(no subject)

[bubosquared]

Link of the Day: Cutest Firefly fic I've read in a while. Kittens, people!

Heh. I've apparently gone invisible, as one of my co-workers just asked "Hey, where's Sofie, is she on holiday?" I'm right here, people! *pokes self to make sure I'm still corporeal and stuff* Yup, all here.

Speaking of corporeality (is that a word), there's been another fake LJ death, and I feel like I should reassure you all that a) I am, in fact, real, and b) in case I get run over by a bus or something tomorrow, there will be confirmation from local LJers, at least. I also left instructions for my parents to make sure people know what happened, so if I die, you'll know it's for real.

Oh, and sort of back on the subject of work (because that's all I really write about these days: work and porn, porn and work, and occasionally, a little crack), there was a cartoon in yesterday's (? I think) Metro about call centres in India, the usual "Our agents are busy learning English" crack, and I just. Maybe it's because I'm a call centre drone myself, but I've been getting seriously annoyed at this shit, lately. Because it leads to conversations like this:

Me: "[Company], this is Sofie, can I help?"
Customer: "Oh, thank god, a British person. I called ealier and I got put through to India, so I had to hang up, and ..."

No, we don't have any call centres in india. We do, however, have an Indian team member, who has an Indian accent, obviously. There are many people in the UK who are Indian, or of Indian descent, many of whom have lived here (almost) all their lives, and most of whom have british nationality and everything. So assuming that you've been put through to India just because of the accent of the agent you get through to? Kind of stupid. Hanging up on said agent because of said assumption? Really stupid. Complaining to me about said agent? Really, really stupid, considering that I'm ESL myself, you asstwat. And for the record? So is everyone else who works here, with one exception. NO SYMPATHY FOR YOU!

And don't even get me started on that commercial with the call centre chickens. Hate!

Also, GIP! Thanks, sparklebutch!

Comments

[wibbble]

There's two people in Scottish Widows who do purely switchboard - they take a /lot/ of calls, as a result. One of them is Indian.

So that's fun.

Of course, it doesn't help that Scottish Widows did actually just out-source a lot of servicing work to India, where people are making a lot of bad mistakes - many of which do seem to be down to things like poor English comprehension and stupid stuff like not knowing the format of UK addresses.

I personally hate talking to out-sourced call centres because they're usually poorly trained (training = money, and you only out-source to India if you're trying to save money) and it means that a call centre in the UK got shut down somewhere.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

*nod* It's not that I don't understand the dislike, but hanging up as soon as you (general you) hear a hint of an Indian accent is ridiculous, I think. (Also, the complaining to me about it. Even if I was actually British, WTF does he think I can do about it, anyway?)

And yeah, the biggest problem with the call centres in India is that, from everything I've heard, they pretty much hand these poor people a script and shove them on the phone. And then companies are surprised that people dislike the call centre moves! (Plus, obviously, the loss of jobs over here.)

[wibbble]

> (Also, the complaining to me about it. Even if I was actually British, WTF does he think I can do
> about it, anyway?)

He excepts you to sympathise and make some sort of vague general racist comment about all those pakis taking our jobs, probably.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

I never get why people do that, especially ones who know damn well that I'm an immigrant myself and yet start bitching to me about how the immigrants are taking over "our country" and blah blah blah BNPcakes. Clearly, I don't count as an immigrant, for I am lilly-white and European of birth!

(One twit actually, in the middle of one such diatribe, used the phrase "brown face," and then gestured overhis face with one hand. I just. What? I know what a face is, fool! God, I hate people.)

[wibbble]

Because racism's all about the colour of your skin, and they expect you to have similar attitudes. Sickening, isn't it? :o(

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I do love calling people on that shit, though. "Um, what about me? I'm an immigrant. English isn't even my native language, unlike the bloke you just slagged off, who I'm actually pretty sure grew up over here." And then they hem and haw and try to find a way to pretend that it's not about skin colour. Sigh.