The Left is at it again. Over the weekend, the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (May 1 Movement) branded call centers, the number one provider of jobs nowadays, especially to the fresh graduates, as nothing more than “air-conditioned hubs for exploiting workers”. Its spokesperson, Prestoline Suyat, said that business process outsourcing firms and call centers provide poor working conditions to its employees, pay them less-than-adequate compensation and in effect, exploit them for profit.
I do not know what to make of these comments, coming from close-minded quarters who have basically pledged lifelong allegiance to Marx, Engels, Lenin and his Bolsheviks, Mao Tse Tung and other relics of the cold war. Members of these leftist groups, who by the way, have never probably set foot in any capitalist office as a matter of principle, have again demonstrated why people generally shun them, relegate them to the margins, and basically regard them with contempt: they shoot their mouths off while their brains get stuck in their asses. They speak before they think, all in the context of Marx and Lenin, of course. What capitalist venture have they not condemned as exploitative, anyway?
The call center phenomenon is certainly no silver bullet, its presence here will not lead this country to economic progress. But it does provide jobs, lots of them, to our people. To say that call center employees should be paid the same wages as their US counterparts only goes to show how ignorant the KMU is on the economic realities of the present. You know what, if they do that, then there’s simply no point in relocating and transferring BPO operations to countries like the Philippines and India. Yes? The cost structures are different across countries: the standards of living differ, the over-head costs are not the same.
I think, for the moment, the BPO situation in the country is a win-win situation: call centers do earn a tidy profit, considering that all revenues are generated from overseas while the local fixed cost structure is cheap relative to its country of origin; but call center agent salaries are among the highest compared to say, entry-level banking jobs. In fact, call centers resort to creative means to recruit and retain top level agents: sign-in bonuses, free cell phones, gym and spa privileges, bonuses here and there. Most office workers never had and still do not have those perks. You call that exploitative?
Even Latin America, China, Eastern Europe, and now Africa, are clamoring to join in the band wagon and are learning and polishing their English and foreign language skills, fast. Sooner or later, these countries, where wages are even lower than ours, will become more competitive and take away our call center jobs. But for the moment, call center agents here are able to send their kids to school, have money for groceries and save up a little something for the rainy days.
I know wherof I speak. I do free lance jobs for local and overseas companies and as such I work pretty much the same way as a call center agent: I accept outsourced research jobs from overseas. My clients value my work because I give them top quality work for a competitive rate, relative to their usual research agencies, of course, but by local standards, it is rather high. See? It’s a win-win situation.
I do not know what to make of these comments, coming from close-minded quarters who have basically pledged lifelong allegiance to Marx, Engels, Lenin and his Bolsheviks, Mao Tse Tung and other relics of the cold war. Members of these leftist groups, who by the way, have never probably set foot in any capitalist office as a matter of principle, have again demonstrated why people generally shun them, relegate them to the margins, and basically regard them with contempt: they shoot their mouths off while their brains get stuck in their asses. They speak before they think, all in the context of Marx and Lenin, of course. What capitalist venture have they not condemned as exploitative, anyway?
The call center phenomenon is certainly no silver bullet, its presence here will not lead this country to economic progress. But it does provide jobs, lots of them, to our people. To say that call center employees should be paid the same wages as their US counterparts only goes to show how ignorant the KMU is on the economic realities of the present. You know what, if they do that, then there’s simply no point in relocating and transferring BPO operations to countries like the Philippines and India. Yes? The cost structures are different across countries: the standards of living differ, the over-head costs are not the same.
I think, for the moment, the BPO situation in the country is a win-win situation: call centers do earn a tidy profit, considering that all revenues are generated from overseas while the local fixed cost structure is cheap relative to its country of origin; but call center agent salaries are among the highest compared to say, entry-level banking jobs. In fact, call centers resort to creative means to recruit and retain top level agents: sign-in bonuses, free cell phones, gym and spa privileges, bonuses here and there. Most office workers never had and still do not have those perks. You call that exploitative?
Even Latin America, China, Eastern Europe, and now Africa, are clamoring to join in the band wagon and are learning and polishing their English and foreign language skills, fast. Sooner or later, these countries, where wages are even lower than ours, will become more competitive and take away our call center jobs. But for the moment, call center agents here are able to send their kids to school, have money for groceries and save up a little something for the rainy days.
I know wherof I speak. I do free lance jobs for local and overseas companies and as such I work pretty much the same way as a call center agent: I accept outsourced research jobs from overseas. My clients value my work because I give them top quality work for a competitive rate, relative to their usual research agencies, of course, but by local standards, it is rather high. See? It’s a win-win situation.
So how do you deal with leftist groups fronting as cause-oriented civil society NGOs and labor unions foisting their hard-core, recycled, straight-from-the-Marxist-textbook commentaries about present economic realities? IGNORE THEM. Because that’s what they deserve for being what they truly are: shrill voices in the wilderness.
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