What are the disadvantages of bpo?

Answer 1

1. ODD WORKING HOURS: Most of the call centers in India support overseas operations and majority of professionals have night shifts. Although many have day shifts as they support domestic Indian customers, or off-business support hours of the overseas company which happens to be day-time for India. In majority of cases Indian call center jobs mostly have odd hours.

2. FAMILY LIFE: This is somewhat associated with odd working hours. Evenings are the best time to spend quality time with your spouse and children and those are actually your working hours. Your life as a call center employee can be very lonely and frustrating at times.

3. HEALTH ISSUES: Sleep disorders, Heart disease, eyesight problems and depression are just a few issues surrounding the call center jobs. People also tend to gain weight as most of the time they are sitting in their small cubicle. Health issues in Indian call center industry is becoming a major issue. Even though you work only 5 days a week, for rest of the two days it is not easy to swap your sleep cycle the other way around.

4. ABUSIVE CLIENTS: Many of the customers you speak with can actually get very abusive or angry. They are often able to guess from you accent that you are located in India and many customers are anyway unhappy about their work being outsourced to India. Since your call is often recorded you cannot reply them back angrily, in most cases you will transfer the call to your manager or to a call center located in their own country or in worst case hang up. American accent and Indian English accent are quite different and takes time to overcome the difference. As a call center employee you should try not to take things too personally.

5. AGE FACTOR: Since call center jobs are quite stressful, especially after a few months working in this industry many individuals quit and change their profession, often to a lower paying job. If you able to make your way up to the managerial level or the higher corporate ladder, life is much better, otherwise the daily monotonous work starts to really frustrate you.

6. SOCIAL ISSUES / ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION / SEX ISSUES: Most people working in call centers are in 20's or early 30's, so it is very obvious that they often get into physical relationships. There was an article from Reuters (in 2006) "sex life of call center workers fascinates India", this is often a shock for people who follow conservative values. Additionally the alcohol consumption is much higher in the Individuals working in call centers. In extreme cases some individuals switch to drugs use. Condom vending machines will soon be installed in several call centers and IT companies to deal with rising threat of HIV/AIDS because young employees are increasingly having unprotected sex with multiple partners in affairs developed during nights shifts (Ref - IANS).

7. FUTURE TREND OF CALL CENTER JOBS: Call center jobs are the easiest to be transferred from one place to another. Today India offers a great cost saving compared to other locations, but with salaries rising about 10% every year in near future they will become comparable to other low cost locations like Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico and Eastern Europe. In that case either the salary increments will slow down substantially or companies will start moving jobs from India to these locations. RUPEE APPRECIATION - Additionally if the rupee becomes stronger then your current salary will start to appear costly overseas.

Other disadvantages which have been raised recently include Loss of direct managerial control, security and confidentiality, legal costs and unfavorable contract lengths.

Annual staff turnover at Indian BPOs stands at 24 percent, ahead of the country's average of 16 percent (source ZDNet Asia- Sept 8th 2008).

CONCLUSION: There are several pros and cons of working in a call center. Biggest advantage being the salary and biggest disadvantage being the odd lifestyle. I am not an expert, therefore for looking entering onto IT feild can do some courses like LINUX,UNIX and CCNA