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Call centers can be exploitative — Saffo

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CIOL Bureau
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Do you see a long-term impact of outsourcing/offshoring on the US economy? Will US services jobs moving out be a long term issue?



Outsourcing contracts would They are going to go to countries like India not just because of low cost but because of better quality. Today 40% of Silicon Valley consists of Indians. They are better technically, they are beginning to get into management consultancy, they are even better at handling phone calls in contact centers.



Outsourced workers are everywhere. Recently the Pentagon bought a supercomputer, gave the software out to a US company and parts of its code is written by Chinese programmers. Wait till the nay-sayers hear that an ex-commie is writing code for the Pentagon.



The US has a whole world of problems coming its way both in the short term and the long term. There is structural unemployment in Silicon Valley and when the US economy recovers, Silicon Valley is not going to recover with it. In fact there is already a recovery underway but it’s a strange kind of jobless recovery. Those lost jobs are not likely to come back — automation, increased efficiencies and offshoring will take care of those.



Which is one of the reasons we’ve seen a lot of vocal opposition to outsourcing to India in recent months. The New Jersey bill and four other states for instance. Do you see a long-term impact on India as a result of this?



Well, the US is a nation that likes to blame others. So yes, India is going to get some of the blame for lost US jobs. And post September 11, the US is reacting in a rather unreasonable manner. We’re making Silicon Valley a very hostile place for foreigners. And we’re already beginning to see the affects of the H1B protests.



A north western hospital complex for example says it is losing a billion dollars a quarter because of inability to get skilled people in. Universities are complaining that H1B restrictions are affecting basic research. The only ray of hope is that the current administration is so profoundly stupid that I think we are soon going to see George Bush’s popularity drop and a lot of the ongoing repercussions of the so called war against terrorism might come to an end. Americans are basically good people. They take a little long to recognize injustice but when they do, they protest.



There is a lot of optimism in India about the call center industry as it has created many jobs. What’s your take on the long-term impact of the call center industry on India?



Call centers can offer an important entry-level job opportunity for fresh graduates. The sad part is that youngsters, attracted by the remuneration and perks, compromise on higher education.



Call centers are a job, but it is not clear if they can offer a fruitful career. As the industry grows in India, care has to be taken to ensure that there is a career path beyond call centers — otherwise, what began as well-intentioned creation of jobs could end up being exploitative of India’s most important resource, it’s youth.



In particular, the Indian industry should look closely at the evolution of call centers in the US. Back there, call center workers have complained of stressful work environments and over-supervision. Some have even called some US call-centers "sweatshops," comparing them to the problems of overwork on factory floors. India has the chance to learn from mistakes made in America, and thus avoid the risk of burning-out the very people who will make the next Indian revolution happen.



There is one other risk with advances in voice recognition and AI eating into the low-end of the call center business. Computers won’t replace humans answering complex questions, but they are already are replacing operators at AT&T and elsewhere for simple voice-interaction with callers.

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