I.

A new day, same old routine.

By the time the sun drowned in the horizon on the night of June 17th, the rays of light glimmered in the darkness while I bounded across the pavement racing to my destination, desperate to be there before it was too late, as log in time were monitored constantly. Another day at Infofield Business Solutions, yesterday marked the fourth year anniversary of my employment for the company, but yet I was filled with sadness rather than contentment, I knew that there was no hope of me getting promoted, due to the senior management was dominated by men.

I gulped back the tears, as I reminisced to last year when I had worked extremely hard to get the promotion that was available, I sacrificed spending time with my family to do several overtime shifts and ensured that I delivered an excellent quality service to customers, for the job to only get handed to a fellow man colleague that lacked in qualifications and motivation. For me, I should have gotten the job but I knew that I just had to accept the inequalities that occurred in the industry, as women were seen lower than men and could only be junior management.

Once I entered the large, high-ceilinged room, I detected rows and rows of workstations placed in compartments divided by shoulder high partition, this was only one out of many rooms. As I quickly glanced at different rows, one woman caught my attention with her red bloodshot eyes that were sagging with fatigue and purple marks on the bottom of her lashes indications of her restless night, I was intrigued to find out why she had been so restless but it was in no doubt the working time shift of middle of the night till early morning that cause this, the call centre ensured working hours tailored the western world time zone, as the customers were mainly from united kingdom or America.

I marched over to row thirteen, seat five where I positioned my coffee down on the table, ready to begin a long eight hour work shift. All around me sat people with headphones, the nearest person to me pressed a button “Hello, Infofield Business Solutions, how may I help you?” then paused, followed by “What’s your customer reference…”. Then again, “Hello, Infofield Business Solutions, how may I help you?” a pause, followed by “What’s your customer reference” and over and over again. The repetition seemed never-ending, getting more irritating each time it was said, but I knew once I place the headphones neatly on my head, I would need to say and do precisely the same thing as others, we were all like robots programmed to follow the information that was given on the computer screen hours on ends.

The use of slang was not permitted and having the correct form of accent and language was necessary, the office is run bureaucratically, therefore decisions are made entirely by the officials so all call centre agents would need to follow the rules given. If we were not to follow the rules, we would easily get caught as team leaders and supervisors are constantly walking around, watching what we do and what we say and also I have heard that the call centre uses remote call listening-in, I am unknown to the punishment if the rule was not followed and would certainly no want to find out.

My first customer was chaotic and demonstrated violent behaviour due to him apparently being on hold for thirty minutes, during the call I just thought “Calm down Ericka and breath” then would respond to him in a manneredly fashion, this was not a great way to start the day. The call centre is in no doubt always busy with the vast amount of callers all over the world, so it is expected during any shift to get several customer that are unhappy and would gladly take their anger on us, but as an employee we are expected to be mannered throughout and do our job. However for me being a call centre agent requires a lot of patient, as the temptation to give abuse back to the customers occurs on daily basis.

After four hours of straight phone calls and about eighteen customers, I was freely allowed an hour break to eat my food and relax until another four more hours shift. On my way to the nearby canteen, I had passed numerous of worried looking people in the office, rumours was passing that the company was expanding and hiring at least hundred more operators. Although call centres appears to be an easy job, employers require different amount of skills.

Four years ago, I was in the same position, after graduating with a degree of business and management hoping to be able to work in a different country as it will provide me with a better opportunity but no luck so I applied to vast amount of higher ranking jobs but still no luck for me, the call centre was my last chance as I had to provide money for my family although with my long shift a day, I only earn an annually salary of around $2400 which I know is nowhere near enough compared to call centres in European countries.

My break has come to an end, so another four more hours of “Hello, Infofield Business Solutions, how may I help you?”, typical day, nothing new and nothing interesting.

II. Policy and practices of Indian call centres

The offshoring of call centre works to developing countries such as India and the Philippines has become commonplace in the past few years. It is known that India provides 44% of the world’s outsourcing business, this is due to over a million English speaking graduates every year, who willingly work at cheaper rates.

▪ India has a new IT law that joins the country with 11 other countries in compliance with common e-commerce rules that allow for legally valid paperless transactions and legal transfer.

▪ Trade union act of 1926 – formal recognition to workers’ unions

▪ Royal commission of 1932 – recommended the appointment of labour officers

▪ Factories act of 1948 – duties and qualifications of labour welfare officers

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III. HRM system of the company google.