"QOL" Quality of life must be a new term for most us, but a term that must turn heads around.The term must bring in a lot of sense for our crowd who earns a substantial income but rarely finds a way to spend it the right way. Whats quality of life when you don't sleep more than 6 hours a day, whats life when a Sunday evening is spent with an American, making him dance to the tune of right click and left click, whats life when rendezvous with food is an accident and good food a miracle. These are the questions that usually comes up when we discuss the much hyped,americanized BPO lifestyle which Indian society is still finding hard to digest.
Are we really struggling, Is it that bad ???? I would say a big blatant " NO ". We are enjoying our life, having a Gala time. Here are some generic statements that are made : They say the industry would shut down and the career is insecure, we ask then what career is secure. The job is monotonous and you would get fed up soon, If you don't reinvent yourself everyday any job is monotonous, May be Beckham or Sachin might have a different version. Call center is about picking calls and going home, We have seen the best of the talent loosing faith after their initial call. Night shifts aren't safe for girls, as if in the day light they receive appreciable treatment.
Some facts that make sense are : Night shift cuts of your social life, to a huge extend yes. Health issues would be there for people who don't take care of themselves.Your market value for loans, marriages and credit cards goes down. High probability of receiving step motherly treatment from your own family if you have a sibling who works for an IT company.Society again the judge in the case of every Indian; gives a verdict that the job is temporary and never be loyal to it.
Certain funny instances, Major one happens after you introduce yourself as a manager in an MNC, often we would use terms such as Process re engineering, Critical support team, Tier three support etc for an impact and at the end your fathers colleague would end up asking in a tone which would receive a Nobel for sarcasm " Oh that Call Centraaaaa ". Another incident which I would like to quote is about the security of female employees. Certain companies ask the male employee to take the last drop after ensuring that every female employee reaches her home safe. Poor guy would see his mom standing in front of the home waving her hand but cant stop because of the " Huge Responsibility " on his shoulders.One of my friends had to spend almost an hour and half extra everyday to ensure the safety of his colleagues, annoyed one day he asked the transport team to send a security guard. Transport head in front of fifty odd employees started a lecture on brotherhood, team work, social responsibility etc which ended with this million dollar question " After I drop all the female employees , when am alone in the cab and If the driver turns out to be a Gay do you have a provision to protect my a#$% , or it doesn't matter at all ha ???????
