Tom Says: “It’s just getting started…”
When they first arrived in the Maritimes, they were referred to as “call centres,” like everything else in life, they’ve undergone a name change, the are now know as “customer contact centres.” Some are good places to work, others are decent places to work and others I have to say are just bloody-awful places to work.
We shouldn’t be surprised when we hear Customer Contact Centre A is laying off 400 jobs, or that Customer Contact Centre B is closing or that Customer Contact Centre C is transferring some of it’s jobs elsewhere. This is just the beginning of the end.
A number of years ago a friend of mine who worked in the industry which develops and supplies the telephone hardware to these centres, said most of the operators are “carpetbaggers.” They are coming to our area from other parts of Canada and the United States because they can operate cheaper here than they can elsewhere. Cheaper here means more money in the pockets of the call centre owners.
With advances in phone system hardware and the use of VOIP, (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and by the way I just threw in that VOIP explanation so that you might actually think I know what I’m talking about — telephone systems around the world now sound like they’re coming from right next door. So, if ten or fifteen years ago you moved your call centre into our area because it was cheaper, what’s to stop owners from moving somewhere else because they can do it cheaper?
Very rarely does a customer contact centre employee ever divulge to the caller on the line where he or she happens to be sitting while they are answering the caller’s questions.
Add it all together and customer contact centres can be operated at in some cases huge savings off shore. So it makes sense if you have to pay between ten and fifteen dollars an hour and in some cases even more to employees in our region, why not pay ten of fifteen rupees an hour for someone to do the same job in New Delhi? Most callers don’t care where the answer to their question is coming from, they just want the answer, the reservation or the product.
So the next time you hear that Call Centre D is laying off 500 people in your community don’t be surprised when you somehow hear the announcement that Call Centre D is hiring 200 employees at it’s new state-of-the-art centre in some far off land.
There are those in the industry that will dispute what’s contained in this blog, but as is generally the case, time will tell, I’m right again…
I’m Tom Young.
February 28th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
TOM my man,its the way of the new world. average joe jobs are all headed to mexico. greed rules ,if they can make more money by moving they will!! which is a perfect lead in to my argue ment for free secondary education. yousee tom when i got out of grade 12 in 1979, a high school diploma had value, it opened up the entry level job , with the potential almost unlimited , to work your way up. but thats changed, with all our factories and manufacturers going off shore average joe will be gone the way of the dinosaur, it has become obvious that ground floor entry level jobs are going to require a higher level of education just to get in the door. so ergo if in 1979 high school was needed to start average joe off in a positive direction, with free education. than in 2008 secondary education is required for average joe to make a go , with free education.
TOM you are going to ask me . dennis how do you plan to fund this free education? TOM ,i am going to use the employment insurance plan. we will leave it build again, it was 40 billon before they spent it ,so we change it to a trust, then any money built up over what is required to fund E.I. program [13 billion]. all extra goes to education.
just imagine TOM, an E.I. program funding the education of our youth to insure that they gain good employment , how ironic an employment fund in canada that funds future employment. then TOM once they are working
they join the rest of us in refunding E.I. ..
is it me TOM or does that sound too simple?
must be my grade 12 education
by the way TOM the funding will only cover tuition, books etc.
all accomadations food etc up to student and family.
we can’t coddle too much!!!
thanks dennis average joe lil book
P.S. go flames !!!
March 5th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I found your comment, “most callers don’t care where the answer to their question is coming from, they just want the answer, the reservation or the product.” interesting. I find for myself that yes, it’s true I really don’t care who or where the person is that answers my question or concern, what I hate and get incredibly annoyed at is the fact that who I may be talking to has a very thick accent (french, middle eastern, Pakistani, Asian etc.). That is what bothers me most about moving these call centres, or these so called “customer contact centres” (I guess we have to be politically correct just in case) out of our country. Another aspect that bothers me is that there are people who live here in our neighbourhood who are barely trying to make ends meet, and they, for whatever reason, can only work in a call centre and then they are laid off. First of all, it is a little difficult to maintain a household off of $10 or $12 per hour. Second, when, and I say when because I agree with you Tom, it will happen, when you are laid off, good luck finding another job. I guess you’ll probably just go to another call center…excuse me “customer contact centre” and work there until you are laid off, then go to the next, then the next and the rat race continues. I have mixed feelings about globalization, or hiring cheep labour to fulfill a need. I think of the illegal immigrants in California picking the fruits and vegetables for everyone…what if there were no Mexicans, or Dominicans, or any other South American to do your job for you…what would you do?
Me personally, I don’t work in a call centre, I work as an accountant and financial consultant. I am married and have two young children. I guess you could say that I’m a bit old fashioned and conservative in that I hope that I can make enough money to support my family comfortably without my wife having to work as well. I know that I wouldn’t be able to do that if I were working in a call centre.
I think if Mr. Shawn Graham wants New Brunswick to be self-sufficient we need to do all we can to attract other income producing industries to the province to create jobs for people to do. I think it is also important that we diversify these industries. A call centre or two was a great idea back in the day, but it seems like every Tom, Dick, and Harry jumped on the band wagon and brought another call centre, and another, and another until it seems like everyone is working at a call centre. And they will leave us, and people will be left to scroung for something, creating havouc on the social assistance programs, welfare, and my pockets as, unfortunately, a tax payer.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
We need real jobs. with everybody talking green,let us develop and expand on alternate sources of energy, the technology and expertise is here in the maritimes. aaaaall we need is leadership and tax incentives to be less dependent on NBPOWER and IRVING. All of which could be exported and sold right here at home. This would create skilled and unskilled jobs.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Thye real problem of this pick up and go to the valley of cheaper labour is going to hit a few years from now. What happens when more and more people are laid off and are forced to move and or take cheaper paying jobs? The answer is that it is already happening especially south of the border with banrupticies and forecloseures are up throwing our econimies into turmoil and shaking up the stock market. With less people making good money who will buy the products being produced overseas? Regardless of how cheap they are very few will be able to buy them and keep our economy going.