It was
in the July of 2004 when I joined BFI-Aetna's back-office insurance process, after
having been on the bench for a few months. Uncertainty loomed large as I along
with many others had held on to the hope of being absorbed in some or the other
processes. IBM’s management urged us to get selected in any process to which
opportunity was offered and not expect the company to continue to feed us for
long. I sure panicked. There were few openings in the Aetna process, rumored to
be one of the most difficult back-office processes. My two friends, who too were
on the bench, urged me to stay put, deliberately fail the selection process and
suggested not to opt for the Aetna process. I declined to hear them and
followed my own instincts. I cleared the interview and was all set to join the
Aetna process. That decision was going to cost me more than I ever bargained
for.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in India is manned by a workforce which comes from faraway small towns, suburbs and villages, not familiar with big cities and it's culture, mesmerized and overwhelmed by a whole different lifestyle, not accustomed to office and professional life, staying alone in small rented rooms in unhygienic colonies which lack basic amenities of life, far away from their loved ones, without being accountable to anyone, not having information regarding their rights, from poor families trying to make a life and career in a country where industries are condensed in a few metropolitan cities and the industries and multinational corporations non-existent in a vast majority of cities of India.
Even after
having spent over a year in the company, I only had few colleagues whom I
considered worthy to be called friends and there were not even a handful of
them. Within the next few months, they too would be absorbed in another
process. I was left with no trustworthy friend in an industry which resembled
the Black Palace Mexican prison. Here, you would be killed if you do not stand
your ground. Within a few months of entering the BPO industry, I had found out
the hard way that I was among some of the most notorious people in the country.
I was soon to encounter the dreaded ones.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in India is manned by a workforce which comes from faraway small towns, suburbs and villages, not familiar with big cities and it's culture, mesmerized and overwhelmed by a whole different lifestyle, not accustomed to office and professional life, staying alone in small rented rooms in unhygienic colonies which lack basic amenities of life, far away from their loved ones, without being accountable to anyone, not having information regarding their rights, from poor families trying to make a life and career in a country where industries are condensed in a few metropolitan cities and the industries and multinational corporations non-existent in a vast majority of cities of India.
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