Every night at the Call Centre

Sudhindra Mokhasi chronicles tales elicited from youngsters who fight their circadian clocks and brave the outsourcing backlash to work nocturnal shifts in the BPO industry

Sudhindra Mokhasi chronicles tales elicited from youngsters who fight their circadian clocks and brave the outsourcing backlash to work nocturnal shifts in the BPO industry

From being described as fun places to sweat shops, call centers are stuck with many kinds of labels. Is your book an attempt to set the record straight?

What an idea, sirji! Mokhasi's book is an interesting read because it is a compilation of over 150 short stories covering calls, work, cab travel, home, parties, scams in the BPO world Pics/ Satish Badiger

I was struck by the difference in perception of IT companies and BPOs. IT companies had carefully built iconic images around their Indian founders like Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji. BPOs, on the other hand, were typically set up between 1998 and 2000 as cost centres not profit centres, and headed by middle-management people of Indian origin in the US, who had no mandate to build such images. They had to recruit large numbers of people to a new kind of organisation process driven, measured and monitored, and on the graveyard shift.

So, the easiest way to do that was to portray BPO jobs as "fun jobs". This became a huge problem because employees began acting out the perception and trivalising the job.u00a0

Then in 2001, after the dotcom bust and the downturn, IT companies began looking for new streams of revenue generation. They realised the potential of BPOs as outsourcing services and entered the business, bringing with them a great deal of professionalism.

How do you react to the 'sweatshop' tag and to the fact that a call centre job takes a toll on the psyche of executives handling calls?
Between 2001-2005 people perceived BPOs as sweatshops because never before had there been jobs that were so process-driven. Then, there was the emotional backlash from countries like the US because certain kinds of jobs were shifting to India. There was huge pressure on BPO employees. Customers wouldn't understand that being asked 7-8 routine questions by a call centre executive was part of a standard process. Most assumed that BPO employees were inefficient because they asked so many questions! It's hard to break such perceptions but we're trying.

Having worked in both IT and BPO streams, in senior management positions, I have come to understand that IT is highly over-rated and BPOs are under-rated. Not all BPOs are low-end work.

But you got the freedom to write your book because of the money you earned from IT...
Very true. That's why I feel it's my responsibility to correct such faulty perceptions. I hoped to paint a tapestry of BPO life as it is u2013 neither exaggerated nor underplayed while remaining a dispassionate observer in the wings.

Did Chetan Bhagat's One Night @ the Call Centre open the floodgates for BPO tales?
Chetan's was a timely book because he wrote it at a time when call centres were a new phenomenon. It was early days for the industry and people were hungry for information. He gave us a balanced perspective by weaving decent fiction intou00a0 real-life situations.

Was the process of an engineer turning writer/ editor enjoyable?
(With a chuckle) The problem with engineers is that they make a science out of an art! I did a lot of homework before embarking on my book project. I actually prepared the life cycle of a BPO employee from dawn to the next dawn. I allotted percentages for stories under each category like Call Stories, Scam Stories etc. I even had a comprehensive project proposal when I went to meet my publisher. And in just 5 days of my meeting with them, Rupa & Co was ready to discuss the contract. Keeping a journal is a habit I've developed as a travel writer. (Mokhasi contributes travelogues to national dailies.)u00a0

Did the publisher ask for rewrites, especially because a subject like this has the danger of believe-it-or-not tales making their way into the book?
No. I was very careful when I shortlisted the stories, keeping only the realistic ones. The far-fetched ones were fascinating but the narrators were hesitant to stand by them, so I cut them out. Some stories may still sound fantastic but that's because life inside a BPO isn't dull!

What are you reading now?
I have eclectic tastes. What I read depends on the mood I am in. I read everything from PG Wodehouse to Freakonomics.u00a0 I love Bill Bryson's travelogues for his macabre yet compelling descriptions.
u00a0
Do call centre executives read a lot?
Very few have the time to read given the nature of their job. That's why I decided on the format of short stories for my book. I didn't want to do a 'gyaani' book like Friedman. I wanted a Hop In, Hop Out London tour bus format because I wanted the reader to enjoy the freedom of deciding on an entry and exit point at will. The technique worked because I've been getting feedback from people in the industry, thanking me for saying it as it is.u00a0

Tell your tale
If you have an interesting BPO story to tell, share it with Sudhindra at story@bposutra.com as plans are afoot to publish Volume II of the book.