PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

Light at Night: How the Offshore Call Center Industry is Shaping Young Filipino Workers1
Resmi Setia Milawati Paper prepared for the tenth Asian Public Intellectuals Workshop on the theme, Culture, Power and Practices: The Globalization of Culture and Its Implications for Asian Regional Transformations, Chiang Mai, Thailand, during November 20-23, 2011. Abstract This research examines the social impact of the offshore call center industry on young, college-educated Filipino workers by analyzing how the industry is shaping the way they understand themselves and how they are adjusting with it. In order to capture these social impacts, the qualitative method of inquiry was applied to the study. This research was conducted in Metro Manila, the Philippines, the city known to have the biggest call center concentration in the country. The data gathered reveals that despite valuable contributions of the call center industry, there are issues that need to be examined further. Some of the features of the call center industry involve relatively high salaries, graveyard shifts, irate customers, tedious workloads, tight control policies, high performance demands, and fake identities that seem to shape the way the workers see themselves. Furthermore, there is a tendency that these characteristics lead to a certain degree of conspicuous consumption and unusual usage of leisure time, particularly among the young nonbreadwinner workers. In short, this research illustrates the paradox of globalization that while these workers are getting the benefits of the corporate search for cheap labor, they also carry the burden of the global restructuring work.

I.

Introduction

I.1. The research background The thriving of call center industry in the Philippines can be felt by the passengers upon stepping into the airport. A big red colorful billboard from one of the leading call center companies welcome them with the promise of a career opportunity for those who are willing to join the company. From that point, it only takes about 15 minutes from the airport to see one of call center concentrations in Metro Manila called Bonifacio Global City. The city looks new, well maintained and sophisticated with many skyscrapers, upscale residential condominiums, bars, clubs, fancy restaurants, fast-food chains, coffee shops, and 24-hour mini-stores. Many major companies have acquired properties and relocated their headquarters here. Some of them are Accenture, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Deutsche Bank, Lawson Software, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson, TetraPak, and JPMorgan Chase.2
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I thank Jose Lorenzo C. Abuel for his assistance during the primary fieldwork and the report-writing stage. I express my deepest gratitude to my informants, who willingly shared their personal lives and included me in their daily activities. 2 Bonifacio Global City is part of Taguig City, Metro Manila. The plan to develop this area was made in 1995 by Bonifacio Land Development Corporation (BLDC) a consortium led by Metro Pacific. They made a successful bid to become Bases Conversion Development Authoritys (BCDA) partner in the development of Bonifacio Global City. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bonifacio, http://www.bonifacioglobalcity.com.ph/)

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

This city never sleeps. Early in the morning, one can already see people, mostly young ones, queuing at the cashier in a mini store nearby a big call center company just to get cigarettes, instant noodles, hot dogs, and drinks. A vivid similarity among them is an ID (identity-card) hanging around their necks. Who are they? What are they doing in this area when the most people are still nestling in their beds? This research attempts to depict young Filipino workers who participate in the offshore call center industry. Among other types of workers, the call center workers are able to provide a clear picture of people whose lives are shaped by events happening far away and vice versa (Giddens 1990, 64 cited from Inda and Rosaldo 2002, 8). The offshore call center industry illustrates how developments in the technology sectors of communication and transportation have allowed corporations to relocate their businesses to farther areas with significantly lower production costs. One of the results was a massive shift of service work from developed countries, such as the United States, Western Europe and Japan to low-wage sites around the globe. Take the case of the Philippines. In the last decade there is a significant growth in a new-service based sector called business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. In terms of the number of employment, there was a dramatic increase from 2,000 (2001), 162,250 (2005), 237,000 (2006), to 525,000 (2010). The BPO was also able to generate US$ 350 million in 2001, 1.8 billion in 2005, with US$ 1 billion (56%) contributed by the call centers and US$ 3.8 billion in 2006 with at least 72% were from the call centers (PIA 2006; Domingo 2006; Bennett 2007; Villafania 2009). By the year 2010, the industry generated revenues of $8.9 billion, a year-on-year growth of 26%. Its biggest sub-sector, the call center, grew over 21% to $6.1 billion. To confirm the rapid growth of this industry, in the end of 2010 the Philippines finally took over India as the leader of call center industry in the world.3 In other words, the call center industry in the Philippines has played an important role as a source of economic development and employment. However, despite these valuable contributions, the industry has been revealed to have shortcomings as shown by previous researches. A research conducted by Rosemary Batt et al., (2005) on the differences between U.S.-based call centers and offshore centers operated by local subcontractors show that companies from the developed countries have sent work overseas to take advantage of lower wages, but at the same time, were concerned about the level of service quality provided. For these reasons, they preferred to hire young college-educated workers and imposed tighter constraints on the managerial discretion in offshore call centers. Consequently, the average level of education of call center workers and the level of control and standardization in the less developed countries is higher than those found among the call centers based on the developed countries. It appears that in the Philippines, fluency in English is most likely a proxy for high education levels. In other words, the offshore call centers have deployed this labor sub-optimally because they are hiring solely for their English fluency and not optimizing over the remaining educational capabilities of their employees. Moreover, Anurupa Roys (2007) study in India emphasizes that long and odd working hours, deskilling, and emotional labor characterize the call center labor process. In turn these characteristics lead to alienation on the part of the workers. Another research done by Nadeem (2011) on Indian call center workers reveals that
3

http://www.tucp.org.ph/news/index.php/2011/04/bpo-industry-revenues-grow-26-to-8-9-b-in-2010/ accessed on June 22, 2011.

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

the constant involvement with these characteristics of work is changing the way Indians understand themselves. In short, these studies show the dilemma of globalization. This research is developed on a similar path by taking an example of the Philippines, which is still rarely chosen as a research site for this industry compared to India. I.2. The research objectives In general, the research aims to examine how the offshore call center industry is shaping the ways its young college-educated workers understand themselves. Specifically, the research attempts to: 1. describe the reasons that underlie the decision of young workers to participate in the call center industry. 2. describe the general nature of the offshore call center industry. 3. describe the social life of workers inside and outside their workplace, focusing on the usage of leisure time and the pattern of consumption. 4. reveal the dilemma of being offshore call center workers; and 5. describe how various factors shape the way call center workers understand themselves. I.3. The research method This research applies a qualitative method. It seeks to find out how the offshore call center industry is shaping the way its workers understand themselves. Metro Manila was chosen as the research site due to several reasons. First, it is known have the biggest call center concentration in the Philippines. Almost 85% of the call center companies in the Philippines are located in Metro Manila. Second, it is the destination of choice for workers from various regions in the Philippines. Thus, the variation of cultural and socio-economic background may color the perspectives in understanding their involvement in the call center industry. And third, the growth of products and services is more pronounced in major cities, such as Metro Manila. Therefore, the distinct forms in consumption and the unusual usage of leisure time among relatively well-paid young call center workers are best captured here. This research combined primary and secondary data collection. The primary data collection involved several techniques. First, in-depth interviews with key informants, such as call center workers, trainers, managers, supervisors, and consultants. In total 24 individuals were interviewed, 16 of them were call center agents. Although this is small sample and more interviews could have been conducted, but the degree of repetition in later interviews suggested that data saturation had been reached. The characteristics of the informants described as follow:

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati Table 1: The Characteristics of Informants

Category Marital status Educational background Age range Salary range

*1 USD = 43 Pesos

Female (8) 6 single 2 married (children) 6 college graduates 2 on leave from college 22 28 years old 12,000 28,000 pesos/ 280 650 USD*

Male (8) 6 single 2 married (children) 6 college graduates 1 on leave from college 1 high school graduate 18 32 years old 15,000 30,000 pesos/ 349 698 USD

Second, casual interviews with numerous call center workers met during direct observation in call center company areas, such as Eastwood City, Bonifacio Global City, UP-Technohub Quezon City, Makati City, and Ortigas Center. Third is participant observation. This was considered as the best tool to understand workers regular activities. The researcher participated in activities outside the workplace, such as drinking and videoke (video karaoke) sessions, family gatherings, and holidays. Furthermore, to enhance the data gathered by first-hand experiences, the secondary data collection was applied. It involved previous researches, documents, and online sources. II. The Young Call Center Workers Many of young urban workers grew up within the context of advanced information and communications technology. Their exposure to these various technologies, such as computers, the Internet, and cell phones, have contributed to a fast-paced lifestyle. According to Hechanova et.al. (2008, 38), Technology has also played a large role in exposing our youth to the global environments and cultures that are shaping their value systems. They are Filipino nationals but are also fast becoming citizens of the world. Given that context, the young4 people become an interesting topic because they are more adept in making use of technology, which is necessary in the offshore call center industry. An operational manager of a US-based call center confirms, we dont have a strict preference regarding the workforce, but we must admit that it is easier to hire younger people because they usually have a good knowledge on computer and easily adjust with the night shift compared to the older ones. Meanwhile, from the perspective of young people, the call center attracts them due to easy access and easy money. As explained by Jessica, a 23-year-old call center agent, I saw one of my brothers friends. He was buying a lot. Dummy cash? So where is he working? In a call center? Wow, high-end! Can I try? I tried and luckily I got the job. Josh, a 25-year-old computer science graduate, also shares similar reason, I had to pay some student loans and debts that my mom had when I was studying. Its not hard to get accepted in a call center. These comments exemplify the reasons of many other call center agents who participate in the call center industry for financial purpose, either to support personal and/or family expenses. Aside from those reasons, other agents give more emphasize on personal
Youth between 15 and 24 years of age account for 30 percent of the Philippine Labor Force (Bureau of Labor Employment Statistics. LabStat Updates vol. 15, no. 9, June 2011).
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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

experience and self-autonomy or independency. Jeni, a new agent in a US-based call center explains, I was not really looking for money, more for experience and allowance. But at least I am independent and I dont want to ask money from my parents. Another agent reiterates, The first time I earned, I felt having lots of money. I started to have ego, pride. I argued a lot with my parents. I left the house and lived on my own in Manila. They got shocked, but I said to my parents that I just wanted to become independent. It took me 3 years to get back home. This comment reveals that financial autonomy may lead to a certain level independency and selfautonomy among young workers. However, there are some issues related to the entry of young people into the call center industry. A survey conducted by University of the Philippines Population Institute (2010) identifies that higher incomes among young call center workers translate into higher consumption of material goods. Also, the prevalence of risky sexual activity is significantly higher among call center workers compared to their counterparts from other industries. This support Friths (1984) argument says the increased affluence of working class youth created new modes of consumption and leisure. White and Wyn (1997) also add that one of the characteristics of youth is their tendency to get involved in risky behaviors. The discussion about social life of young call center workers will be explored in the later part. In order to provide a deeper understanding about young call center workers, some of their brief profiles are shown below. Profile 1 Sophia is a twenty-six-year-old female agent from Manila. She graduated from Far Eastern University (FEU) Manila. Soon she finished her study in 2005; she entered the call center industry. Her parents have lived separately since she was young. Therefore, she felt responsible to support her siblings who were still in schoolone sister and two brothers. After her siblings finish their schooling, she could use her income to support her dream to be a theater actress and to do her travelling hobby. She made a blog on travelling and took a theater class. She explained that she did not want to work in the call center permanently, especially when there was no career progress. She wanted to pursue her career as a theater actress seriously. She lives with her sister who is also working in a leading US-based call center as a supervisor. Profile 2 John is the eldest of three. His parents own a small business. When the family business did not work well, he took a break from studying in one of the top universities in the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila university, and decided to find a job in the call center. He was 22 years old at the time. He got the job and had been working in a major US-based call center company for one year. He resigned because he got sickly and his parents business started to operate normally again. He managed to get back to school and paid his tuition fee by himself. He will be finishing his study soon. He admitted that if he could not a good job he might go back to work in the call center until he saved enough money to set up his own business. Profile 3
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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

Rachel is a twenty-five-year-old mother of three. She comes from Bolinao, Pangasinan. She finished her education in nursing school. As she finished her study, she took an internship in a different area. She left her children with her husband and his family. However, living apart from her family created some relationship problems with her husband. She decided to go back to her family and worked out on her marriage. She only stayed for a while then left again. She said her husband did not work so she needed to find a job to support her family. She decided to go to Manila. She applied to several call centers but got rejected because her English was not fluent enough and she lacked confidence. She admitted that it was not easy for someone from the province to live in Manila and to join a call center. However, she finally got a job in US-based call center company in Ortigas. She worked there for 1 year and 8 months, then moved to another call center that offered her a bigger salary. After she had a stable income, she took her family and rented a house in Antipolo. She is the breadwinner in the family. Aside from herself, she supports her husband, her sister-in-law, and her 3 children. As shown by those profiles, call center workers come from various socio-economic backgrounds. However, they have one distinct similarity, the call center is seen as a source of easy employment as well as a source of relatively high incomes or in other words it is a key to financial and self-autonomy, especially for young and single workers. III. The Nature of Offshore Call Center Industry In general, call centers are placed at the lower end of the BPO value chain since they provide lower profit margins and require less skill compared to other BPO activities (Bird and Ernst 2009). Call centers serve various clients, such as airline companies, telecommunications companies, finance-related businesses, hospitality services, technology broadcast media, food, internet providers, and public sectors. Call center services can be categorized in terms of inbound/outbound and voice/nonvoice. These will be explained in the following table.
Table 2: Categorization and Description of Call Center Services

Category Inbound Outbound Voice Non-voice

Description Receiving calls to provide consumer services, technical supports, etc. Calling consumers to collect bills, to sales products, etc. Involving calls. It involves taking calls (inbound) or making calls (outbound). Mostly involving e-mail and online chat.

Source: primary fieldwork, 2010-2011

There are 1070 call center companies located in 30 areas in the Philippines. 898 (83.9%) of these companies are located in Metro Manila (call center directory 2010). The majority of the offshore call center companies in the Philippines provide customer services to American residents. As of March 2007, there were over 150 USbased call center companies and over 50 other companies from Australia, the United

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

Kingdom, and other Western Europe (Friginal 2008). Indian-based call center companies also started to invest in the Philippines. The time zone difference with their clients put most call center workers in the graveyard shift, which is unpopular in the beginning of the industry. This leads to a question on how the company attracts its potential candidates to work in this type of industry. III.1. Recruitment strategies The massive relocation of offshore call center companies to the Philippines resulted in the increase of demand for call center workers. This condition contributed to the high competition in recruiting potential workers. A recruitment specialist highlights this condition, In average there are 150 applicants per day. If we go less than 100 applicants, the HR department will get freaked out because they will have to fill the seats. 100 people get hired per week. This company never stops hiring[since] there are at least 3 factors why we keep hiring, attrition rates, clients demand, and applicants failure during training. The general requirements for a call center agent, i.e. at least having a two-year college education and possessing excellent oral and written English language skills in order to handle the job adequately. They also prefer to hire young workers since they are considered to be more adept in the usage of computer technology, are faster learners, are easier to adjust to the night shift compared to their older counterparts. In terms of field of study, there is no preference towards this. In the call center industry it is more important to have a customer-oriented mindset than coming from a specific field of study. A 35-year-old female manager shares her experience, When we did a case study on high performing agents, what we found out was being a college graduate is not a good factor on the performance of doing well on the phone. It doesnt matter what course you took, what college you graduate from or if you didnt graduate as long as you speak good English and you have good problem solving skills, then, youre okay. In order to attract the workers, call center companies develop various strategies from placing billboards in main streets to banners in the neighborhood areas or barangay offices around Metro Manila. Other companies prefer public transportations, such as buses and city trains as their campaign outlet. Their campaigns mostly build on the similar concept as shown in these examples, we offer nothing but the best opportunities, join the best place to work, and your passport to fast employment. To make these lines more convincing, they usually put a picture of young male or female worker smiling with a headset on. Here, call center work is promoted as a desirable and skilled job (Mirchandani 2004). As an addition to those advertisements, they also use websites and newspapers as their venue to publish job openings. Some informants confirm that they found their current job by checking ads in these venues. Others mention job fair or job caravan. A male call center worker from Pampanga, outside Metro Manila, says that he knew about the call center industry from a two-day job fair in his hometown. He got his first job as a call center agent through that job fair. He was interviewed and took an exam at a fast food restaurant nearby the job fair area. He also added that the company gave

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

him a free meal coupon. Other common practices are walk-ins and employee referrals. One informant who has been working in several call centers shares that he got the first job through recommendation from a friend who also work in the same company. If the recommended person is hired, the one who gave the recommendation will receive a bonus that varies from 1,000 to 5,000 pesos. This strategy is commonly used in every call center company. One of the benefits of this practice is to mitigate the attrition rate. Some informants admit that workers who got the job through this process tend to stay longer, work harder and more obedience. This seems related to the concept of utang na loob5or debt of goodwill which is quite unique to Filipinos. As in any companies, the applicants need to go through a set of selection process that varies from one company to another. The applicants may take different selection process. It usually depends on their work experience. This will be explained in next part. III.2. Selection process The majority of call center companies usually divide the applicants into two groups, those with and without experience. The applicants with at least 6-months experience will follow shorter screening process. In a major US-based call center company, this process is called express lane. The applicant is only required to take an exam and a final interview. Meanwhile, those without call center experience have to follow several stages. First is phone screening, especially for the non-walk in applicants. This stage usually determines the voice quality over the phone and how the applicant responds to the call. Second is the initial interview. This is conducted by the company human resource department or an outsource recruitment agency to examine the speaking skills, attitude and how confident the applicant responds to questions. Third, the applicant needs to take an examination. This includes aptitude tests, computer-based call simulations and emotional quotient (QE) or aptitude tests. The last process is final interview. This will assess customer service, technical or sales skills. If the applicant passes the final interview, he/she will get a job offer. However, for certain cases, after the final interview, the applicant still needs to be screened and validated by a different recruiter team. It is usually related to the accounts demand. The whole selection process will take from one to two days. The company that has urgency to fill the seat will usually finish the process within half a day and announce the result later on that day. In short, this selection process varies depending on the applicants experience, the company regulation, the company needs and the accounts demand. The extensive screening process also takes part in the creation of notion that call center work is a desirable job. However, despite of this image created by the industry, all the informants do not have intention to work permanently and to choose the job due to lack of other job opportunities that offer the same salary level.

Francis Dancel (2005) explains, utang na loobis no ordinary debt. It is a characteristically strong sense of gratefulness taken with extreme seriousness by Filipinos. Utang na loob is, in many ways, a debt incurred by the inner being of a person, a soul debt, which persists and endures, even after the original debt has been paid.

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

III.3. Training practice The basic training practice consists of three programs: English communication training, cultural training and product specific training. The training can take from a few days to two months. Given that the majority of the customers are Americans, most workers are taught to speak with an American accent. However, for nonAmerican clients, workers are usually required to neutralize their accent and speak with English in a clear manner. Mirchandanis (2004, 360) study on Indian call center workers has shown that, The justification provided for neutralizing accents draws heavily on discourses of human resource development whereby Indian labour is constructed as a flexible commodity that can be trained to meet client needs. As supported by Sandy, a 23-year-old customer service representative for an Australian account, In my company, they only ask me to speak as clear as possible. For American accounts, during the language and cultural training, workers are taught American accent, grammar, idioms, jargons, American geography and popular culture. They are also discouraged to reveal their geographical area, to reveal their real identity on the phone and are asked to use American names, such as Eric, Joseph, and Jenny. The workers see this practice variously. Some workers feel uncomfortable because they are forced to tell lies to the customers, especially for the beginners. But other workers find this training is helpful. They feel more confidence and more assertive. The reason underlying those practices is to serve customers better. However, another reason that rarely discusses is to mute the political backlash in the West over the morality of outsourcing (Nadeem 2011, 7). However, some companies started to change this policy. They allow the agents to disclose their location and real identity as Filipinos (see also Hechanova-Alampay 2010). In the offshore call centers, English is seen as a key instrument to overcome national barriers (Phillipson 2001 cited from Mirchandani 2004). However, there is a critique says that training programs conducted by call centers is an example of their engagement in language trafficking, which is understood as the spread of particular type of English throughout the world (Swales 1997 cited from Mirchandani 2004). Another critical aspect of service work, it involves emotional labor. According to Leidner (1999, 83), interactive service workers must expend emotional labor to produce a certain quality of interaction but also to manage the emotions of service recipients so that they do not hold up. Although the call center agents do not interact face to face with the customer but they are still asked to smile and to control their mood. The trainer usually convinces the trainees that the customer can see the smile and sense the mood through their voice (see Townsend 2007). In terms of training, there is a big difference between small or fly by night call centers and large call center companies on the way they put importance on the training. This may also relates to the types of account they cater. The major accounts will usually choose large call centers over small ones. The large companies are relatively more reliable in terms of infrastructure and technology, human resource (well-trained workers, skillful trainers, and good quality control staffs), and work organization. In turn, they are able to deliver a better service quality. Therefore the large companies put a lot investment on the training department. A call center worker who has been working in various sizes of call centers shares his experience as follows:

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

In the smaller companies we didnt have actual formal training. On the first day of work we were already put on the phone, reading a particular script without knowing what the actual product is. We just need to follow the script. In the larger companies, they are going to train you. They wouldnt send any agent without any product knowledge. Prior to that, they will train you about American geography, language and culture. If you pass, they will send you to product knowledge training. After that, in 1-2 days time, they will put you on the floor, let you try to take calls then go back to training class. Once you completed the training you will start to take calls. We do get additional training. They also try to develop people. They have this particular plan, so we should be able to get in a particular position in a particular set of time frame. Its on their handbook. If were good we can apply for a higher position. A senior manager of training and development in a leading US-based call center company confirms, We encourage growth and employment development. When you join us you will see how you will progress in terms of career. You will see a ladder to show you where you will be in six months, in one year, in two years, so on and so forth. In some call centers, especially the big ones they try to do that. They shift the image of call center because they realize in order for operation to get to operational excellence you have to keep your people. They have to be trained internally. If keep you getting fresh people you will not reach that operational excellence because theres always learning curve when you hire new people. Those explanations suggest that call center jobs cannot be seen simply as a dead-end job or as a promising job. Although there is a chance for a career movement, there are a few people who can actually get promoted due to the limited number of higher position. Therefore, the competition among workers is very high and may lead to an unhealthy working environment. III.4. Work Nature and Its Issues This part describes the general work nature of call center industries. It includes the description of work hour systems, salary and allowance scheme, performance demand, work control and workloads, and issues occur while handling international customers. Work hour systems and its effects The majority offshore call center industry caters customers from a different time zone. Therefore, they require workers to work in the night shift or the graveyard shift. The night shift allows workers to talk directly to customers on their working hours. To illustrate, a call center worker in Metro Manila receives and places calls somewhere in the United States from 10:00 p.m. to 09:00 a.m. Philippines time. The regular work hour is 9 hours per day. The implementation of graveyard shift leads to at least three main issues, i.e., health, social life and safety (Hechanova-Alampay 2010; Nadeem 2011). In terms of health, working in a permanent night shift has made call center workers prone to sickness. A 28-year-old female call center agent claimed that she got

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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

sickly and gained weight since she worked in the call center. When we were on a holiday, she pulled out a pouch contains various kinds of medicines for flu, cough, constipation, peptic ulcer, and heart disease. Then she took some of those medicines. Working in the night shift limits its workers to get sunshine exposure and to do exercise that necessary for the body. Moreover, a very strict break also adds to health problems among call center workers. The break is divided into three parts, i.e. two 15 minutes break and 30 minutes break. Call center agents usually use the 15 minutes break to smoke or yosi (cigarette) time and to go to the toilet. The agents use the 30 minutes break to have lunch around 02:00 a.m. Some of the workers complain about urinary tract infection (UTI) because they cannot leave their post every time they need to go to the toilet. They have to wait until their break time. For social life, during the interviews some agents complained about having irregular or random days off. This practice makes them difficult to make plans with family or friends and leads to relationship problems. Jordan and Robert emphasize the importance of having regular days off. They prefer to work with a lower salary as long as they are able to get days off during weekends. Robert says, Although there are companies offer me higher salaries, I prefer to stay here. At least I can feel like a normal person. Now, I can make plans with my girlfriend and friends. When I was working in the previous company, I used to fight with my girlfriend because we rarely saw each other and I also felt far from my friends. I could not watch gigs with them anymore. Jordan also has similar impression. He shares, The reason why I stayed in this company for years is because they have regular days off. I only stay in Manila for work. Every weekend I will go home to Pampanga to meet my family and band mates. This makes me relieved and happy. Another issue related to the graveyard shift is safety. Some workers, especially female workers are worried about their safety because they have to go to the office late at night or to come home very early in the morning. A call center agent in Ortigas Center shared a rumor that there was a case when a female call center was held up and raped on her way home. To address the safety issues, some companies put more security guards, install more post lights and provide shuttle buses while some workers prefer to take a taxi or come to the office earlier, especially for those who live far from the office (see also Hechanova-Alampay 2010). Salary and allowance scheme The salary level of a call center worker nationally is higher compared to regular workers; even compared to those in banking sector. However, internationally, it is still very low compared to their American counterparts. Some Filipino call center workers criticize it. As Eric says, Outsourcing helps the economy in the US more. They pay the workers in US 8 dollars an hour. One agent in US is equivalent with 10 agents here (the Philippines). The salary usually consists of basic salary and allowance, such as food, transportation, attendance, and bonus allowance. The workers will also receive

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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

additional payment when they work beyond than regular work hour and work during holidays. However, this kind of scheme is mostly applied in the big company. Meanwhile, in the small company, the management will only give a set of salary without any allowance. This will be illustrated in the case of Robert who had been working in both sizes of the companies.
Figure 1: Salary and Allowance Scheme in the Big and Small Company

The Big Company Basic salary: P 14,500 (US$ 337.2) Food and transportation allowance: P 2,500 (US$ 58) Program allowance: 2,000 (US$ 46.5) Total: P 19,500 (US$ 441.7) This excludes overtime pay, attendance and bonus allowance (if workers reach the company target). Health insurance to cover 1 3 family members
Source: primary fieldwork, 2011

The Small Company All in one: P 16,000-18,000 (US$ 372 US$ 418.6) No health insurance

Each company offers different set of compensation, including salary, allowance and benefits. Among other factors, the compensation plays a significant predictor of turnover motive. The rate of turnover in this industry is known very high. It is about 30 to 40 percent (Hechanova-Alampay 2010). Performance demand, workloads, work control, and irate customers Although call centers are varied in their work organization and managerial styles but they adopt strategies that focus on controlling. The offshore companies have moved their operations overseas to make more profit due to lower wages, but they are concerned about the service quality provided. Therefore, they impose stricter control and higher levels of performance demand. In turn, these management strategies may cause burnout among workers. The level of stress may get higher when they encounter irate customers. As shared by Jordan who is currently working in a US-based call center, The work pressure is very high. When I was still in debt collection, I needed to collect from 5 customers per day, 100 per monthwhen you deal with American customers and they find out that youre calling from Bombay or Manila, there are times that they will insult you. When they notice you speak differently. Hey, youre from Manila, youre the one who suck our money, youre the one whos stealing our jobs. What I do (is) just let it go. We have to handle stress, (the) night shift, and discrimination. After he had a throat infection and lost his voice for two months, he was transferred to non-voice department to analyze documents. In this department, he also experiences a lot of pressures and over workloads. Within 8 hours, he is required to analyze 70 documents. He admits that it is hard to meet the target because he needs to maintain

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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

quality and quantity at the same time. He just got a verbal warning from the manager for not being able to meet the target. He shares, It is impossible to finish all the documents. Even though I keep on working, I still cant reach my target. They gave me a verbal warning and gave me two months to fix it. Otherwise they will give me a warning for termination. According to my friends, a verbal warning is a sign for us to look for another job before we have a bad credit in our resume. I already started to look for another job. A similar experience also shared by Sophia, As a universal agent, I have to do multiple tasks, collection, explaining accounts, and other things. I need to handle every call no longer than 400 seconds. During peak time, I need to take 100 calls. Grabe! Meanwhile, Jessica, a customer service representative who used to work in selling accounts, shares her experience dealing with irate customers, (my) the first time to hear irate customers, I picked up (the) calls, (and) they suddenly scream, Fuck you! I need to get my money back! so I pressed my mute button and said putang ina mo! I never heard (that) before in selling. Then I pretend to be empathic. (Out of) 10 calls, youll get 7 irate customers. The salary is good but the pressure (is so great). So now, every time I start, before I put on my head seat, Ill say, breathe in breathe out. When I log out, finish the shift, (and its) time to go home, (I) leave everything here. Despite all those stories, some workers find that working in the call center gave them more confidence. Julia says, Before (joined the call center) I was a bit embarrassed to speak with foreigners, but now I can even joke about stuffs with them and use slang words I learned during trainings. And youll find out that those American customers are not as smart as we imagined. They sometimes ask stupid things. Those narrations reveal the dilemma of being an offshore call center worker. All the benefits they get come with the burden they should carry due to the global restructuring work. IV. The Social Life of Call Center Workers After the shift is over, around 07:00 am, Eric and his teammates go to a karaoke bar nearby the office to drink a few buckets of red horse6 beer and to sing together. Eric says, Drinking with teammates can lessen the stress I got from work. Besides it also makes me sleep easily. Jessica also states, I usually go drinking after the shift (at) 5.30 am in the morning and 1.45, 2-3 pm in the afternoon. With friends and teammates. We maximize our off days toohonestly, before I didnt have savings at all. I spent it for gimmicks, clubbing, and gadgets like laptop, camera, shoes, clothes, movies, and food.
6

Extra-strong beer brewed by San Miguel, Manila, Philippines. 13

PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

So when I resigned I only relied on my back pay until I got a new job. Now since I earn more, I can save some. With regard to consumption patterns, some informants also admit that they use a big proportion of their money for travelling. As mentioned by Sophia, My teammates now like eating, drinking, and videoke. I am so bored cause I like travelling. I have been initiating, making plans (for trips) but never happen. In my previous workplace, my teammates liked travelling too. Wed been to Puerto Galera three times. I spend most of my money for travelling. I already started to save money for my next trip to Coron to celebrate my birthday. Aside from drinking and consumption habit, some informants also admit having premarital sex as an outlet to release a stressful job. As shared by a 25-year-old female call center worker, There was a time that during my lunch break, I would just go to my dates office just to have a quickie. His office was near. Work is stressful! A 23-year-old female call center worker also has a similar experience, During my days off, I usually spend time with my boyfriend. He also works in the call center. We go out of town, watch movies, and do other things. I stay over in his place or he stays over in my place. We plan to live in together but I dont know cause he has a girlfriend already. This kind of lifestyle has been described a lot in popular media as well as research reports. A survey conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (2010) reveals changes of values and lifestyle among call center workers, especially the young ones. The findings also show heavy drinking and smoking, the high level of premarital sex, and conspicuous consumption, among the call center workers is a bit higher compared to the non-call center workers. However, the social life of call center workers is far from being homogenous, while some workers choose risky activities as their outlet to lessen stress, others favor more productive activities, such as taking a theater class, recording music album, writing fanzines for underground music scene, and organizing music events. A 28year old male call center worker who is active in underground music scene explains his usage of leisure time, Sunday is my music time. I like listening (to) music and reading books. I also write fanzines for underground scene. I watch gigs during my days off. I spend my money to pay the bills and buy music CDs. Its a bit pricey cause they are imported. For some married workers with children, they prefer to spend their time with family. As narrated by Rachel, I dont smoke, I dont go drinking like my friends. After work, I just go home and spend time with my children. I go to church with themI spend my money to support my family cause my husband doesnt work. I also pay for my sister in-laws tuition fee and pay my father in-laws debt. Its like utang

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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

na loob cause during the first year of my work, they were the one who took care of my children. Adding to those stories, some workers seem to develop certain values toward friendship due to their competitive working environment. This can be seen in their social life within and outside the workplace. Jenny explains, What I hate about call centers although I am still working in it (are the) gossips even for personal life. They chat about it. There are no real friends in call centers. Among (the) 200 people in the office, I only got close with 10 people. They were my teammates. Were like (a) family (:) drinking together, sleeping together. If you have real friends in a call center you need to treasure them. (they are) so hard to find. If you want to step up you need to pull people down. Thats what I hate. If you want to get promoted, you should hang out and smoke together with your officemates or sleep with your superior. My boss said I would get promoted if I were willing to sleep with him. No way I will do that! (a 25year-old mother of three children) Those narrations highlight how the workers construct and adjust their life within the call center industry. Their adjustments seem differ from one to another. This is not surprising since they come from different socio-economic backgrounds and expose to different cultures. V. Conclusion The results of the study suggest the following conclusions regarding the reasons that underlie the decision of young workers to join the call center industry and the dominant factors that shape the way call center workers understand themselves. The findings reveal two major reasons for young workers to participate in the industry, namely for financial purposes and/or self-autonomy. These reasons are often interrelated and have differing degrees of applicability in different situations. The offshore call center industry that is often described as the source of easy money and easy jobs seem to bring some changes into the young workers lives and vice versa. The industry, offering the relatively high pay, clearly takes part in the growing consumer society and the unusual usage of leisure time especially among its young non-breadwinner workers. However, despite these so-called unwanted consequences, there is also a significant growth in the sense of independency and confidence of these workers towards their parents, family members, and friends. This has been mentioned in previous labor studiesthat the sense of independency grows simultaneously with the ability to earn. Nevertheless, this phenomenon still needs to be examined further and it still needs to be compared between the new and old workers. As shown in the studies of transnational migrant workers, the new workers are more eager to spend their salaries for consumptions than investments. But after some time, some workers will start saving up and/or investing their money. Furthermore, the findings show that there is an uneasy relation between values imposed through the structure of work in the call center (work organization and managerial styles) that are constructed in the Western corporate style and values gained through local institutions outside the workplace, such as family and friends

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PANEL 5: Flux and Flows of People, Power, and Practices: Issues Relating to Social Justice Resmi Setia Milawati

(see Nadeem 2011). For example, the odd working hours and the irregular days off somehow promote social relation changes that in turn lead to the way how workers give importance to social relations and job preferences. Some workers prefer to work in a company with lower salaries as long as they can have regular days off, which are considered to be a significant factor in maintaining their relationship with family members and friends. In addition to this, the findings also reveal that trainings and work natures are shaping the way they understand themselves in terms of the level of confidence and the sense of being Filipino (see also Hechanova-Alampay 2010). Despite the fact that some workers feel that working in a call center company deskills and degrades them, some others feel that communicating in English on a daily basis have improved their self-confidence and their intensive interaction with foreign customers have also strengthen their feelings of being a Filipino as they find out that foreign customers are not as superior as their projection before. These contradictory facts have emphasized the argument that globalization produces similarity and difference simultaneously (Nadeem 2011, 8)although they follow similar work processes, they internalize and react differently. This also highlights the importance to examine factors beyond than workplace in understanding the dynamics of globalization. REFERENCES Batt, Rosemary, Virginia Doellgast and Hyunji Kwon. 2005. Service management and employment systems in U.S. and Indian call centers, Brookings Trade Forum, pp. 335-372. Bennett, Dahl. 2007. BPO Roadmap Plots Philippines Direction for 2010, Breakthroughs: the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing Newsletter. May-July, Vol. 1 No. 1. Bird, Miriam and Christoph Ernst. 2009. Offshoring and employment in the developing world: Business process outsourcing in the Philippines, Employment Working Paper No. 41. Geneva: ILO. Dancel, Francis. 2005. Utang Na Loob (Debt of Goodwill): A Philosophical Analysis. In Filipino Cultural Traits: Philippine Philosophical Study III, ed. Rolando M. Gripaldo, 109-128. Washington, D.C: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy.
Domingo, Ronnel 2006, Outsource industry seen growing, Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 17, 2006, p. B6.

Friginal, Eric. 2008. Threats to the Sustainability of the Outsourced Call Center Industry in the Philippines: Implications for Language Policy. Lang Policy 8: 51-68 Frith, Simon. 1984. The Sociology of Youth. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Hechanova-Alampay, Ma. Regina. 2010. 1-800-Philippines: Understanding and Managing the Filipino Call Center Worker. Quezon City: Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University.

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Hechanova, Ma. Regina, Edna P. Franco, and Liane F. Pena-Alampay. 2008. Managing Our Young Filipino Workers. In Leading Philippine Organizations in a Changing World: Research and Best Practices, eds. Ma. Regina M. Hechanova and Edna P. Franco, 37-48. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. Inda, Jonathan Xavier and Renato Rosaldo, eds. 2002. The Anthropology of Globalization: a Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. Leidner, Robin. 1999. Emotional Labor in Service Work. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 561: 81-95. Mirchandani, Kiran. 2004. Practices of global capital: gaps, cracks and ironies in transnational call centres in India. Global Networks 4: 355-373. Nadeem, Shehzad. 2011. Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing Is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Philippine Information Agency 2006, Let the numbers speak- our economy is on the upswing, Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 25, p. A17.

Roy, Anurupa. 2007. Spaces of Labour Process: A Case Study of Call Centres in Kolkata, India, Paper presented at Session II: The Geography of IT Enabled Services: New Empirical and Theoretical Insights, on April 21. Research Team. 2010. Lifestyle, Health Status and Behavior of Young Workers in Call Centers and Other Industries: Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. University of the Philippines Population Institute. Townsend, Keith. 2007. Recruitment, training and turnover: another call centre paradox. Personnel Review Vol. 36 No. 3: 476-490. Villafania, Alexander. 2006. IT Industry Gets Bigger Share of the P500M Scholarship Program, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 12 May. White, Rob and Johanna Wyn. 1997. Rethinking Youth. London: Sage Publication.

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