BPO – A BOON or a BANE

Many Indian citizens are dependent on the IT and ITES sector. In this era of gloablisation, we tend to take things in our own stride and BPO industry is one among them.

Having worked for this Industry for the past 3 years, I have first hand experience on the ups and downs a BPO industry and its effects on the citizens.

Some of the negatives have a corresponding positives and vice versa. I think this is what they call as two sides of a coin?

Some of them are

A high Salary level of the individuals is a positive to those who work in BPOs. The corresponding negative being, imbalance in the salary with other industries, thus making these individuals un-marketable in other industries.

Untimely working hours, usually night shifts, in turn leads to change in sleeping pattern. Needless to say this is unnatural. Mostly the individuals have disturbed sleep due to bustling activities in the neighborhood. Whereas this has certain distinct advantages such as; less traffic while commuting, having personal time to finish certain work such as share trading, banking, etc.,

The worst disadvantage according to me is “No work life balance”

When whole India is celebrating Diwali, the BPO employees work as it is not holiday at the client’s end. Some individuals have even forgotten when the 3 Indian National Holidays are.

Apart from health Hazards due to disturbed sleep pattern, sedentary work life, work environment aiding in unhealthy food habits etc., the danger lies when things are getting offshore from India to lesser nations such as Taiwan, China, Philippines.

Corporates like IBM, Infosys have already started operations in such countries. Within no time a significant share of operations have been off-shored to these locations. So what would be the future for us, who had created ourselves a fallible dependency on this industry? Well if you know the answer, please let the forum know.

I think this is what Tamil says, MuRpagal seyyin piRpagal viLayum, equivalent proverb in English "You reap what you sow" Indian BPO Industry had millions jobless in the developed countries only to have it repaid in this fashion.

Hi Mr. MyFairLady,
Your article is very true. I happened to read a similar write-up in 'msn-India', which I would like to share:
Vinoran

Looking for a Software career - think again!
-by Sai M Monday, March 24, 2008 (Thank you Mr. Sai)

Software Jobs require lot of Dynamism. Software Jobs are not secure. Unlike Government jobs, there is no guarantee that your job is secure till you reach your retirement age. Market crash at US automatically creates havoc in the lives of the Indian Software professionals. And mind you, no insurance company provides insurance against job losses in a software company due to the US market slide.

It was in the news recently that some of the Indian companies had cut salaries and also, had politely shown the exit gate to some of its employees. But this came as no surprise to most of the software professionals. This is a normal phenomenon in most of the Software companies. In a manufacturing company, a plant or manufacturing unit normally has a life of 50 years or more. After the shelf life is over, the companies either go for modernization of the unit or totally shut down the plant. This then either results in better job conditions for the employee or mass-termination of employees in these plants. But this phenomenon happens only once in 50 years or so, and hence, the public visibility is high in such cases. However, the life-span of a development unit in a software company is much smaller. It could be as small as two years. This essentially means that the software professionals need to keep upgrading theirs skills every two years or simply choose to go into oblivion. The job losses almost go un-noticed since this is a natural phenomenon and happens much more frequently as compared to a manufacturing company.

This then means the software professionals have made a gamble by choosing to be in IT rather than choosing a career in a manufacturing company. He has chosen a path which asks him to be dynamic, clever, manipulative and always a step-ahead of his competitors. If you are into IT consulting, be aware that you need to keep traveling and this essentially means that there will be no time for the family since you need to be away from them for long periods on projects. Again, looking at software professional career, they live a virtual world. Though they design software for manufacturing and service industries, they have never had any practically experience on how work is done at the shop-level. But then, the manufacturing companies have been getting software products tailored to their needs. Once the product is ready, the companies normally train their own employees to maintain the product. This essentially means that the software professional needs to move into development of new product - A job-risk which he has essentially chosen to take when he opted for an IT job. No wonder then that the software professionals are paid lavishly.

Thanks for sharing dear. btw, my name also starts with Sai. But I am not the one who posted in MSN. My pseudo name is MFL

:)

Originally Posted by vinoran

Hi Mr. MyFairLady,
Your article is very true. I happened to read a similar write-up in 'msn-India', which I would like to share:
Vinoran

Looking for a Software career - think again!
-by Sai M Monday, March 24, 2008 (Thank you Mr. Sai)

Software Jobs require lot of Dynamism. Software Jobs are not secure. Unlike Government jobs, there is no guarantee that your job is secure till you reach your retirement age. Market crash at US automatically creates havoc in the lives of the Indian Software professionals. And mind you, no insurance company provides insurance against job losses in a software company due to the US market slide.

It was in the news recently that some of the Indian companies had cut salaries and also, had politely shown the exit gate to some of its employees. But this came as no surprise to most of the software professionals. This is a normal phenomenon in most of the Software companies. In a manufacturing company, a plant or manufacturing unit normally has a life of 50 years or more. After the shelf life is over, the companies either go for modernization of the unit or totally shut down the plant. This then either results in better job conditions for the employee or mass-termination of employees in these plants. But this phenomenon happens only once in 50 years or so, and hence, the public visibility is high in such cases. However, the life-span of a development unit in a software company is much smaller. It could be as small as two years. This essentially means that the software professionals need to keep upgrading theirs skills every two years or simply choose to go into oblivion. The job losses almost go un-noticed since this is a natural phenomenon and happens much more frequently as compared to a manufacturing company.

This then means the software professionals have made a gamble by choosing to be in IT rather than choosing a career in a manufacturing company. He has chosen a path which asks him to be dynamic, clever, manipulative and always a step-ahead of his competitors. If you are into IT consulting, be aware that you need to keep traveling and this essentially means that there will be no time for the family since you need to be away from them for long periods on projects. Again, looking at software professional career, they live a virtual world. Though they design software for manufacturing and service industries, they have never had any practically experience on how work is done at the shop-level. But then, the manufacturing companies have been getting software products tailored to their needs. Once the product is ready, the companies normally train their own employees to maintain the product. This essentially means that the software professional needs to move into development of new product - A job-risk which he has essentially chosen to take when he opted for an IT job. No wonder then that the software professionals are paid lavishly.