April 12, 2004
the dark side of outsourcing
The Daily Jarvis: "Om Malik is back home in India, filing all kinds of interesting observations, including this, on the "dark side" of outsourcing..."
Here I got to talk to many who answer my phone calls whenever I have a question about my Amex Bill. Amid their sometimes drunken but polite arguments, you hear the cry for help. The constant pressure of trying to be someone else, faking accents and trying to deal with the abusive behavior of their customers, you find many are crumbling. The late nights, cooped up in cool but antiseptic halls, the call center workers are turning to drink, drugs and sex to find some meaning to their lives.
It's a neat trick you learn quickly as a blogger: instead of spending hours every day surfing the net, just visit the site of somebody who does it far bar better than you ever could... somebody like Jarvis.
Then steal all his ideas and take all the credit. Hurrah!