Case Study- English 1
BA Law/ BBA Law- 2021
Name- Marks- 10
Case: Dealing with Outsourcing Backlash
‘I don’t want to talk to you. Connect me to your boss in the US’, hissed the American on the
phone. The young girl at a Bengaluru call centre tried to be as polite as she could.
With the increasing resentment over jobs lost to countries like India and Philippines, hate
calls and mails are a common occurrence, say call- centre executives and industry experts.
According to them, many callers from the West refuse to speak to an Indian. When callers
are unhappy with the fact that jobs are being outsourced to low- cost off – shore destinations
their frustration often turns racist or sexist. A young girl at a call centre recalls how a
Londoner unleashed himself, ‘Young lady, do you know that because of you Indians we are
losing jobs ‘?
Call- centre employees are advised to be ‘cool’ in such situations. They are often taught
how to use neutral accents and say ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’ and some call centres even try to
educate their employees about American lifestyle and culture. Some call centres provide
gyms and pool tables to help their employees counter the stress they experience as a
result of irate or racist calls.
The furore raised by the Western media over job losses because of outsourcing has made
many citizens resent the fact that their calls are answered by people in foreign locations.
Angry outbursts are a reality that call centre executives are trained to deal with. ‘It’s happening
often enough, so let’s face it,’ says a senior executive of a Gurugram call centre,
adding, ‘This doesn’t have any impact on business.’
1-Assume that you are working as an operator at a call centre in India and are receiving
irate calls from Americans and Western Europeans. How would you handle such calls? Imagine a
situation and state what your response would be? (3.5)
2-‘Keep your cool’. What does this mean in terms of business courtesy? Give at least three examples
(3)
3- Do you agree with the view that such abusive conversations on the telephone do not
have any impact on business? Give reasons for your answers. (3.5)
