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Businesses IT

Philippines Call Centers Overtake India 165

Posted by Soulskill from the help-is-just-a-hemisphere-away dept.
New submitter ajitk writes "This year, call centers in the Philippines employed 50,000 more people than those in India. From the New York Times article: 'More Filipinos — about 400,000 — than Indians now spend their nights talking to mostly American consumers, industry officials said, as companies like AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Expedia have hired call centers here, or built their own. ... Nevertheless, the financial benefits of outsourcing remain strong enough that the call center business is growing at 25 to 30 percent a year here in the Philippines, compared to 10 to 15 percent in India. In spite of its recent growth, the Philippines is a much smaller destination for outsourcing more broadly — India earns about 10 times as much revenue from outsourcing.'"
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Philippines Call Centers Overtake India More

Philippines Call Centers Overtake India

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  • Curse of the british hahaha (Score:5, Interesting)

    by unity100 ( 970058 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @01:56PM (#38175382) Homepage Journal
    They used india as a colony, and while trying to inject their culture and keep indians occupied by making school kids memorize logarithmic tables (yes they really did that back in the earlier centuries), they also taught them english.

    and now india is not only becoming a superpower, but taking entire industries away from angloamerican sphere. talk about what goes around comes around.

    • Re:Curse of the british hahaha (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26, 2011 @02:11PM (#38175456)

      Oh no, please don't let India take our customer phone support industry! So many American kids grew up wanting to tell people how to reset their wireless routers for minimum wage and now those dreams have been dashed.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Tell that to the 8-10% of the unemployed in your country.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        You think it's funny but...

        Several of my friends and I got into the American tech industry by answering the phones. We then worked our way up. If we were starting out today, we'd have to start somewhere else, because the path we took into living wage jobs has been moved overseas.

        • Re:Curse of the british hahaha (Score:5, Insightful)

          by GIL_Dude ( 850471 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @04:43PM (#38176178) Homepage
          You know, you hit the nail on the head. I have 21 years with my company and I personally started on a help line for Point Of Sale equipment in the Credit Card dept (proprietary card), moved from there to LAN administrator, and on to programming and system images. That POS help line? It is in Manila now. The Credit Card department? Outsourced. Oh, there is still a card with our company name on it. It just isn't handled at all by our company anymore. I wouldn't have even been able to start with the company today without moving overseas and working for peanuts. Low Cost Geography they euphemistically call it. In the same way those of us who are technical experts in the design departments no longer have any internal source to draw on for new hires. The lower end jobs where the best of the workers could have moved up are all overseas. The middle of the road jobs are mostly gone too. It's only the top end design groups that are left in the US. And we have nobody to pull from when folks retire, switch jobs, or get laid off. We supposedly hire from colleges, but those that come in are woefully unprepared. They would have been fine after spending a couple of years in those middle tier jobs - but they just don't cut it for the ones where you need a lot of experience. They will someday, but not right away. It makes long term succession planning for your group more a "rob from Peter to pay Paul" game of musical chairs where you try to poach from other groups.

          • I wouldn't have even been able to start with the company today without moving overseas and working for peanuts

            the quality of life afforded by your wage in i.t. in an outsourcing country while living there, could far surpass your quality of life in the middle of your junior-senior phase in america.

            "rob from Peter to pay Paul" game of musical chairs where you try to poach from other groups.

            that's capitalism. get whatever you can at any cost, profit as much as you can in the short run so investors will be pleased, and refrain from giving anything you can.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mikael ( 484 )

          BYTE magazine (the 1980/90's issues) used to have adverts by IBM on how people made it to CEO by starting in the mail-room and working up through the company. Those days, the internal mail system was the network, so it was the equivalent of being an IT technician.

          These days you would either have to set up your own company or hop from company to company to achieve the same goal.

    • Err, what goes around comes around would only be appropriate if it was a British commonwealth that was being affected, not another nation that rejected British rule.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by artor3 ( 1344997 )

        The Philippines were an American colony, so it still works.

    • Re:Curse of the british hahaha (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @05:05PM (#38176254) Homepage

      As opposed to what, some other language becoming the world language? As little as 20 years ago, knowing English was not that important. "Long distance calls" was something freakishly expensive, air travel fairly exotic and expensive, finding an English-language newspaper was only in specialty shops mostly for foreigners living abroad. Sure, for some limited fields in international trade, science or technology it could be important but in general it was not, which is why nobody speaks Latin anymore. People learned the languages of their bordering countries as that was what would get most use of.

      With the Internet, it's become much more useful to know a "world language" and English has a pretty good head start. Granted the Internet is older but WWW didn't arrive until 1990 and it didn't grow big until the dotcom days. Not just for the job opportunities but because you actually can read international news, you can read the English Wikipedia - which is by far the biggest and best, you can talk to people all over the world cheaply and easily. With it, international trade and collaboration has exploded as people can actually work in distributed teams with email, video-conferencing, common source repositories and so on. The advantages are so big it'd happen some way.

      In the short run, yes of course removing the language barriers are disadvantageous to some, but in the long run it's a huge benefit to mankind if we can collaborate as one. Languages have been sort of a natural protectionism, shielding us from international competition. What we in the west is really getting a taste of is the free market. And the US got the least reason of all to complain about that.

    • There's nothing wrong with memorizing logarithmic tables. Logarithms are extremely useful for converting multiplication/division (hard) into addition/subtraction (easier). What, you think in earlier centuries, they should have just given indian kids a battery powered pocket calculator?

    • "and now india is not only becoming a superpower, but taking entire industries away from angloamerican sphere. talk about what goes around comes around."

      And when the US dollar collapses because of the socialism we need to support our unemployed, India will have no customers because outsourced labor will become too expensive for America. What will India do then? Or China, for that matter? Or the Middle East, Brazil, and everyone else who depends on exports to America?

      Ayn Rand may have been an idiot but this

  • Legal liabilty (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    We need legislation that makes any company that uses overseas call centers - especially banks and credit bureaus - 100% liable for identity theft if it's from those centers - I don't what the circumstances.

    Yeah, I know it won't happen: Congress is owned by the banks.

    • some times the people there don't even know what you are talking about some times it's the scripts and metrics that make identity theft even bigger.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Abreu ( 173023 )

      What makes you think someone at an overseas call center is more likely to steal your identity than someone in the US?

      Disclaimer: I work for a call center in a country other than the US.

      • How much does it cost for criminal interests to bribe a call center employee or manager in America? How about India?

        And how does the FBI expect to prosecute someone in India for stealing Americans' personal information?

  • I had several colleagues from Philippines back in 1999 - 2000 and they spoke/wrote excellent English and were very nice people in my opinion.

    • Re:My experience with Philippines (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @02:09PM (#38175448) Homepage

      I work with a number of Filipinos on a daily basis - some of them are quite fluent, others less so.

      The times I have worked with Philippines-based call centers (Adobe, I'm looking at YOU you slimy parthogenic mutant spawn of a perverted invertebrate) between the poor connection, the very limited knowledge that the person had and the accent, I had a very, very unpleasant experience. The employees were, however, unfailingly polite.

      It's not so much the language barrier, although at times that is a problem - it's the whole concept of a complex, poorly thought out, poorly executed process that makes my blood pressure go up every time I even think about calling.

      Which may be exactly how they planned it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by Dexter Herbivore ( 1322345 )
      My ex-housemate was a call center 'expert'. He got sent to the Phillipines to set up 2 different call centers. He told me that the employees he got had generally better English than most un- or under- educated UK, US and Australian employees (albeit with a slight accent). He said that they were a pleasure to work with, their English was well spoken, the work ethic was good, and that his only problem with Phillipinos was that he was never sure of the gender of the ones that he was trying to sleep with. :)
      • I've been down-voted for this already? Seriously? Apart from the last part of my post, I wasn't being facetious; and it was a relayed opinion from someone who has a lot of experience in this particular area.
        • Actually, thinking about it... it's understandable. Everyone hates call center managers and everyone associated with them, guilt by association. :)

          • there is an ugly, unfair, and grotesque association between southeast asia and sex workers

            "Phillipinos was that he was never sure of the gender of the ones that he was trying to sleep with. :)"

            you are indulging in crudeness as if it were harmless. don't lightly transgress against insults to universal human dignity, it will earn you nothing but grief

            • At what point did I mention sex workers? Your assumption that someone transgendered has to be a sex worker is the offensive one. As the AC replying to you pointed out, it is a cultural part of Phillipino life. You may note that I said "trying to sleep with", I would assume that there would be no trying if it was a sex worker in that you would pay them and it would happen. You are showing *your* prejudices in your response, not mine.
    • Actually their English(well at least the English of a certain percentage of the population) is so good that the Japanese English conversation industry is starting to outsource teaching jobs to the Philippines. You can do a Skype lesson with someone in the Philippines for less than 1/3 what it would cost to do a face-to-face lesson with a native speaker in Japan.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by crossmr ( 957846 )

        They're not doing it because it's good. They're doing it because it's cheap. It's the same reason Koreans do it. It's much cheaper to go stay 3 months in the Philippines than North America. I've got several students who learned from Filipinos at some point and not a single one found it to be a good experience.

        You're talking about business decisions. Not really about quality.

        The average Filipino doesn't really seem to speak English that well either. College graduates are one thing, but of all the Filipinos I

  • The Phillipines employ more people in call centers than India.

    Yet India earns 10 times as much in outsourcing.

    How can that be?

    AHA! I guess they mean that Indians are doing other stuff than answering the phone, like developing, looking at xrays, etc.

    (Reminds me of the old joke where a kid is the son of a doctor, but the doctor is not his father. The doctor is his mother.)

    • The Phillipines employ more people in call centers than India.

      Yet India earns 10 times as much in outsourcing.

      How can that be?

      From the headline you never read, never mind TFA, "This year, call centers in the Philippines employed 50,000 more people than those in India."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by artor3 ( 1344997 )

      Additionally, at least in my experience, Filipinos get paid less than Indians for the same work.

    • You are right, India has a lot of IT development and maintenance work outsourced to it.

  • Underwater cable (Score:5, Funny)

    by srussia ( 884021 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @02:10PM (#38175450)
    I was a guest at Eastern Telecom's company beach resort in the northern part of country the some 15 years ago. As I waded into the nice surf, I snagged my foot on a cable.

    "That's the country's only cable link to the outside world... goes to Hong Kong," explained one of the company guys.

    I hope things are better now.

  • in before the idiots (Score:5, Insightful)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <circletimessquar ... m minus language> on Saturday November 26, 2011 @02:11PM (#38175460) Homepage Journal

    1. The USA is popular in the Philippines. So be nice to Filipinos. Saying lame jokes about sex tourism and mixing "f"s and "p"s just makes you an asshole, and continues the worst stereotypical impressions of ugly Americans abroad. Be nice or shut the fuck up.

    2. Those working in the call centers will usually speak perfect idiomatic American English. No Taglish (Tagalog and English) or "promdi" ("from the province").

    2. If you sense the slight Filipino accent, say "mabuhay" (hello) and "salamat" (thank you). It will be sly and appreciated, and you'll probably get better help.

    4. If you don't like the idea of jobs going to Filipinos that should go to Americans, then point your anger at the American Corporation who moved the call center there, not the person on the phone, they didn't make the decision.

    And then finally, point your anger at yourself: Americans will get expensive degrees in French poetry, then work at McDonalds with hefty student loans. Filipinos will major in nursing, get fast tracked to entry to the USA, get a signing bonus and a fabulous salary and the chance to work wherever they want. Because there is a shortage of nurses in the USA. Because Americans don't want to touch bedpans.

    The enemy is yourself and your bad attitude, not the hardworking and the good people from the Philippines.

    Now bring in the typical, inevitable, ugly American stupidity in the comments.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by artor3 ( 1344997 )

      I've spent a lot of time in the Philippines, and can absolutely confirm your first four points. Filipinos are very friendly towards Americans, much moreso than the Indians, Japanese, and Chinese I've worked with. A lot of their TV programming is from America (the ones I spoke with particularly liked 30 Rock and The Office) which helps them to develop that idiomatic understanding of the language.

      However, blaming Americans' bad attitude is foolish. The culprit is corporate greed. If hard work prevented ou

      • Because in China the workers are cheaper than automated machines. The workers who get injured on the job merely lose their job and the company doesn't even pay for their medical care. The Chinese government won't give a person a prosthetic limb, they just pay to cut if off. Workers are treated like firewood, useful till they are burnt. If a worker can no longer perform, they are fired and kicked out of the company housing to return to the farm or scrape by begging in the streets. The company that sends

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      >2. Those working in the call centers will usually speak perfect idiomatic American English. No Taglish (Tagalog and English) or "promdi" ("from the province").

      Bullshit. I worked in a call center in Pasig for over a year, and quickly got used to several oddities. It wasnt a big deal because English is my first language not theirs though. The easiest example? Gender, or "here" vs "there". "For a while" was also a very popular but odd phrase. Most of the upper level management spoke English well enou

      • I actually find that the gender neutral nature of the Visayan and Tagalog languages to be a mark of cultural superiority.

        Basically, there is no differentiation between male and female in the language. Filipinos are always saying "his" or "he" when they mean to say "hers" or "she". So this is a language bias towards equality of the sexes, which carries over to being developmentally predisposed towards equal treatment between the sexes. It's a superior language construct. Unlike, for example, Japanese, which has entire verb classes dedicated to the deference of women and underlings to the male/ boss. English is not the worst offender on this topic.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by vakuona ( 788200 )

          My first language is completely gender neutral. Still lots of sexism where I come from.

          Having gender specific pronouns allows for nuance in the English language.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tknd ( 979052 )

          Unlike, for example, Japanese, which has entire verb classes dedicated to the deference of women and underlings to the male/ boss.

          Uh, as a student of the Japanese language, I understand that there are varying degrees of politeness, but it has less to do with gender and more to do with "rank". So you speak differently to your superiors and they speak differently "down" to you.

          In terms of genders, I think Japan has come quite a ways in terms of making women more "equal". There are still obvious gaps: wages for women are generally lower than men but it doesn't seem women mind this. I think it is still very common for women in Japan to

        • Strange. In India the major languages (Hindi and a few other major regionals) have a gender attached to every noun and we have one of the WORST female feticide rates in the world. I guess that strengthens your hypothesis.

      • In Manila I saw cement mausoleums with squatters built on top, very much like this photo!
        http://theendofbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Living_With_The_Dead_021.jpg

        Shanty towns are all over the place. Here in America we'll be driving down the highway under a large overpass and my wife (who is Filipino) will comment that back home the entire area would be overrun with squatters. No wonder the following invention is taking off. The shacks are built from whatever can be scrounged and one of the problem

      • "For a while" was also a very popular but odd phrase.

        What's wrong with it? It's English [princeton.edu].

    • Re:in before the idiots (Score:4, Insightful)

      by yeshuawatso ( 1774190 ) * on Saturday November 26, 2011 @02:51PM (#38175656) Journal

      As someone who has and still works in the call center industry, let me say that it's not about Americans not wanting call center jobs, it's about the costs of low level call center work. For example, if you're a credit card company, you can train a low-wage non-American to do the simple stuff like tell you your balance and available credit, accept a payment, or reissue you another card. But the more complicated stuff will come back on-shore in smaller call centers. Things like credit card disputes, fraud management, and more common sales work.

      It's not about finding just cheap labor, but about finding cheap specialized labor. The best part about offshoring is the added benefit of attracting highly skilled and intelligent workers on the cheap. But add American and British culture in the mix and it becomes a little more difficult for the really cheap labor from degree holding Indians or Filipinos to understand cultural cues. It's part of the reason why those who make the mistake of placing Level 3 support in these countries where cultural miscommunication occurs through lack of training and little value of the customer's time causes offshoring to have a bad name.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbcad7 ( 771464 )
        It's not cultural miscommunication.. it's just communication period.. Most people with a problem that needs solving could care less where you are, or even that you have an accent, as long as they can understand you and that they feel you are understanding them.. but words, and meanings are only part of communicating.. Even if an offshore worker strings together the words in the same order as an onshore worker, it can have the same effect that most computer text readers do,, you say.. "what ?".. Onshore/off
    • I agree with points 1 and 4, but point 3 just sounds like it would come off condescending (you know how we ugly, stupid Americans are). I am curious though on the actual number of French-Majoring drive-thru attendants... But yes, I agree it's our own fault for continuing to give money to corporations (you know, the Job Creators) that outsource and offshore everything. But hey, the invisible hand of the free market will correct all this soon, so I'm not worried (except for the fact that the invisible hand wi

  • the Philippines is a much smaller destination for outsourcing more broadly — India earns about 10 times as much revenue from outsourcing

    Which figures, because India has more than 10 times the population of the Philippines.

  • Why are US call centers base in SE Asia? I would think that there are enough countries in South America that are in roughly the same time zone as the US that could be call center havens. Doing so would enable everyone to be working at similar times and that issues that have to move up or down the hierarchy could be resolved sooner.

    • English.

      Indian and the Philippines have millions of English speakers.

    • From what I understand of it, it's that Phillipinos generally have better English skills and an accent that is related to some US accents

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Abreu ( 173023 )

      There's tons of call centers in Mexico, specially for the tourism industry. I should know, I work in one.

  • I automatically trust the Filipino call center drone more than his Indian counterpart.

    The Filipino doesn't start our conversation with what I know to be a lie.

    "Hi, my name is Mike. How can I ...."

    Bullshit, man with a South Asian Accent. Your name is not Mike.

    Irrational, I know, but I have a low level of contempt for the guy I'm speaking with when things start off that way. Has nothing to do with race or national origin.
    • It just so happens that American and English first names are ubiquitous in the Philippines, as are Spanish last names. In the case of Spanish, well, that was colonial. First names, though, that's more or less a matter of [gasp] free choice. I have no idea why, except perhaps that over the centuries Filipinos have developed something of an "adapt or die" attitude toward culture.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I automatically trust the Filipino call center drone more than his Indian counterpart.

      The Filipino doesn't start our conversation with what I know to be a lie.

      "Hi, my name is Mike. How can I ...."

      Bullshit, man with a South Asian Accent. Your name is not Mike.

      Irrational, I know, but I have a low level of contempt for the guy I'm speaking with when things start off that way. Has nothing to do with race or national origin.

      The odd thing is, Michael is not an uncommon Filipino name.

      They were colonised by the Spanish, then taken over by the Americans, then gained their independence and formed a close relationship with the Americans.

      They have a lot of anglo names, especially Christian ones like Mary and Michael (being a devoutly Christian nation).

      • Mike is an uncommon name for an Indian.

        India = South Asia
        Phillipines = SouthEAST Asia

        The whole point was that when I speak with a man with a Filipino accent and he says his name is Mike (or Victor or James), I have no reason to disbelieve him. I assume Filipinos have Christian names from their Catholic baptisms.

  • Indian BPOs in the Philippines (Score:5, Informative)

    by sirdude ( 578412 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @02:39PM (#38175578)
    I'm not sure how extensive they are or if TFA takes this into account, but it should be noted that all the Indian BPO majors have a presence [infosys.com] in the [wipro.com] Philippines [tcs.com].
  • I worked at an MCI IP relay [wikipedia.org] call center some years ago. I remember that shortly before I quit, management was bragging about their new Filipino call center. They said people would walk for hours and hours to get to the work site in Manila, and sleep there overnight. Their efficiency was top-notch, apparently. And I guess they didn't have or didn't mind what I referred to as the "Anal Sex Hour," which happened when bored suburban teenagers (mostly from Texas, it seemed) would prank call their female classmat

  • So when will Siri put all of them out of a job? (Score:3)

    by wisebabo ( 638845 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @03:24PM (#38175856) Journal

    I'm very impressed by the voice recognition capabilities of Siri (and presumably other products like it). Its ability to UNDERSTAND what you are asking for of course has a lot of room for improvement.

    Is that just a matter of time though? When will the simpler types of these jobs be eliminated? What about us slashdot posters, will I have to worry about being replaced by Siri 2.0? (ok maybe Siri 3.0).

    • When I call up my phone company, I get a computer asking me to tell it what I'm calling about.

      There are a handful of issues it can help with over the phone (especially around bill payments), and if your query isn't on the list they pass you on to a call centre.

  • Nothing against Indian call center workers, but I'm glad for this shift. My experiences with call centers in the Philippines have been dramatically better than my call centers in India. The accent, if present, is easier for an American to understand. I suspect that has to be with respective colonial relationships. The call center employees don't bullshit me by claiming to be Todd in Texas, they give me their real name and don't try to tell me they're local. They also don't get defensive when I'm pissed of

  • Just wait until you call the Philippines. Currently, Siemens corporation outsources their IT support to the Philippines. The quality of their IT support is amazing, but not in a good way.

    • Siemens sold their IT Solutions and Services division to ATOS recently. The US ATOS call center is in Ohio. It all comes down to the information and freedom provided to the call center staff. If you give them a script and you are overly strict with the staff, you end up with a slave driven environment where they are not allowed to deviate from the script. If you don't actually train the staff to trouble-shoot and think for themselves, then you get horrific results. Don't blame the crap support you rece

      • I can't say I disagree with you. They buy the services of these smart people, and then don't let them be smart. It happens to Indian technical support too, as far as I can tell. A script isn't a substitute for a thinking person on the other end of the phone.

  • A Filipino in a call center speaks (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 26, 2011 @04:59PM (#38176226)

    First off, I never thought I'd see the day that my country and my industry would make it to slashdot's front page. :-)

    I work in one of the biggest call centers in Manila as part of upper management (hence, this anonymous post). The growth here in the Philippines (of the call center industry) has been astonishing. For my span (total number of employees in my or my subordinates' control) alone, we grew by 1500% in 2 years. This year, projected revenue from outsourcing in the Philippines is projected at around a dozen billion US dollars.

    The article is correct in stating that a typical Filipino will learn American English in first grade (pre-school, in most cases) and that he/she would probably have been indoctrinated in American culture as soon as they first watch Sesame Street or Spongebob in their formative years.

    (This can be both good and bad. For the past few weeks, everybody at work can speak about nothing else except Breaking Dawn. And, as a sidenote, nerds here in the Philippines are almost indistinguishable from their American counterparts, they speak the same language (Klingon, included) and pursue similar pursuits and hobbies outside work and school.)

    I truly believe the key to this growth is not just language and cultural indoctrination, as what TFA has stated.

    First is the inherent culture and attitude. Typically, a Filipino will be extremely polite and accommodating almost to a fault. One of our recurring issues here are call center agents who keep saying "Sir" and "Ma'am" too much and apologize profusely, more so than is warranted. Compare this (and I say this with all due respect) to counterparts in other countries where call center agents have to be reminded to say "Thank you" every now and then. Another would be qualifications. Most Filipinos in the call center industry have, at the very least, a college degree. Finally, the most compelling characteristic, imho, is definitely the work ethic. It is not uncommon for my colleagues to work 12 hour days (without overtime pay) and still commute 2 hours to and from work. Add to that, call center employees, more often than not, work from 9pm to 5am to match US daylight hours. All this for a fraction of what our counterparts get in the west.

    I am quite optimistic that our industry will continue to grow, even with if there is a clamor for jobs to stay Stateside and recent technologies such as Siri. There will always be a need for a human touch when a person picks up the telephone to ask for help. And, even if I am wont to say this, Filipinos are suited for this job, as their counterparts in the west don't seem to want it, or have a disdain for it.

    • Finally, the most compelling characteristic, imho, is definitely the work ethic. It is not uncommon for my colleagues to work 12 hour days (without overtime pay) and still commute 2 hours to and from work.

      I wouldn't call that work ethic. I'd just call it sad.

      Working a 12 hour day is good work ethic when it's necessary. But it's not healthy. Better to have three employees working 8 hours, than two working 12 hours.

      There is no way anyone can think clearly after 10 hours on the job.

  • Filipino Call Centers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Whatchamacallit ( 21721 ) on Saturday November 26, 2011 @06:58PM (#38176968) Homepage

    First a disclaimer, my wife is an American citizen Filipino immigrant, who surprise, is a nurse! I interact with hundreds of Filipinos both in the USA and abroad on a pretty regular basis. Filipino's love to eat, so there are family friendly parties every week where they feast. There are no left overs, everyone takes something home with them. They cannot possibly get enough pork and they also eat a lot of seafood and rice. They love to sing and always seem to have a karaoke machine at those parties. They all mostly love America. Right after the Japanese bombed Perl Harbor, they bombed and invaded the Philippines (It was an American Coloney). General McArthur had to leave the Philippines when war was declared but he vowed to return to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese. He kept his promise.

    Their accents are not bad at all and they all speak fluent english and many of them can speak spanish too! If they don't speak spanish, they can certainly understand 99% of it. The Philippines was a Spanish colony that the USA won in the Spanish American war. America is responsible for building all their public schools. Their nurses can come the USA and only have to pass the nursing exams. All their college credits are transferable as their schools meet the USA educational standards. It is true that many of them mix up masculine and feminine words that simply don't exist in their native languages. (His/Her, He/ She, etc.). There are millions of Filipino's in the USA. They are truly compassionate and highly skilled. You would be lucky to have a Filipino nurse as you will likely receive exceptional care and true compassion.

    I feel it's about time that outsourcing moves from India to the Philippines. They certainly understand American culture and can speak American English. They have Christian names that you can pronounce. Most of them have a very strong work ethic and they are extremely polite and friendly. Communication is so much easier than with the Indians. More companies should be moving outsourced operations from India to the Philippines or just plain in-sourcing it back to the USA. All those tech savvy American students who cannot get a job, would jump all over a call center job. Course, turnover will always be high, no matter who does the work because it truly is a difficult job. But if a company must outsource than they should seriously consider the Philippines as one of the best to satisfy customers angry with Indian communications.

    In regards to the articles comparison of the American dollar to the Filipino Peso, it is the dollar that is dropping like a rock, and the Peso is more stable. It is not the Philippines that has to worry about the exchange rate, it is America that should be worried.

  • A much better alternative (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Over the past 2 years my Australian based multinational has moved the internal help desk as well as some operations, DBA, networks teams and so on to Manila. The speed at which the place has grown (now employs 200+ people), the quality of the staff, their grasp of the english language and their attitude must be commended.

    Compared to the alternatives, their accent is much easier to understand, they have much better analytical skills, won't try and save face (it's not in their culture to do so) and they won't

  • At least for customer facing jobs. Their English tends to be way, way more understandable. They can do customer service without promising things they cannot deliver. I'd be curious to see how they do in infrastructure management, something else which the Indians I've worked with have not made the best impression

  • If there is any justice in the world, people all over India are pulling their fucking hair out and screaming obscenities, because when they call to get tech support someone is speaking broken Hindi, Pushto, and Urdo on the other end of the phone.

    LK

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