be bounced tens of thousands of miles back and forth, poor call quality, constantly being told they "understand" when frankly, it's obvious they don't, and many other small frustrations that easily grow into a general frustration, and it's easy to see why folks become rude. Name calling is NOT acceptable, and I'm not defending that type of action. I've never called anyone any names or even used profanity, outside of my use of the term "BS", which in all honesty is a legitimate noun in the English language, not of a profane nature.
In regard to the economic impact, I believe you have also misconstrued the facts into something that supports the case you attempted to make. Yes, for every $1 the US outsources, we get $1.14 back. Ok, but for every dollar we DON'T outsource, I feel we get more. If Americans staff a call center, those employees now become viable consumers in the American marketplace, spending large sums of money on local, American based goods and services, especially in the hospitality and travel sectors. Those monies spent on foreign salries do the same thing, but to a greater extent into their own economies. Furthermore, the revenues on income, property, and sales taxes would further go toward the American economy.
The news can be slanted in any direction, but educating ourselves from various sources is our best defense.
22 - Logician
The best way is to disallow outsourcing and let companies go in further losses. Often people who do not know how to handle businesses are the ones who preach most about it. Remember that the man who asked for outsourcing to be done to India is an American himself. If you want to hate someone - hate the guy who gives the orders. Also as much as I know - Indians use US and British accents to the point where you cannot distinguish them fromfellow Americans. Its the other countries who get caught for their Asian accents. As for the Western name paradox - its the call center rules defined by the outsourcing company itself.
They dont want people to find out that your call was shipped all the way to India,Israel,Phillipines or the EU. If you dislike the foreigner on the other side - Let that be known to the company's management - why vent your anger on the the guy on the line?
23 - Lost Realist
Well, i used to work in an Call Center here in India.. and i have an indian accent of which i'm not ashamed at all! I had hard time understanding the american accent and so i was abused a lot on calls. Then i realized that neither my fault that i have an indian accent.. nor is it the american guy's fault that he doesn't understand me.
So i did what i felt was best for myself and the american guys both.. i left the call center job and am having my own business now. This is much better.. altho it pays me a bit less.. but i atleast dont have to lose my self respect.
24 - Frustrated
Every time I need to talk to a large company, I can pretty much count on having to talk to someone who speaks a little broken English and can only understand simple phrases. You have no idea how frustrating and time wasting this is. How is it that these people are working a job in which the primary function is communication?!? This is like a slap in the face to their customers. Overseas or not, at least make certain that the employee speaks good English. I once had a issue with amazon.com, and every couple weeks I would call up to talk about the problem and my call was routed to a call center in the Philippines. Every time I called they would the assure me that they would take care of it and for months the problem went unresolved. Finally, I got pissed enough to demand to talk to a call center in North America. Eventually I was put in touch with a call center in Canada. They were able to solve my problem in less than 5 minutes.
25 - wellsortof
have to agree with #24. Also am i a bigot or a racist because i want to pay my neighbors kid 20 bucks to mow my lawn verses get an online referral from 1000 miles away for a landscaper ?! Where is the basic concept of accountability?! keeping things local keeps your money in your local economy i call a call center in my basic geographical area. call center person gets a paycheck call center person takes their family out to dinner and tips the waiter who just happens to be my other neighbor. that kid saves his tips and buys a car from a local dealer where my uncle plows his lot in the winter so on and so on i hope everyone sees what i am talking about. eventually i hope that my local economy gets so good that i can save enough money to travel to India that way i can truly experience their wonderful culture. Am i getting through to anyone here?