Call centers sustain growth, operators endure stress

Operators in the growing call center industry may be known to make above average salaries but they suffer from "stress and verbal abuse", an education official said on Monday. Director Enrique Grecia, vice-chairman of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Congress set to be held in Cebu next week told reporters that up to half resign after only six months due to stress. "The problem of our (call center) operators is the attrition," said Grecia, who also Region 7 director of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd). He noted that the Philippines remains a preferred choice by other countries for setting up call center business because of Filipinos’ proficiency in the English language. Grecia noted that apart from stress many of the call center operators are also suffering from verbal abuse, particularly from American callers. "If the caller identified that the operator is from the Philippines, they would call them monkey especially if they (operators) failed to answer their queries," Grecia said. Grecia also noted that while Filipinos don’t have problems with diction and intonation, local call center agents are given away by their weakness in American history. "Clients often have side comments or inquiries like they would ask what is the time in Baltimore now or even ask you is the first president of United States, and since our agents don’t know this the caller would them discovered that they are talking with agents from the Philippines and they would shout at them," said Grecia. Although noting that China and Vietnam have been brushing up to perfect their American accent when speaking English, Grecia said: "It would still take a long time before any country in Asia could compete with us in the call center industry". Director Urbano Budtan, regional director of the Technical Skills and Development Authority (Tesda) on the other hand said that demand for call center agents in the country continue to increase because of the impending shift of some foreign firms from India. "Some companies in India are now shifting their investment in the Philippines and this is because they prefer our English since its an English that can be generally understood," Budtan said. "In four years’ time, we will be overcoming India," he Grecia. -GMANews.TV