Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Thu, Oct 30 2003
BPO: Offshore Flow Is Changing Business And Job Climates
If you don't know what BPO stands for, you will soon. And it may be because you've lost your job to it. BPO is Business Process Outsourcing, and in places like Bangalore, India it's changing the way people train for jobs. It's also rapidly reducing the number of low-end tech jobs available in the United States and Great Britain. When you look at wage comparisons like the ones on page 2 of this PDF document, it's easy to see that your minimum wage job (which won't do much to elevate you to a high income bracket here) could be lowered by a dollar or two, and still look like big bucks to someone applying for a job at an IT call-center in India. People are trained to speak English with an Americanized accent, and they adopt simple first names to put American callers at ease.
As with any greedy enterprise, change favors those who are prepared to take advantage of such a new frontier. The big business players realize that cheap labor is a boon only so long as workers are satisfied. As soon as workers begin to use their new job experience as a stepping stone and move on, big business will have to adjust its tactics. The outsourcing may even do a 180 at some point.
posted at: 12:08 | category: | link to this entry
If you don't know what BPO stands for, you will soon. And it may be because you've lost your job to it. BPO is Business Process Outsourcing, and in places like Bangalore, India it's changing the way people train for jobs. It's also rapidly reducing the number of low-end tech jobs available in the United States and Great Britain. When you look at wage comparisons like the ones on page 2 of this PDF document, it's easy to see that your minimum wage job (which won't do much to elevate you to a high income bracket here) could be lowered by a dollar or two, and still look like big bucks to someone applying for a job at an IT call-center in India. People are trained to speak English with an Americanized accent, and they adopt simple first names to put American callers at ease.
As with any greedy enterprise, change favors those who are prepared to take advantage of such a new frontier. The big business players realize that cheap labor is a boon only so long as workers are satisfied. As soon as workers begin to use their new job experience as a stepping stone and move on, big business will have to adjust its tactics. The outsourcing may even do a 180 at some point.
posted at: 12:08 | category: | link to this entry
