Should BPO employees be worried of Obama's "anti-outsourcing bill"?
I have been watching the news about this issue and I do know some relatives in different countries who are working in the industry. If it were passed into an actual law, should my relatives be worried that they’ll lose their jobs? Will it affect the economy of the countries catering BPO companies? Will companies (like AT&T, JP Morgan, Bank of America) that rely on BPOs be affected by this bill?
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Not unless Democrats get control of the House and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.
I also have a hard time seeing Republicans let this one through (as with @ETpro ). As far as would it effect them… I’m not really sure wtf a BPO is, lol… But the bill is basically increased taxes, removal of tax breaks, and a bit more red tape if you do business in America, but employ your people overseas so that you can abuse the workforce there (by paying them crap and not having safety standards). If you think that will get those companies to cut those jobs and move them back to America… and those are the jobs your relatives have… then “BPO” employees should be worried.
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No. There is little chance that such a bill get passed. It’s a form of protectionism and probably would violate free trade agreements. Our friends in India wouldn’t like it one bit, nor would the American companies that practice that kind of off-shoring. Nor, in the long run, would consumers, who like being able to buy things cheaply.
In any case, such protection is unnecessary. American companies are already bringing a lot of customer service jobs back onshore. This is because the folks in the other countries can’t do the jobs very well. They don’t have the cultural knowledge to do it and they follow these scripts (probably are required to follow them), that force them to say things like, “I’m sorry your product didn’t get to you,” over and over without actually doing anything about it.
BPOs have no power to actually solve problems, as far as I can tell. They are just there to apologize and do nothing. If you want something done, you have to bump up to a supervisor who will live in the US and who has a better personality as well as knowing what they are doing.
So many mistakes by BPOs and no power is a no-win situation. BPO service has to improve or it’ll all die of incompetence, anyway. If you are a BPO, OP, that’s what I’d worry about. Learn how to be an American and to think like an American. Get your bosses to give you the power to actually help people. That’s the only thing that will save your business.
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