"I know how you Feel!"

Ok maybe I am getting lazy, but I had a little time this morning and read this article. REALLY thought some of you would take interest in it. It's funny how you laugh at something when your reading it and think "I know how you feel".

*** ARTICLE THIS MORNING ON AOL WEBSITE ****
"Do you know the Mafia? I'll send them over to India to get you!"That's just one of the threats that Mumbai call-center operator Malvyn Aranjo says he received in the course of a day's work. Fortunately, he says, it was against the American bank's company policy to tell a customer where his call-center team was located.Frustrated venting from American customers against Aranjo's agents include threats of legal action -- "I'll sue you" -- physical violence and, of course, a visit from the Mob.

"It is mind blowing," he says. "But it was a fit of anger and anyone can say anything in a fit of anger. Especially in relation to banking customers. Obviously they have a right to be angry with the bank [over the canceling of a card, for example] but some people do not take it good and lash out at the agent." Aranjo says that customers from America's Southern states sometimes experience difficulties. "Communication, the American or the agent's accent, can be a problem." In this situation, after perhaps three or four misunderstanding, a customer would be referred to a supervisor or manager at the call center, Aranjo says. His most polite customers? "Older ladies."Aranjo, 27, is one of millions of Indian and Asian workers drawn to work in customer service or IT support, often by the lure of easy money or a desire to be part of the global economy – two factors that were extremely hard to come by in India ten years ago, when Aranjo started out. Now, he manages his own hub, and call center work is as much a part of daily Indian life as cricket or the movies.Aranjo, who was born in Kuwait to Indian parents and grew up in India's capital city, has worked at several contact centers that contracted with western clients: One was for a diabetic supplies company answering queries for patients who had changed their insurance provider; another was in sales for UK grocery and retail chain Marks and Spencer. He also serviced customer calls on Vodafone's 3G capabilities alongside his banking clients' queries.After seven to eight years answering calls from international customers and clients, and getting promoted “year after year,” Aranjo took the position he holds now, of operations manager at a Mumbai call center specializing in recruitment. On the side, he runs his own e-business venture – selling goods on eBay among others – alongside a plastics and textile supplies firm.His family's financial position meant he had to work straight after graduating high school after excelling in science. For a time, he tried being a disc-jockey. He says while that was fun, market research is the most fun he can have now, as a successful entrepreneur.He says call-center work was hard at first and that some workers adjusted to the conditions while others found them hard-going. “The pure graveyard shift, like doctors do, is not easy to cope with. The work culture is really different. To cater to an American company, you have to work at the dead of night.“Basically I had a nine-hour shift, sometimes 12-14 hour shift. My job profile was taking care of everything: the IT sector, business, security, telecom and sales.”He says that a fresher, as they're called here, will earn a salary of about $500 a month. He started on a lot less than that, or about $200 monthly, when the industry was in its infancy. “I was young, it was young,” he says. Industry wages have risen steadily in the last 10 years and he says he's doing pretty well as an operations manager.Skills-wise, he says that technical ability is a pre-requisite for employment in Mumbai, alongside good written and verbal communication. “Almost everyone does have a normally operating computers. (Computer skills) are asked for but it is quite simple. At least 99 per cent of the public in Mumbai do have computer experience. Almost everyone has a computer at home.”Coffee, he says, is the indispensable tool of the trade. “The best trick. It keeps you awake and is better than any other type of medication.”Some media reports have suggested other call-center workers often rely on other, not necessarily legal, pharmaceuticals to make it through the shift. “So many crazy things happen,” he says. “One night, we had cops sitting over there (outside the call center) and a bunch of people smoking weed. The cops were OK with it. It's crazy but, really, how can you let that happen?”But Aranjo fared well with only coffee as a backup. “After seven years of working at night and sleeping during the day, sometimes now I find it tough to stay awake during the day!”
A global businessDeepak Shikarpur, the editor of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Digest, says “aspirations and a desire to be part of the global economy” are often the main motivating factors for Indian workers to join the BPO sector.

Many he says, like Melvyn, move up the career chain and end up as managers of IT or BPO companies by “sheer hard work”.He adds: ”Young age people are not too much bothered about long term-benefits. Their main worry is getting a dream job and good salary. If the employer is a multinational company with chance of overseas visits then the satisfaction is higher.“Jobs are moving up the value chain. Demand for low level data or voice BPO will be lower. The point is to add skills in (a) domain (like) technology and move up the value chain. Become multilingual and learn Spanish or French. A multilingual global work-cultured professional will always be in demand.”He says that India, which accounts for 28 per cent of global BPO agents in a $300 billion global outsourcing market, is “the darling” of the BPO business and that the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea will need many years to catch up. He says call centers and the IT industry as a whole are creating very positive impacts on city economies, as BPO businesses offer easy money to young students and workers, stimulating spending in the area. Ideally, Shikarpur adds with a smile, any BPO agent should spend their hard-earned money on higher education, and not on shopping, discos or nightlife.
Skills required Kashinath A [correct name, just the initial, he says] is a Bangalore recruiter for call centers who's seen his share of the business from the other side.He says call-center workers need to have basic communication skills and good English. Technical software skills are required alongside document processing ability. He also advocated a qualification or certificate recognized by the government of India.Kashinath, 25, said when he started the industry was young and wages were below market standards. Now, with more competition for workers, wages have risen. His primary job was recruiting for a 500-worker call center in Bangalore that contracted with a Fortune 500 company Kashinath was reluctant to name.“It's a challenging task, recruiting the right person for the right job. Not everyone can do it. You need attitude, that means basically taking the initiative, the bottom line, and making a long-term commitment to grow with the company.”Kashinath now has set up his own startup venture, an internationally focused HR recruitment firm called Integritti.com, a “complete, managed HR service.”He says: “I had three years' experience in HR, got some of my friends and senior partners together and we had 60 years experience in HR. We planned to start a new venture (with) a mixture of senior and junior people.“We are a startup company. Once we have established ourselves in the market, definitely we will be looking outside India.”

I promise I will write something tonight just didn't want you to say I didn't write anything, ha, Ha, HA!!