I am from Bangalore – Hub of the outsourcing industry of the world. Outsourcing has irreversibly changed the city. It has changed the way people work and the way they live.
I’ve been in this city for a while now and I was not aware how much it has changed until I experienced it a few days ago.
I need to give a little bit of a background about before proceeding. Bangalore was a quiet sleepy town full of greenery and government employees. People were content with lives – took life as it comes and it comes slowly, very slowly. People lived a placid life and treated others with respect and honor. People worked mostly for government institutions and held one job for their entire careers.
Returning to the subject, connected with the outsourcing is the infrastructure of the city. This has been lampooned across the country and elsewhere and has been the most sought after subject of ridicule.
In order to improve the infrastructure, the city planned to pave the sidewalks (plat forms as it is called in India). Lo and behold – one fine morning, I find people busy working in our humble street – a quiet lane in the outer parts of the city (now much inside the city).
First day we have a group of people wearing helmets (as per outsourcing standards set by some western country) land in our street. They take precise measurements of the street, meticulously document it (for the umpteenth time) and they are on the way to the next street for repeating the “process”. People now influenced with the city’s hi-tech image talk of “task” and “procedure” instead of work. People are now referred as “resources”.
However, still I have not understood why “resources” need helmets in order to take measurements (nowadays referred as “metrics”).
Midway we had rains. It clogged the drains and we had sludge and dirt all over the street. Next, the group for cleaning came – I do not know (in their parlance – “I have no information”). They lifted the garbage off the places where the sidewalks needed to be paved.
I was being a bit altruist – I requested the ‘resource’ to clean the ditch running alongside. The ‘resource’ was a truly rural Indian – betel nut chewing old woman wearing a worn out pink chiffon sarree and a pair of Hawaii slippers. What she answered shook me to my senses. Then I understood how and why India became a software outsourcing giant within such a short period of time. She said, “That’s not my job. There is a separate group responsible for cleaning the ditch. I clean only the sidewalks”. That was a stunning reply. I asked her – who then is going to clean the ditch. She said with
nonchalance – “Please enquire with the call center (centre)”.
India has learnt the lessons of the west – the days of passion in ones work are gone. Now what I need are the “competency” and “skills” to accomplish my “task”. And it is the employer who has to make sure that I have them. After a few days of “handling the process” I don’t get experienced; I don’t pass on the knowledge – I “document”.
As I said this incident brought me back to me senses. I started to my office a bit dumbfounded. But then when I reached office – I realized – I was going to give the same reply she gave to me to my clients sitting in Germany.
