Outsourcing, my little corner view
I read an article on outsourcing our call centers to India and the stress it’s having on the Indian workers. USA culture has always had the image of being brassy and rude already (I’m thinking of the Fawlty Towers episode “The American” here) and it certainly hasn’t improved with the Bush cowboy method of politics (when he’s coherent enough to even get close to an image of anything). We have a lousy reputation overseas, and the people calling India for tech support, or help or ordering are not helping the situation.
Even in my own virtual office I have seen true bigotry at work, as one of our clients is GE, and maintains its own helpdesk for GE related issues that we cannot delve into since it’s GE’s servers etc. And I will admit that I do complain about not being able to understand them, but that is particular to me. I’ve never been able to understand someone with an accent on the phone, sometimes not even in person. That doesn’t make the other person stupid, it makes my hearing deficient. One of our T2s commented very negatively with slurs etc on the Indians who are taking up the jobs that companies are farming out for trimming the bottom line. That is the American way. It’s all about cost and the bottom line. Besides, people are all in an uproar but this has happened in cycles since the beginning of the Industrial Age. As technology improves, Americans tend to move into the higher paying more advanced jobs, and the lower older jobs get dropped down, and eventually it is more cost effective to pay for the services/goods produced somewhere else than it is to pay for them to be done here. Americans just expect too much in the way of pay and benefits. Not all Americans mind. Just the ones in the Middle classes and above. Trust me I know. I’m teetering on the brink of “middle class” and have looked down that road of poverty several times in my life. It’s not a pretty one, and pride goes away pretty quickly. But there’s a part of me that wants to move to India. I hear it is a beautiful place anyway. And the culture is lovely. Women who are respected and equals, yet still have the ability to stay beautifully dressed and not become “masculine” to get ahead. Ok - that is probably yet another broad sweeping generalization, but it least is made with a little knowledge. A friend of mine recently spent 2 different trips there and helped me see the country through his eyes. I’m not totally off with that impression. I can’t imagine being able to dress so beautifully every day.
