Job At T-mobile Call Center?

Why is a BPO (particularly call center) job considered menial, is it because of the nature of work or is it simply because the term "call center" is bad branding?

• Why is that a call center job is looked down upon in our culture. Is it because of the fact that the job is rule based and lacks complexity. I wonder if that's true. I think there are many other jobs that are equally simplistic and montonous. A teller in a bank for example. Is that any difficult from a call center process. In fact some of the call center jobs can involve quite difficult processes. On top of that the call center executives are always expected to be behaving properly. Generally these executives are constantly monitored for quality as well speed of delivery. As such one really needs to be at the top of things so as to do well in this enviroment. Despite all these the young workforce of call centers do not get the requisite social respect. You may have also noticed that many call center employees prefer to say that they work for a BPO firm and not a call center. While there is nothing wrong in saying that as call center is essentially a part of the BPO sector I am wondering if we have gone wrong in branding the sector.

• Answer:

  I have been working in this industry for the last 6 years and the company happens to be one of the fortune 500 companies with handsome salary and perks that any other industry would provide(Sometimes more). The work is as tedious as developing a software or soldering iron in a fabrication Unit. Not only is it tedious, but involves great deal of patience, intelligence(YES!!) & presence of mind. Ideally, the call centres, Back office processes, B2B solutions and skill specific corporate solutions etc are the parts of the BPO sector & Call Centres is the biggest chunk if you ever decide to classify. A call centre if International, has odd work timings for a simple reason that the business being handled is based offshore, and to cater to the customer base, one has to work according to the schedule where we would find most of the customers AWAKE :-) , it does not mean that people working here are in any way less talented just because they are working at night. BAD Branding Right! So this is interesting, mainly bad branding has happened due to some of the misconception that have been promoted by a few non progressive ideologies. A call centre employee for almost a decade now has been considered as the perfect model of all the tabooed activities. I clearly remember an instance when some close relative of mine looked down upon me for working in a call centre as they assumed that working odd hours is not good. Some even told me that Call centres are as good as BARS and Brothels and that the call centre employees get involved into intoxication and Sex at workplace! My reaction: WHAT?? HAHAHAHA... I chose to ignore there biased ideology as some of it came across as jealousy due to other sectors taking a hit during recession and BPO sector being relatively unaffected, hence no market pressure. To make the murkier picture clear about call centres: 1.Any Kind of Toxication during work hours is prohibited;leads to termination 2.There is no scope of Sexual indugence at workplace as it would not be in any other industry. 3.I am sure the women here get paid very well as men, so both of them would not indulge is selling Sex(Brothel Comment) even if we are out of the job because call centre employees will get a job outside as they are abundant in number :) This industry works as any other industry does and it is growing and so are people who stick to it along with their contribution to the overall GDP. Bad Branding: Yes! Nature of Work: NO! :)