Call centres … what jobs?

R VVH L RP

Who of us can claim to be unconcerned about the job opportunities available for young people entering the job market The government provides as many such opportunities as it possibly can through huge investments in various fields, but this is not enough. The private sector creates hundreds of thousands of job opportunities every year through diverse activities and investments, but this too falls short of providing all the jobs needed. It is common to see large numbers of job seekers looking for livelihood sources amid wide societal empathy; it is a fact that need and joblessness could drive them to despair, violence, crime and terrorism.

I thus feel a lot of comfort any time I learn of a new field that opens job opportunities for young people, and I remain on the lookout for its capacity to attract and absorb increasing numbers of them. It disturbs me if anything comes up to destabilise these new business fields or threaten the much needed jobs.

I already discussed in a previous editorial the “delivery industry”, the service of delivering to the consumer goods or services ordered or purchased without actual visits to selling outlets. This service entered the Egyptian market not many years ago thanks to new electronic communication technology. It thrived following the outbreak of coronavirus in 2020, when there was partial lockdown and almost everyone refrained from going to markets, restaurants and suchlike. The delivery industry added hundreds of thousands of job opportunities to the work market. It has become customary to see delivery men roaming the streets in their scooters or motorcycles which carry large boxes that hold the names of the entities they work for, be these stores, restaurants, pharmacies, or other activities or services.

The steady growth of the delivery industry paved the way to a new larger niche, that of online trade which also delivers the goods purchased by consumers to their doorsteps, but through vehicles driven by young people.

Another profession, if I may call it that, which attracts numerous young people now hinges on government intervention to legalise and regulate it. I speak of tuk tuk drivers, whose predicament I repeatedly discussed; the last time two weeks ago under the title: “Revisiting the tuk tuk issue”. I expressed my concern and my keenness for the government to take into account the thousands of youth whose livelihood comes out of driving tuk tuks, as it plans to phase out the three wheeled vehicle and replace it with a new small four wheeled one powered by a dual petrol/natural gas engine. I warned that overlooking the inclusion of tuk tuk drivers in the new vehicle system would be a grave mistake that would throw embittered young people into unemployment, and hence into the clutches of crime and the extremist thought that fosters terrorism.

Today I review another relatively new field that offers jobs to many young people fleeing unemployment. I speak of telesales or call centres, a new form of marketing businesses have adopted to promote through phone calls the sale of products, services or investments. These businesses rally huge numbers of young people to do that job, providing them with long lists of telephone numbers of individuals which God only knows where they get from. The young persons are required to call every number on the list to promote the product/ service/investment the business offers, in an attempt to attract new customers. This practice has recently expanded to sell health services and to call for donations to charity institutions.

At first thought, it would seem that the telesales and call centres provide a golden opportunity for youth who cannot find jobs. Yet the bitter truth is that they actually subject those youth to harsh, deceptive working conditions. The tough working conditions of telesales make a long list. The telesales person has to deal with the harshness and rudeness of both their employers and the customers they contact. They work long hours for meagre pay, the major part of their income comes from incentives or bonuses tied to the marketing target they achieve.

Most of the people called by young marketers do not welcome their calls and answer them rudely. Some even insult them and their employers, or simply hang off after the salesperson has spent precious time explaining about the product he or she is promoting.

In some cases, the telesales persons are given long lists of anonymous telephone numbers. I have been called by such persons who went on presenting the material they were trying to sell, ending the call with the question: “May I please know your name ”

Commonly, call centre persons are neither well trained nor provided with suitable marketing material to carry out the task they are assigned to do. I always ask my callers to send me reliable, authenticated literature about the commodity or service they are promoting in order to help me make a decision, but they are often surprised at my request.

My heart goes out to the young persons working at telesales, because even though they are seemingly lucky to have escaped unemployment and to have found jobs that secure them livelihoods, these are unforgiving jobs under harsh working conditions. I hope the relevant regulatory authorities would step in to regulate the work of call centres and to keep them in check.