The first problem in the BPOs is the misuse of information. The leakage of information regarding the customers’ financial position can result in siphoning of funds as evident from the many cases like Pune based Mphasis BFL’s BPO operation MSource whose three former employees had defrauded 4 Citibank customers of about $350,000, In June 2006, an HSBC BPO staffer siphoned off Rs 1.8 crore from the accounts of 20 customers from their centre in Bangalore, the recent Data Theft Scandal which claims that details of credit cards, driving licences and passports are stolen from Indian call centres and sold to the highest bidder, etc. Also, there is every possibility that the underworld might send their goons to work in the call centers for collecting financial information of the people so that they can target them for extortion.
Then there are health problem faced by the employees, particularly women, due to night shifts, which should be addressed immediately. Also there are many employees, male and female, who have taken liking to drugs to treat their problem of insomnia & mental strain arising due to unconventional timings and stressful job.
Young college students are drawn towards this industry because of hefty salaries, thereby completely ignoring their education for some pocket money. Hence, a graduate degree should be made compulsory for employment. The workforce in BPOs comprises mainly of college going youth who join BPOs for making pocket money and once they make enough money to satisfy their needs they leave the job after a short period of 2 to 6 months. The criterion for youngsters joining BPOs is not making a career but high pay scale. Let the BPOs start decreasing remuneration and they would see a mass exodus of employees. BPOs have become nothing but a transit lounge for the youth. After couple of years in college they land in BPOs, bid their time and make some money, and then they leave the job taking another flight (job) for a soaring career ahead.
The BPO proponents claim that the job in BPOs is challenging and it inspires confidence in the youngsters and they learn to gain patience. If so, what makes these youngsters leave such a “challenging job” after a short period? Why such a high attrition rate of 40%. The BPO proponents also aver that a stint in BPOs help the youngsters improve their communication skills, if nothing else. If so, why invest so much money in establishing BPOs when one can learn communication skills in classes that are imparting communication skills for ages now. Yes it true that some people are working for more than five years in BPOs but it is only because they don’t have age on their side and also because they don’t have any career options left for them.
BPO employees lack self esteem and are treated like slaves. When you have to bear customers’ abuses without being allowed to react, when you are not allowed to speak even a word outside the written script, when you are ticked off for slightest of mistakes, when you can’t take breaks at will, when you have no recourse to social & family life, when you have a monotonous job at hand, and when you have to take drugs to ward off insomnia & work pressure, then one’s self esteem is bound to suffer. If enduring customers’ abuses without making a riposte and not getting holidays for Indian festivals in spite of working in India is not slavery then what it is? Safeguards with respect to employee abuse have to be in place. Just because the employees are given high salary does not mean they have to endure abuses unnecessarily. They get salary for doing their job and not for hearing abuses.
Then there is problem of transportation at night especially for women because not many BPOs make arrangements to drop their employees to their houses. At the most the employees are dropped to the nearest railway station. In such cases, women can fall preys to unscrupulous elements at night.
What the BPO have succeeded in is in making the youth more materialistic who are after latest gizmos and high life style that they acquire due to heavy salaries they draw. These cannot be a substitute for a good social and family life. Those who think that the BPO boom will result in more products and services being launched to cater to cash-rich BPO employees should know that once countries like China and Japan enter the BPO market, the jobs will go there due to cheap labour in these countries. As a result there won’t be high salaries for Indians here. And the only ones who will be working in call centres for low salaries will be the middle aged or retired persons but with this kind of workforce one can only imagine the quality of work and the energy they will show while working, resulting in low productivity. BPOs have only temporarily solved India’s unemployment problem. The Indian government has to look for long-term alternatives for solving unemployment woes and for a bright future for the Indian youth.
And unknowingly, the BPO industry has also helped the college girls/boys (gigolos) who do not work in call centers but who are into prostitution. Now these college girls/boys have got a perfect alibi – of working in call centers – when they do their “night shifts” with their customers. Of course BPOs can’t be blamed for this but they certainly can take measures to eliminate the above-mentioned problems. The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) should look into the allegations of breach in customer information security very seriously and take action to punish the culprits.
A disorganized system will neither help the BPO industry nor the employees. This is a ‘wake-up call’ to the ‘call’ centers regarding this ‘alarm’ing situation. One hopes that the current BPO boom does not boomerang on us.