Abuse from British and American customers is driving increasing numbers of Indian call centre workers from their jobs, defeated by the strain of handling persistent rudeness.

Irate customers was cited as one of the main industry stress factors in a recent survey of call centre staff and some organisations have begun employing psychiatrists and counsellors to help employees to cope.

'I've had people tell me, "Back off, Paki, and don't call me again", said Eugene, 27, whose former employer, Spectrumind, provided an accounts services for BT. 'There was a lot of racist abuse once people detected from our accents that we weren't English. I saw girls reduced to tears by it.'

Pooja Chopra, 29, from Delhi, who spent two years fielding calls for BT Cellnet and America Online, faced similar abuse. 'People would say, "You're a Paki, I don't want to talk to you, pass me to someone who can speak my language".

Workers face a spectrum of rudeness - from sexual harassment to fury at unsolicited sales calls, to open racism. Industry analysts have seen the phenomenon of racist clients grow in recent years, as customers in the UK and the US become increasingly sensitive to the political issue of jobs outsourced to India.

Shyamanuja Das, editor of Global Outsourcing magazine, which published a study on the stress factors triggering call centre resignations, said that hostility from clients was one of the factors which caused workers to quit - 25 per cent of those questioned said client vitriol was a major cause of stress.

'The anger in the West over job losses and fear about offshoring has made this a growing problem. Some people call up with deliberately difficult questions. Most just say things like: "You're from India. You don't know anything. I don't want to speak to you", he said.

Vijay Mukhi, a call centre analyst, said websites have sprung up in the US giving phone numbers of companies which use call centres in India, and listing Hindi swear words to be used to abuse staff. 'When you move jobs away from a country, there's going to be a lot of pent-up frustration which gets let out on Indian workers,' he said.

As staff turnover is a major problem, with some companies battling an annual departure rate of 60-70 per cent, organisations are taking radical steps to help staff to deal with abuse. In recent months some firms have decided to provide psychological support to their workers. Sanjay Salooja's Delhi-based firm, Empower, has 20 trained counsellors who tour the city's largest call centres, providing support to harassed employees.

'Most employees are very young and don't have the skills to allow them to cope with this kind of abuse,' he said. Workers are already feeling the stress of having to work through the night and are under extreme pressure to meet productivity targets. 'They are vulnerable anyway, and an abusive call really knocks confidence. They don't want to take another call for an hour or two, and their performance is impacted.'

The idea of consulting therapists remains taboo in much of Indian society, but the stigma is waning. 'Our research shows that about 50 per cent of workers would like the chance to receive counselling,' Deepal Raheja, one of the programme's psychiatrists, said.

The therapists try to help staff realise that the abuse is not personal and to put things in perspective, he said. 'Somebody I counselled was very upset after a British customer had asked for an address near Trafalgar Square and he had to admit he didn't know where Trafalgar Square was. His customer became very abusive, and the incident really dented his self-esteem,' he said.

Some companies still specify staff must anglicise their names, adopting forenames such as Mary and John, to try to stave off resentment.

There are no unions yet to represent the 350,000 workers in the Indian call centre business, but unionist Gautam Mody, who is trying to launch the first call centre workers' collective, said this was a problem that needed to be addressed urgently abroad. 'Some workers are deeply hurt by this abuse. The issue of xenophobia cannot be resolved from this end; there must be a battle against it in the countries responsible.'

More organisations have started to let staff hang up on persistently rude customers (formerly a sackable offence), after warning them three times to mind their language. Trainers try to help new staff understand the different cultural forms of rudeness they are likely to encounter.

'British customers can be very rude but in a polite way,' Anita Bhuttar, training vice-president of GTL, a Mumbai-based company, said. 'Usually they won't use abusive language but you can tell from the tone of their voice they're angry.'

'I found it difficult to work for British clients,' Pooja Chopra said. 'They wouldn't call you names, but you could hear the hostility in their voices. The US customers were generally much more easy-going.'

these people aren't sucking the jobs out, american companies are giving them jobs. people shouldn't be mad at them for getting a job.

But wait people, every human life is just as important as our own right?

So you don't mind if we fire you and move your job elsewhere?


In the shit labor market in the Seattle area, a couple of the friends I have that were laid off have still not found work in their fields after more than a year and are working for barely above minimum wage. Quite a shocker after making nearly $20 an hour. Whiny bitches? Hardly. Working hard to support their family? Yep. Had to sell their car? Yep.
Most of the jobs sent to India are not the BMW jobs. They're tech support, desktop publishing, etc. These are middle of the road tech jobs that this economy NEEDS. The BMW jobs are now Mercedes and Jaguar jobs because they saved all that money firing the Honda jobs for mule and bicycle jobs.

No I do mind, I'm speaking of the hypocrisy of people who have this Utopian socialist view of the world, and then bitch about things like outsourcing. Out of the left side of their jaw they say "I love the people in India as much as my next door neighbour," outside of the right jaw they say, "God damn corporations for giving foreigners the money and jobs while my neighbor is starving."

I think I misunderstood you at first it happens in this damned place of written word!

But wait people, every human life is just as important as our own right? It is wonderful that we are spreading the wealth right? Moms and Pops are no more important to me then the billion or so people living in India right? Aye?

I'm starting to feel good about outsourcing. At least I believe the people getting these jobs are actually working hard, and doing their job to support a family, and not bitching about the fact that they can't afford a BMW. Better then I can say for most Americans at this point.

They seem to actually appreciate the jobs, shit they learn one of the most difficult foreign languages just to get them. Once we become less spoiled bitches, I'll start feeling like we are getting screwed on the deal. If we start working for ourselves again, and stop depending on unions, then I will give us the benefit of the doubt.

But on topic, if you are taking a customer support job, or a sales job in a foreign country, and can't speak English, or don't know enough about the situation to benefit anyone, expect to be bitched at. I know a big company here in Austin (DELL) outsources a lot of its customer help services to India, and if I can't yell at Michael himself, I'm going to yell at the ass at the end of the line who doesn't know what they are doing. Actually, I wouldn't do that, I'm to nice, but I would be filled with an inner rage, and I would hope they would sense it and feel bad for being inadequate.

The simple fact is, Americans are doing this to themselves. Every time you shop at Walmart or the other huge corporate conglomerate down the street in order to get the cheapest price, you're supporting outsourcing. In order to provide you the lowest price, they're going to use the cheapest labor. If you don't like outsourcing, buy American. It's as simple as that.

The question is, though...where can you buy American anymore? The Walmarts, Targets, and Meijers have pretty much monopolized the market as far as durable goods go. American companies will continue to outsource their goods production because the bottom line is that it is profitable. 97% of textile products sold in the U.S. are produced in Asia. Go to any store and ask to buy an American made television... there is no such thing. Americans want inexpensive goods. They cannot be made here in America cheaply, so Walmart and others force American companies to move their factorys overseas, so that Walmart can sell their product cheaper. If they do not more, Walmart simply drops the product, which in turn hurts said company because of the market share and accessablilty Walmart has. So how do you buy American anymore?

The question is, though...where can you buy American anymore?

How do people even know they're speaking to someone from another country? Don't they train Asians to sound like an American or a Brit on the phone?

Given the level of idiocy that I dealt with on a 1-800 number, I can't imagine the rancor that must come when you're cold calling someone.

Your entire statement means a lot to me. India is a democratic and extremely overpopulated country. The current state of their economy can't really pay well for those well educated. I don't see what the problem is as long as they get the job done. I've been called Paki, nigger, etc. since day 1, but at least it was to my face and I grew up in a generation that is prepared to hear these insults. I can't imagine how hurt these people are from taking this shit from a stranger over the phone when all they want to do is help them out.

Right up there with professional child maimer.

It's my understanding that outsourcing has been beneficial to many areas of India, so much so that there is a new middle class of people emerging. That is a definate upside. To me its just a shame that you have to take from one to give to another.