Transmission

Advertising and the truth of the matter

2008-08-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

I will theorize when I stop laughing:)

And now for something completely different!

2008-07-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Via SAJAforum,

In the Onion, an ad for the Onion book of fake news:

Also follow the debate on SAJAforum.

While the image is interesting to me from a representation and discourse point of view (notice the conflation of religion, technology and disease and deprivation), let me state for the record that I find it spectaculary un-funny.

But coming back to the point, what I am interested in is the work that this image does...

Women in call centers

2008-07-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

There has understandably been a large amount of concern expressed over issues of safety for women working in the night shifts in Indian call centers. An article I found on MSN asks How safe are girls on graveyard shifts?

The statistics are telling (so is the title of the article). Three cases of violence that have garnered large amounts of attention in the media.

"November 3 2007: Jyothikumari, a Wipro BPO employee in Pune was raped and murdered by her driver.
December 13 2005: Pratibha Srikantamurthy, a HP Globalsoft employee in Bangalore, was raped and murdered by a person who posed as the cab driver
August 6 2005: A cab driver threw acid on the face of a 22-year old girl working in a Pune BPO when she resisted the advances made by him.
With headlines like these bursting out of our morning newspapers, is it any surprise that parental hearts skip a beat when their daughters board the cab to work on a US or UK shift at the BPO company? "

The rest of the article seems to ostensibly lay blame on the inability of the company to check the antecedents of cab drivers and on employees who get "over-friendly" with them. Questions of the structural violence against women in Indian public space and the short arm of law remain hidden.

Also, it is wise to remember that it was only in 2005 on account of the call center industry that the Factories Act of 1948 was amended to provide for protection to women on night shifts. Until then, there had always been women workers in factories and SEZs where it was not required that the organization provide safety measures. Women were always working the night shift, but the amendment was more of a lawful recognition and provision of tantamount rights.

A question of class...

2008-07-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Today, as I did my usual google trawling for call centers and health, I ended up where I didn't think I would.

New HIV/AIDS Threat In India Found Among Youth Working At Call Centers, Researcher Says

Unprotected sex with multiple partners among young staff in India's call centers has emerged as a new HIV/AIDS threat in the country, Suniti Solomon, the researcher who detected the first HIV case in India in 1986, told the International Congress on Infectious Diseases on Saturday, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports.

According to Solomon, such risky behavior among "call center Romeos," who typically work at night to correspond with the daytime working hours of their U.S. and European clients, has become a great concern. Solomon said, "They have all the money. They huddle together in the night. They are young, they are sexually active, so naturally they start." (italics mine)

What do I make of that last sentence? Brings to mind several extremely charged images. The article goes on to state how the fight against HIV/AIDS has been hampered by extreme conservatism, including opposition to male circumcision.

The various interpretations of conservatism. It seems ironic that the very notion of liberalism embedded in the supposedly promiscuous lifestyle of call center workers leads to consequences like AIDS that cannot be combatted on account of male workers' conservatism.

P.S Solomon is further is reported to have said, "You will see call center Romeos are a major high risk for HIV".

The same article is also reproduced on China Daily.

The Simpsons!

2007-09-30T00:59:00.000-07:00

So...

2007-09-13T03:28:00.000-07:00

why is an article on New Delhi call centre cabs out in Qatar's leading English daily?

The Brits are in town!

2007-09-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

As my usual search phrases, "call centre" crawled across Internetia, this is what they came up with:
(The article is from 2004 by the way!)

Indian outsourcer imports Brits

Indian outsourcer GTL is evaluating its local staff by importing British graduates to work as agents at its Pune call centre.

The 10 graduates from Britain will join GTL’s Pune staff of 500 and will work on par with their Indian counterparts at a salary of 150 pounds (US$268) per month and a contract that affords them two months paid leave after ten months of work to travel around India. "The only thing extra that we are providing them is shared accommodation in the city," GTL senior vice-president Pradeep Phadke said.

Phadke told reporters the project was a "bench-marking exercise". "Our main objective is to find out the performance of a British employee vis-a-vis his Indian counterpart, while servicing the same client. We are interested in knowing whether the former is more effective than the Indian in selling the company. Secondly, the aim is to have an informal inter-mingling of the people from both the countries for a better understanding of the cultures, mindsets and accents."

Gentrification and call centers

2007-09-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

On today's round-up, in the UK call centers now apparently have the ability to practise phone snobbery. Call centres for banks are using software that allows them to distinguish between customers' socio-economic status on the basis of their postal codes.

Urban zoning meets IT?

More here...

2007-08-14T01:34:00.000-07:00

This article in the Times of India talks about the new breed of domestic call centre employees, some of who due to their hardworking habits and loyalty are even hired by global call centres.

MAIDS, PEASANTS AND HELLO

Savita Kamble has stopped talking at home. Her mother, who is looking for a suitable boy for her, is worried about the girl's behaviour. Every day, the 23-year-old returns from work with aching fingers, ringing ears and a dry throat. Though her new job is not as physically demanding as the old one, by the end of the day, Savita is tired of faking excitement or listening to any more people. Two months ago, her life became a series of rehearsed lines about products that she does not relate to in any way. Till then, like her mother, Savita too, was a simple maid servant.

"It feels like a job," she says. It's this feeling that draws many like Savita from their gloomy little homes to this glamourous air-conditioned world. Among them are girls from small town beauty parlours, farmer's sons and kindergarten teachers. The phenomenal growth of domestic call centres all over the country is creating unique call centre jobs for impoverished boys and girls who do not speak fluent English. Their poverty, in a way, is their asset.

The lure of the call centre, which promises an increment of almost 20-40% within a year, is more widespread than suspected. When Gaurav Pandey was caught by a constable for drunk driving, and he introduced himself as a call centre employee, what followed was unbelievable to him. "The constable took us to a nearby restaurant and started pitching in for his son." Abhishek Gadi, manager of operations in a Faridabad-based call centre, says that aspirants from small towns in UP were willing to pay Rs 20,000 for recruitment.

Unlike the English-speaking variety who join call centres for temporary financial gratification before moving on to higher education, the youth from middle India are compelled by circumstance to treat the nocturnal job as a career. This is an aspect that is fast endearing them to even global call centres. They are not transient. They are loyal and hardworking. They don't watch porn in the office or bunk work. They can endure the rigours of training, insults and culture shock.

Brijesh Singh came to Mumbai from Varanasi chasing the dream of becoming an actor. Nine years down the line, he has forgotten the dream and is now happily employed in a Belapur call centre. For the training sessions, he used to take the last train every night from Andheri to Dadar and wait for two hours at the station for the company vehicle to arrive at 3 am. The sessions were tough for the Varanasi boy. Once he was asked to say, "Barbie, there's a call for you." He said, "Bhabhi, there's a call for you". Now, he doesn't fumble when he speaks, nor travels by train. "I have an Accent now," he says, without intending the pun.

Notes to Self: Language, Discipline, Translation

Identity and Naming

2007-08-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

One of the predominant characteristics of stories in media about call centre employees that I have noticed is that this becomes a primary marker. The fact of their being such an employee, that is. Stories (very often gory and related to murder or other mayhem) are titled "Call centre....." and then go on detail events which in actuality have neither taken place on the premises of the call centre nor do they bear ostensible direct relation to the process, fact or event of employment.

For example,

Call centre employee murdered

The arrested youth and girls included call centre and IT firm employees, sons and daughters of affluent businessmen, air hostesses and college students.

BPO murder victim's colleague arrested

(A few caveats on the observation:
1. A number of these have come out in light of the Bangalore murder case at HP which was facilitated by loopholes in the call centre transport system.
2. The same loopholes exist in other call centres (or at least existed during the time of the above case) and hence safety is an issue around the call centre industry.)

Last but not the least;

This picture of call centre employees as victims of crime on one hand and perpetrators on the other; who or what does it pathologize?

Sivaji!

2007-06-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

So the BOSS had this to say in the scenes where he is doing the rounds of temples looking for a suitable 'Tamil' girl that he can fall in love with....Tamil in speech, culture, et al...

Even as he despairs of finding such an 'untouched' lass, his sidekick mutters that Tamil culture these days has been replaced by 'call center culture' (or CCC if you prefer)....

Slavery?

2007-06-11T21:57:00.001-07:00

Here is the article that caused a furore in the national press and sent NASSCOM into a tailspin.
Via Rediff.

Are Indian BPOs slave ships?

rediff Business Desk | October 26, 2005 16:28 IST
Last Updated: October 26, 2005 17:35 IST

Is there any relation between ancient Roman ships that once employed prison labour and Indian BPOs? Yes, says a study by the VV Giri National Institute of Labour.The report by the labour institute has created a furore for bringing out the appalling working conditions in India's hi-tech business process outsourcing companies.

The study highlights that "the degree of surveillance required at work is even comparable with situations of nineteenth century prisons or Roman slave ships". It also points put that human resource managers "camouflage work as fun''.With several states exempting call centres from labour laws including the Industrial Dispute Act, there is a great concern over flouting of labour laws in these call centres.

Meanwhile, IT body Nasscom and call centres have denied these charges. Leading BPO companies say they were not even approached for any kind of feedback.

The institute's study says workers at BPO centres are monitored round-the-clock with specially designed software and closed circuit cameras. "Even the time taken on attending each call is scrutinised and the employees are expected to take a certain number of calls on an hourly basis in some companies. In some companies, the person attending the call asks whether the client is satisfied with the response and asks for his feedback, which is again used to rate the employee's performance, according to a BPO employee.

Nasscom president, Kiran Karnik agrees that the institute is highly credible but what irked him was the reference to prison camps. Nasscom also points out that the Indian outsourcing firms have the highest employee satisfaction rates across any industry in India.

BPO companies have raised questions on the credibility of the report citing several examples of high growth prospects and huge opportunities for the youth of India.

"Its sad to hear about the bad working conditions of employees in some BPOs. Companies have to realise that the people working in BPOs are not made of nuts and bolts. They are human beings and should be treated well too," Daniel H. Pink, author of best sellers like 'Work Agent Change' and 'A Whole New mind', told rediff.com.

According to the Labour institute report, though the BPOs project a good work environment, higher salaries and ample growth prospects, this is far from reality.

Young graduates are made to believe that they have the best offer on earth, but once they are hired, their performance is constantly monitored and several warnings are issued if targets are not meet. They are also asked to quit if they don't meet the company's high expectations.

The labour institute report draws parallels to popular model of work organisations followed in 1980's saying that the organisational structure of call centres is basically 'dualistic' with one set of permanent and non-permanent workers. While the top managers form the core group, the young graduates form easily replaceable group.

What is surpirisng is that the BPO employees also seem to be divided on this issue. While some feel that they were aware of the working conditions and they chose the profession as the best among the various options they had. Others agree with the labour institute's report that a rosy picture is drawn to attract them and once they are hired, it's a totally different world altogether.

"If such bad practises continue, talented people are bound to move out. So in the long run companies will be forced to make sure that employees are happy and they stay with the company, " says Daniel H. Pink .

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/oct/26bpo.htm

The report was withdrawn from the Labor Institute website shortly after the story broke. I am still trying to get my hands on a copy. If anybody has any ideas, do help.

Dan Pink, who's quoted in the article, used to be speech-writer to Al Gore from 1995 to 1997 and now propagates 'right-brain' thinking. What's he doing in this piece??

Kicking off...

2007-06-10T04:04:00.000-07:00

This is a long postponed project. My primary inertia in letting this take virtual form has been to do with choice. Yes, choice. That long villified corollary, nee fundamental of the consumptive world. Translated into English, that means, what should I write about?

1. My virtual dog?
2. The travails of ethnography?
3. Angst and pain as a 'native' informant?
4. The lack of alphonso mangoes in the Indian market?
5. What I cooked for lunch today?

Coming back to the agenda, next step, pare down.

1. (1) and (4) can come under a journal/rant blog
2. (2) and (3) of course, classify as professional to the extent that an underpaid, overthought doctoral dissertation can be considered such
3. (5) would most definitely be culinary and my efforts are too sparse, often inconsistent and marginally inarticulable to contemplate one

So the Buddha's middle-path, No.2 it is....
And now the fine, third step in the polish, tag and sell stage....

1. What is it that needs to be recorded and written about on a weekly if not daily basis?
(a) field-notes are ranty and often boring and self-indulgent
(b) positionality is a mess
(c) media?

Hmm.... (drumroll)
(C) it is, because...

(a) material comes up faster than I can keep track
(b) it fuels further vaccilations and pushes my own material
(c) sound and picture!
and a hidden (d): you can't judge me, none of it is mine! neener neener!

So this then, my patient readers will be a blog about other people, specifically other people who have written, discussed, ranted about, celebrated, and participated in any manner that I find interesting in the phenomenon called outsourcing in India or related to the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in India.

...Not having so much fun now, are we?

What I would appreciate should you stay however are:
(a) Reactions in as civilized and 'constructive' a manner as possible.
(b) Links to other related stories and writings.
(c) Random paens to my genius and articulatation.

More soon...