Bubble Life of a Call Center Agent, Sex, Lies & Isolation

[abe1]

Here is an interesting Article I read regarding the "American Bubble" life of a call center agent. The combination of US work hours, lack of sleep gives call center agents an interesting subculture....is this true?

An excerpt from that article:

"It's like living in a bubble," Mr. Luna says. "Often, I don't see my family for days."

It's a very American bubble. The Philippines' growing share of the multibillion-dollar call-center market is creating a subculture of Filipinos with American accents, tastes and time-zones."

Here is the article (http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/Phone-Center-Workers20oct03.htm) from the Wall Street Journal.
Abe
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:bashful: News Addict

[alky-holic]

wow. camouflaged spam.

[rich_girl]

what the..!

[abe1]

if you want to read more:

"The U.S. acquired these islands in the South China Sea almost as an afterthought to the 1898 Spanish-American war and set about remaking this Spanish colony in its own image. Despite a brief but bloody war of resistance, the U.S. largely succeeded in its goal. Boatloads of teachers introduced democracy, a rule of law and a modern education system. Frustrated that many Filipinos weren't exactly up in arms over being ruled from afar, the Philippines' first president, Manuel Quezon, once complained: "Damn the Americans! Why don't they tyrannize us more?"

The call centers now mushrooming across the Philippines are reinforcing these historical ties as well as filling an important niche in the global economy. Recognizing that the fast-growing outsourcing business is a valuable cash cow, the government in Manila has recently reinstated English as the language of instruction in schools and universities, putting local languages such as Tagalog out to pasture.

Bong Borja, president of People Support, which employs 1,500 people at several sites in Manila, is relieved about that. He doesn't have to coach his young university graduates how to speak like an American. "There's no need. Filipinos adapt very quickly," he says. "There's no lengthy assimilation process -- we already get it."

Mr. Borja's only worry is whether the nation's universities can continue churning out English-speaking, hip-hop-savvy graduates to feed the call centers' voracious appetite.

So far, there is no shortage of people who want to work on U.S. time -- companies such as eTelecare and People Support get as many as 200 applications a day, thanks in part to an unemployment rate of nearly 13%. But those who get jobs often find it difficult adapting to "the bubble."

Che Che Montero has been working in a call center for nearly a year. "Most of the time I feel isolated," she says. "You can't tell your old friends what kind of day you've had because they are either sleeping or at work." Wall Street Journal

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:bashful: News Addict

[Verbl Kint]

I hardly saw any sex or lies. Lame post, lame article.

direct link:
http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/2003/Phone-Center-Workers20oct03.htm

Dont bother reading it, as it is out of touch and hardly says anything new.

Btw, if you want to create a good community-driven web 2.0-based site, a la digg, you have to clean up your code and layout. Spamming your site at message boards like pex also does not help as people generally do not like being fooled into clicking.