A call centre is a centralised office used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by phone, especially enquiries surrounding customer service functions of or for a large organisation. Call centres are business processing outsourcing centres that engage in inbound processes (wherein customers call the centre for services), and outbound processes (wherein workers at the centre call consumers for marketing and advertising purposes).

It almost seems that every couple of months a new call centre pops up or is unveiled or is being constructed. Whatever the exact number of call centres within our island nation, call centres have become embedded and integral in our society, particularly in our more urban areas. And that’s happened pretty quickly. Five years ago neither of us knew what a call centre was, or whatever vague idea we had of call centre agents existed in India or some other distant land. 

In today’s Jamaica, however, if you haven’t yourself worked at a call centre, you know someone who’s worked at a call centre or you know someone who knows someone who’s worked at a call centre.

But why should we care? Read our last sentence again. As Jamaican teens and young adults, we ought to make it our business to understand, insofar as possible, the workings of call centres, particularly because the vast majority of workers at call centres are part of the under 30 crowd.

But you know teenAGE, we’ve got your back. Setting out to learn more about BPOs and call centres, this is what Trevann and Charlene learned:

1. No one really wants to work at a call centre

Surprise, surprise. Neither of the three young adults we spoke to (*Ashley, *Matthew, and *TJ) set out of high school wanting to work at a call centre. Matthew wants to become a high ranking Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) officer, and TJ wants to finish his tertiary education and get a job within his field of study. Ashley doesn’t have a particular dream job at the moment but aspires to find a job that is a comfortable fit for her sometime soon. 

Having already left her job at the call centre, Ashley says she would never want to work at another call centre again, and TJ has plans to quit his job soon.

2. It’s harder than you’d think

Answering the phone a couple times a day – what’s so hard about that, right? Wrong.

Have you ever gone off on someone in customer care? Imagine if you were the one answering calls and had to deal with difficult people everyday. Imagine dealing with people who are mad at you over something you have no control over. It’s not your fault their bank is subjecting their account to so many fees however, it’s you they take out their frustration on. 

In fact, according to Matthew who has been working at a call centre in the corporate area for almost a year, “It actually takes a lot of skill, mental toughness and patience;….[being a call centre agent] challenges your ability to recall important details exactly.” 

The pressure isn’t on for just one call per day, either. Matthew made it clear to teenAGE Observer that the pressure doesn’t really let up; it’s on for every call every day.

TJ, who has been working at a call centre for two years, avers that, “It is hectic answering calls (almost) nonstop all day.” And Ashley described her collective experience at multiple call centres over a period of eight or nine months as tiring, frustrating, depressing, sad and stressful, with the only good experiences being those she had during training.

Ashley pointed to one particular experience that left a bad taste in her mouth, where she spent almost two hours on a phone call trying diligently to resolve a customer’s issue only to have her team manager berate and mock her for caring enough to try to resolve the issue for that long.

3. The nature of the shifts can be overwhelming

The shifts are pretty varied in call centres. You don’t always work 9-5, there are so many other variants of an 8 hour shift. Some people have much later shifts that see them coming off work at 9, 10 or even 11pm. In addition to that, these shifts tend to change weekly or daily. Not having fixed schedule (like working the same 8 hours everyday) can take a toll on the body. In addition to that, for those that are simultaneously going to school, you can already see how overwhelming that can be. 

4. Not all call centres are created equal

Some call centres have a better environment that others. Some call centres are more flexible than others. Some call centres are more stressful than others. Some call centres even pay more than others. They are all not the same.

5. But there’s a silver lining

What was that saying we had to memorise in prep and primary school? Every cloud has its silver lining. The silver lining to long hours, daily tests of recall and the high pressure environment have been good at keeping Matthew on his toes and mentally alert. And for TJ, the friends he’s made through work as well as the pay are his silver linings. He acknowledges that without having worked at the call centre he would not have been able to fund his tertiary education.

Ashley also agrees that her different jobs at call centres paid well, and that there were frequent opportunities to earn extra cash by doing overtime. According to Ash, a job at a call centre won’t make you fabulously wealthy, but in her personal experience those jobs often pay better than other jobs that persons think are more ‘dignified’ or ‘professional’ or are otherwise more desirable.

Ultimately with a 7.8% unemployment rate as a record low in Jamaica, the rapid and very recent development of call centres here and the sheer volume of persons a single call centre is able to employ, are obvious contributors to this positive decline. Because of jobs available at call centres young persons are able to take up gainful employment, fund their dreams, fund their education and in some cases, generate enough capital to start passion projects and businesses.

Despite all those positives, it isn’t uncommon, however, for Jamaicans to ‘skin up dem nose’ or look down on call centre employment. Typically those Jamaicans that do turn up their noses at this kind of employment come from more educated and well-off households. Somehow it seems that the idea that persons can make money and support themselves right out of high school with a little training and nearly no skills necessary, is repugnant.

But before we launch into a dissertation on classes and classism, we hasten to say that some level of disdain may be reasonable. After all, which university grad would really want to work outside of their field? Who wants to go from lab work or wordy thesis statements to answering phone calls and doing work outside of your skill set? That would beg the question of just what exactly that student bothered studying for. 

Still, where many other jobs require greater skills than the majority of the unemployed and job-seeking population possess, and other jobs remain largely unavailable to the under-connected, what else is there to do? Call centre jobs might be below the skill set of some but it does bring home the bacon (or the tofu, or the chicken, or whatever you’re into). And as gruelling as the work can be, call centres tend to offer incentives as an attempt to sweeten the deal. Most offer rides home after a night shift (which is only reasonable, to be honest); some 

provide lunch free of cost; and some encourage and facilitate sports or other recreational team building activities.

Moreover, call centre employment does not by any means represent the only or even the lion’s share of stressful jobs. Many of the people turning up their noses at call centres have equally stressful jobs, are making less money or both. Make it make sense. Frankly, it isn’t fair either to think poorly of persons who make honest attempts at gainful employment and productivity, just because one does not believe their job requires great skill.

But before you start to think we’re call centre defenders or apologists, or that this is some kind of sponsored post, we believe it is important to note that call centre employment represents for most a temporary phase of their lives, meaning that call centres are not necessarily a sustainable answer to our country’s employment needs. With the long days and soul-sucking work they’re sort of the evil we see and know, but the evil we can’t fully cut out of our lives even if we wouldn’t mind seeing less and less of.

Call centres represent a stop gap for youth employment and opportunity. Where better and more varied job opportunities begin to exist for youth, so many will not be forced to work long hours at a job they’re dispassionate about, or to condescend to working below their skill and education level and in such high stress environments, at that.

Just like how call centres pop up seemingly out of nowhere, at a rapid pace, we want to see businesses be quick with to offer PAID internships for university graduates so they can get the experience they so greatly need. Expecting people to work for free at unpaid internships when they have loans to pay back and other obligations to meet is not only classist but makes no sense. That of course is a whole other conversation. 

Until then….we’ll answer some phone calls.

“Hello, this is [insert company here], how can I help you today?

Shout-out to our fellow TEENS and young adults holding it down.

— Trevann Hamilton and Charlene Buchanan