Companies such as Convergys, the Ohio-based operator of one of India’s largest call centres, now employ more than 5,000 in India to perform ‘back-office’ functions. Gurgaon also boasts of offices for International Business Machines Corp., General Electric Co., American Express Co. and Nestle SA. The 20-somethings labouring in these call centers not only work together—they also drink together, dance together, date one another and, most important, understand one another. Their jobs compel them to cultivate American pronunciations and keep up with US pop culture. They have their own hybrid vocabulary. (“No probs, yaar”). And they have boundless expectations about where their new careers can take them.

More grind than glitz

But not everyone rejoices at these new employment opportunities. Citing low pay and dead-end jobs, a popular news portal recently declared that call centers have “cons more than pros.” A television talk show probed whether such centers are no more than “swanky sweatshops.” And in a best-selling novel, “One Night (at) The Call Center,” two BPO workers quit to open their own company, saying they were sick of working for Americans all night in jobs with no potential.

As more call centers and multinationals enter India, the agents have become hot commodities, switching jobs and commanding steep salary hikes along the way. This, along with their spending and partying, has fuelled a popular image of BPO workers as greedy and individualistic.

“The reputation of call centre employes has plummeted in India over the past year,” says Vishal Manchanda, who heads the India office of Arlington, Va-based Cvent, an online event management firm. “It used to be if you said you were a team leader, a girl’s family was impressed,” he says. “Now, increasingly, it’s being nullified. It’s like the dot-com bubble which burst. ... An associate or an agent is just a spoke in the wheel.”

Job hours vs family time

Observers say the sudden debate over call centers stems from longer-term changes in Indian society since the nation’s economy opened up in 1991. The older generation laments that the children are too busy, with no time for weddings, holidays or relatives. While earlier the young people’s social life used to revolve around family, now it increasingly focuses on friends and work.

“The average Indian youth today is more outward-looking, more confident, more liberal in terms of attitudes and values and social norms” compared with 20 years ago, says Sunil Mehta, Vice- President of the National Association of Software and Service Companies. “It is a phenomenon of the Indian youth, rather than a phenomenon of BPO. But these characteristics might be more amplified by people who work in the BPO sector.”

Call centre workers insist that they need not choose between their jobs and their traditions.

“Why is this industry so looked down upon?” asks Shweta Pundir, a 27-year-old training manager at Convergys. “I am so close to my culture now. There are things we’ve learned from our colleagues in the US like time management, but I also celebrate more of the festivals at work than I did before.”

Management mantras

It’s not only time management that these Indians are learning from the Americans. Managers seem to have absorbed other management lessons from their US-based bosses. “They’re ruthless,” says Pundir, her tone reflecting admiration. “For an organisation to sustain, we can’t think ‘poor thing this’ or ‘poor thing that.’ In charge of scheduling agents, Pundir says she can’t allow her employees to skip work for every religious or family function, as is customary in some Indian companies. Instead, call centre workers take US holidays, including Labour Day and Thanksgiving—but because the rest of India works on those days, they end up hanging out with friends from other call centres.

Safety strategies

Call centers have also come to resemble hi-security zones. From late afternoon into early evening, white minivans and sport-utility vehicles line the roads into Gurgaon, transporting call-center employees to work. A security guard often sits in the front seat to escort women. The ‘U.K. shift’ works from late afternoon into night, while those on the ‘U.S. shift’ toil overnight. Workers also are divided into ‘inbound’ (receiving calls) and ‘outbound’ (making calls).

Due to fears of customer identity theft and security breaches, agents leave all personal items—pens, phones, any scraps of paper—in lockers upon entry. They operate in highly regulated environments, including drug testing and monitored phone calls. ‘Tailgating’—following someone through a door without scanning ID—is forbidden. Fifteen-minute breaks are allowed every two hours.

“It’s not like you can sit back for one hour,” says Kapil Khaneja, a senior client servicing manager who has been promoted three times in his four years at Convergys. “You are spending seven hours on the phone.”

Not all work, some play

It’s not just all work at the call centers. Since they’ve become like extended families, workers end up spending festivals with colleagues. Take this example. As fireworks boomed across nearby New Delhi, thousands of call centre agents reported to work at a gleaming office tower in Gurgaon. Donning headsets and fake American names, they placed and fielded phone calls to and from the USA. For a few minutes each shift, though, the workers hurried outside to dance to deejay-spun beats, including Punjabi folk music and the imported sounds of R&B artist Usher.

“We celebrate here as if we are family,” says Pundir.

BPO staff’s day out

On Sunday nights, typically a day off, BPO workers flood Gurgaon’s half-dozen or so malls and wander the stores, sometimes waving to each other from passing escalators. They sit in coffee shops such as Cafe Coffee Day and Barista, crowding around bistro tables or on to leather couches. A recent issue of Cafe Coffee Day’s newsletter, ‘Cafe Beat,’ provided fodder for their conversations: movies, dating, gadgets and gaming. A recent cover story was on “Live-in relationships.”

Indeed, because many BPO workers spend their days dealing with Americans and their credit cards, they have a comfort level with debt that other Indians might not. Perhaps, admits Varun Dhamija, 26, a Convergys manager, he is too comfortable. He has six credit cards and transfers balances monthly to “stay afloat,” dodging the same collection calls his company often makes.

— LA Times- Washington Post