By Madiha Javed from Wah Cantt
Pakistan’s call centre industry has established itself to be one of
the most popular and successful sector of the country. The reason behind
this success is that it has created vast employment opportunities for
youngsters who have very little or no work experience and skills.
In a country like Pakistan, where unemployment rate is high, such job
opportunities are bound to be welcomed by job seeking individuals.
Fresh graduates take this opportunity as sunshine towards a bright
future. Call centre jobs are easily accessible and act as a good starter
to generate income. If you have strong communication skills and feel
you can talk to people over the phone with authority and confidence then
that’s all what you need to get a job with a call centre.
Once you get the job things look quite exiting. Till the trainings
are undergone it remains a fun, but once that’s over the real work
begins. It does get boring and frustrating in a few weeks as you start
the routine of answering one call after the other. Especially when most
of the times customers are calling in to abuse you over different issues
including balance deduction without his/her knowledge, network issues
and so on.
When you are unemployed and get a chance to work at a BPO, your
communication skills are enhanced and you learn tactics to handle calls
efficiently, but still when the pros and cons are compared, its long
term benefits are far less.
The repetitive nature of most call centres can be both good and bad
simultaneously. If you’re feeling down and don’t want to go to work any
day, the repetition can help you as you will not have to put in too much
effort in your work. The negative side is that, at some point you will
get bored of the monotonous nature of the BPO or call center industry.
I still remember the days when I worked at a call center and used to
come home after work. I simply hated answering calls from anyone or even
seeing someone’s name appear on my cell phone’s screen. I became rude,
irritated, and began hating myself. There were severe impacts on my
family life and I had to practically abandon my friends circle.
Job seekers take this opportunity as a first step towards the
corporate world, but unfortunately only a few actually end up
successfully shifting to a better job; most of them remain stuck in this
job forever.
Long hours of work, permanent night shifts, incredibly high work
targets and loss of identity are amongst some of the major factors
adversely affecting the lives of employees affiliated with the call
center industry in Pakistan.
The nature of work in call centers is such that an agent is made to
work on a chair, continuously for nine hours, whereby he/she is forced
to read a pre-scripted document at the start of a call for every
customer. This tedious routine literary made me a psycho, insomniac, and
rude individual with a disturbing my life as a whole. It’s one of the
looniest jobs in the world as you are surrounded by your colleagues and
friends constantly talking on the phone in 8 to 9 hour long shifts, with
just 15 minute tea breaks and 30 minute lunch breaks in between.
This frustration, tension and depressive nature of a call centre job
is driving our youth into adoption of unusual and abnormal behaviours
and poses a serious threat to the society and is weakening our roots and
culture.
In my opinion, the worst part about working at a call centre is the
overly strict rules and regulations. Generally, if you are more than a
few minutes late you receive a negative ‘point’. If you get a certain
number of ‘points’ you will be fired instantly regardless of how good
you are at your job.
In some cases things are even worse than words can describe. I myself
worked at a call centre of a cellular company in Pakistan and I and was
deprived of any employee benefits besides my salary. In addition to
this, we were also dispossessed of basic employee rights, for instance,
we were not given a single penny for working on public holidays. Taking a
day off even for medical reasons is an uphill task there.
We worked in 9 hour long shifts and were given just a single day off
after 6 days of work which is extremely tough; other call centers
generally give at least two days off weekly.
It is indeed a challenging job that requires tackling different
customers which include good, bad, abusive, moody and at times
aggressive clients. You require a tactful approach to address the needs
and issues of the customer.
A lot of sacrifice and commitment is required from an agent to work
during night shifts and to alter his/her life to adapt to a new
lifestyle; hence I salute all CSO’s (Customer Support Officers) for
adjusting to such a tough lifestyle.
One year work experience with this industry is enough. A CSO gets far
away from his social life and develops habits of rudeness and
frustration in life. A CSO requires a lot of patience even when a
customer is annoying and using abusive language. You end up taking out
this frustration in your life outside your work place which impacts your
relationship with your friends and family; please keep in mind that no
job is worth more than these closely knit relationships.
Opting for a job in a call centre might not be the best job in the
world, but it is better than being unemployed and sitting at home.
However, I sincerely request youngsters not to consider it as a long
term carrier.
Sending
fake SMS messages from someone’s mobile number without his/her
knowledge or consent, a term that is technically known as SMS Spoofing, is an old phenomenon.
We were tipped by multiple readers about the availability of such SMS
faking software in local market, however we then decided not to carry
the news as it could aware the fraudsters of a new technique of fooling
people.
