Indian Call Center Agents Suffering Health Problems Due to Caller Abuse

Contact center workers in are facing increasing health problems and we are causing it. Well, maybe not you and I per se, but frustrated callers into contact centers and consumers receiving calls in their homes are taking out their aggravations on Indian workers and the reasons are many; none of them justified.

In November of 2004, Dataquest, an information technology magazine, revealed a survey in which 25 percent of call center agents identified hate calls as the main reason for workplace stress. The survey also identified the calls as being psychologically disturbing for workers. 

Why are these hate calls occurring? In some instances, the caller may be unhappy with a service he is receiving or his or her latest bill and their frustration turns racist. Couple this attitude with resentment at the loss of American jobs due to outsourcing and the outcome can be abused contact center workers.

While these callers may feel their actions are justified, the Indian workers can hardly be blamed for the outsourcing trend. This particular industry represents earnings of $5.1 billion a year and employs more than 350,000 people. The National Association of Software and Service Companies anticipates a 40 percent increase in the coming year.

India offers a large pool of low-cost, English-speaking workers that also happen to be tech savvy. This has attracted back-office service operations of large American companies like American Express, Sprint, Ford and Hewlett Packard, to name just a few.

Adding to the problem are Indian workers who try to assume American identities when manning the contact center phones. While this is encouraged or even required by management, callers almost always identify the agent as Indian and often will either react to the deception or demand to speak to an American.

To combat this, many call centers will use giant TV screens broadcasting the weather in different cities or the scores of the latest games. The information on the screen is then used by the agents to make small talk with the caller to mask their location.

For those call centers focusing on the Australian market, the backlash is very similar. Some workers are suffering stress, sleep disorders, migraines and fatigue due to abuse and working overnight hours.

Because Australian accents are difficult to understand, especially in the working-class areas, the Indian caller cannot effectively communicate. The Australian consumer gets frustrated and when he or she realizes who the call is from, and the anger can get out of hand. Many of these consumers have also seen jobs leave and may themselves be out of work. Abuse can result.

In many ways, and for many industries, outsourcing call center and back office positions makes sense. However,  companies that are utilizing this option need to look at more than just the bottom line when deciding to move operations overseas. The backlash that these Indian workers are receiving is not a result of incompetence on their part, but perhaps frustration that the customer feels at the company itself for outsourcing its services. This can trickle into the customer’s perception of the company and its product or service and can hurt the company’s image in the long run.

As for the stressed Indian workers, outbursts at these agents because of anger over lost jobs or just the fact that they are indeed Indian will not change the company’s strategy. Overall, what it really produces is a stressed-out workers who may be experiencing health problems as a result.

Some of these workers opt to leave their position to find something less stressful, but many choose to stay due to the financial freedom the job provides. Whether or not the trade off is worth it is for each individual to decide. The bottom line, however, is that the trend in outsourcing is not going away and we as consumers can decide how we will react the next time we encounter an Indian contact center agent.

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