The Story of How Our Jobs Disappeared
I'd like to tell you about what's happening to approximately 140 people in Tucson and what has happened to another few hundred people who were formerly employed in the same industry. These people are employed by a company called Convergys. Some of them are just starting out in their career paths and some of them are in their 30s, 40s and 50s and have families. Their job skills consist of many things I can assure you, but what they are known for... is being some of the best Technical Support Professionals in the entire world. The Tucson call centers (there were 2 of them) that are run by Convergys were the sites of Microsoft and SBC support centers. The Microsoft project was first established by Microsoft themselves at the Rita Ranch Facility known as the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park. Around 5 years ago, the project was managed by Keane, Inc. and then was taken over by Convergys.
The techs that took calls here in Tucson answered the phone with: "Welcome to Microsoft Technical Support" and were the technical support industry veterans who rolled out an entire list of operating systems, applications and services for Microsoft. Tucson was the premiere tech support site in the country, and contributed heavily to the state-of-the-art knowledge and expertise that became the common denominator for assistance when all else failed. Many of the Tucson techs are Microsoft Content Authors, who wrote white papers and documented "solution objects" that became articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, an online self-help library of methods and techniques for troubleshooting and problem solving. They are known throughout the world of tech support as "The Brain Trust down in Tucson"...and thousands of Microsoft customers are familiar with the answer to "where are you?" being Tucson Arizona.
When those tech support jobs were sent to India, the solution to staying employed was to take a position with the SBC Internet Services project which was also run by Convergys in their Tucson West Side call center. Many of the people working in the SBC project were also trained and experienced as Microsoft Tech Support Professionals, but there were also people who hadn't worked for Microsoft, yet who were trained and knowledgeable and motivated enough to raise the standards and continue the legacy of "Best in the World" tech support here in Tucson. And SBC seemed very glad to have the help of these hard-working experts on tap. The story of what has happened and what is now transpiring is detailed and I won't go into it here, but the outsourcing situation is happening again and the public may not be aware of it.
Additionally, I'd like to present you (and anyone else who might be interested in listening to this story), with a couple of things to think about. The purpose of this message can be addressed by giving you some factoids and asking you some questions.
The fact is, people are losing their positions because these jobs are being taken out of the country and being given to people living in India, the Philipines, and elsewhere. There is no doubt that the economics of the situation tend to cause this but the numbers involved are astounding and there is more to this situation than we've been told. No laws are being broken, but American citizens are being forced out of 3-5 year careers after a similar trend happened in the manufacturing industries.
And the current scenario at Convergys is that anyone who wishes to stay employed must take a job, if available, at a lower rate of pay. So without a doubt there will more people than ever before standing in line for every job opportunity within the IT category, here in Tucson. And of course other parts of the country are JUST as hard hit with the obligatory "job replacements".
What I find ironic is that BPO firms in India are running out of employees. They are searching in every small town for more warm bodies to fill the seats at the call centers. The backlash is unbelievable. Both Microsoft and SBC customers are telling the Tucson techs that they abhor speaking to techs whose native language is not English. But in 1 more month they won't have a choice, because ALL of the best technical support professionals that ever wore a headset, will be working in some other job capacity.
The topic of offshore outsourcing is certainly well known, why is it not one of the top news items on a continuing basis? Probably because of the lack of information. I'm striving to change that.
The techs that took calls here in Tucson answered the phone with: "Welcome to Microsoft Technical Support" and were the technical support industry veterans who rolled out an entire list of operating systems, applications and services for Microsoft. Tucson was the premiere tech support site in the country, and contributed heavily to the state-of-the-art knowledge and expertise that became the common denominator for assistance when all else failed. Many of the Tucson techs are Microsoft Content Authors, who wrote white papers and documented "solution objects" that became articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, an online self-help library of methods and techniques for troubleshooting and problem solving. They are known throughout the world of tech support as "The Brain Trust down in Tucson"...and thousands of Microsoft customers are familiar with the answer to "where are you?" being Tucson Arizona.
When those tech support jobs were sent to India, the solution to staying employed was to take a position with the SBC Internet Services project which was also run by Convergys in their Tucson West Side call center. Many of the people working in the SBC project were also trained and experienced as Microsoft Tech Support Professionals, but there were also people who hadn't worked for Microsoft, yet who were trained and knowledgeable and motivated enough to raise the standards and continue the legacy of "Best in the World" tech support here in Tucson. And SBC seemed very glad to have the help of these hard-working experts on tap. The story of what has happened and what is now transpiring is detailed and I won't go into it here, but the outsourcing situation is happening again and the public may not be aware of it.
Additionally, I'd like to present you (and anyone else who might be interested in listening to this story), with a couple of things to think about. The purpose of this message can be addressed by giving you some factoids and asking you some questions.
The fact is, people are losing their positions because these jobs are being taken out of the country and being given to people living in India, the Philipines, and elsewhere. There is no doubt that the economics of the situation tend to cause this but the numbers involved are astounding and there is more to this situation than we've been told. No laws are being broken, but American citizens are being forced out of 3-5 year careers after a similar trend happened in the manufacturing industries.
And the current scenario at Convergys is that anyone who wishes to stay employed must take a job, if available, at a lower rate of pay. So without a doubt there will more people than ever before standing in line for every job opportunity within the IT category, here in Tucson. And of course other parts of the country are JUST as hard hit with the obligatory "job replacements".
What I find ironic is that BPO firms in India are running out of employees. They are searching in every small town for more warm bodies to fill the seats at the call centers. The backlash is unbelievable. Both Microsoft and SBC customers are telling the Tucson techs that they abhor speaking to techs whose native language is not English. But in 1 more month they won't have a choice, because ALL of the best technical support professionals that ever wore a headset, will be working in some other job capacity.
The topic of offshore outsourcing is certainly well known, why is it not one of the top news items on a continuing basis? Probably because of the lack of information. I'm striving to change that.
posted by PABlo Bley aka Paul Alan Bley at 9:13 AM
10 Comments:
FYI:
"Is Your Job Going Offshore" web site
http://www.isyourjobgoingoffshore.com/
Once upon a time, I too was employed by Convergys in Tucson. Like many, my job disappeared and was gone with very little warning. I was one of the luckier ones though in that my department was one of the first to be eliminated. While jobs were tough to find in Tucson and I had a family to feed, at least I was lucking to get a minimal severance package.
Fortunately for me, I was able to land another job after only a short time simply because of the the connections I had made at Convergys/Keane. It was a most scary time for me though as my wife had lost her job a year and a half early and was unable to find anything that paid as well. Many of my friends and acquaintences were not so lucky though. Outsourcing and insourcing are nice buzz words, but the bottom line is that we as Americans need to produce as much as we consume. That translates to jobs as well.
Ironically, a few months after Convergys left the east side of Tucson, another company moved into the same building and offered even more call center jobs. While Citibank has also outsourced many positions, it has also been increasing its positions in Tucson. While it currently employs something like 1200 people, it has expansion plans to add another building and another 800 or so positions. While the pay is a rung lower than what some of us were used to, it is not so bad when you look at the much better benefits.
But I appear to have rambled a bit. My point is that as painful as it was to be outsourced and as painful as the uncertainty was, at least there are some companies in town that do treat their employees much better than Convergys. For me and my family, getting outsourced from Convergys was a good thing as it forced me to change for the better, painful as it was. I now make a little bit more than I did at Convergys, but with better benefits and (for the moment) a job that does not appear to be shipped overseas.
In the longterm, we all need to look at ourselves and see what we can do the change for the better. Preferrably, we should do this before we are forced into that change. I was lucky this time, but like so many others it could have been very disasterous. The key here is to start working on re-inventing yourself. I no longer have a call center job, but I have a lot of sympathy for those that still do. Start using the Internet and anything else you can to improve your skills so that when your current job starts to disappear you will not be caught off guard.
I was one of the lucky ones. While my employment looks stable, I am not taking any chances. I use the Internet and anything else I can get my hands on to continue to improve my skills. Hopefully there will be new American jobs created that can use those skills.
My advice is to look around you and see if your position is becoming stale. If it is, don't wait for things to go bad, but start looking for a change.
Good luck!
-- So where the heck did my cheese get moved now?
Hey Anonymous,
Time to update your facts. When the St Louis Convergys employees were training our replacements from India, we were told Convergys had 8-9 call centers in India. At first, management told us the Pune center would just have 100 reps, then it upped to 150, now one team leader let it slip that they are upping to 250. The employees there get driven to work each day and of course all meals are free. Even though none of the center reps have ever owned a car, they are being cust service for a car finance company. Our call center is rated by those surveys they have you do after a call. If the scores go down, we hear about it. The only way the service industry drain will stop is if the ratings for cust service drop. Numbers are the only thing that counts w/them. It's such a joke, management at our call center just can't figure out why so many reps are leaving for other jobs since we found out about the Pune opening. They are even trying to get our opinion as to why attrition is so bad lately! CLUELESS!!!!
Thank you for your wonderful site. Although I did not find admin jobs as a directmatch to your site, I did however enjoy the career advice from other posts.
Thanks again for being here!
Hey everyone! Cool site! The customer support seems good and the technology jobs are endless. Maybe I will have a better directmatch searching for human resources
since my keyword "customer care jobs" did not fit as intended.
Glad I found you! Keep on keepin on!
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Nice blog :)......Interesting post on The Story of How Our Jobs Disappeared. Personally, I've always been fascintated with w t offshore, so I created a website not long ago called just that - w t offshore.
It'd be great if you were to drop by for a few seconds - have a look around, check out a few of the informative links I've got there.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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