AT&T CEO Says It Is Hard To Find Workers

[CMF Newsman]

SAN ANTONIO - The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India. "I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is."

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located. So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent. "If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/tc_nm/att_workforce_dc;_ylt=Apg2ziQKm_25dkL6UYodh2gDW7oF

[gridbug]

Apparently I have had consistently bad luck regarding the indians I've encountered in the workplace, but in my experience a bad american computer programmer is better than a very good indian programmer. Simply possessing a decent grasp of the english language would make the american a better employee, and I would hope that at least a quarter of american students would be fluent enough.

[Gary]

I wonder how much of the problem is the minimal pay package that AT&T is offering for these positions, and where they are offering them.

[gridbug]

I doubt pay is the reason - indian workers are often paid more than americans, and then there are additional costs to get them here and sponsor their visas.

In San Antonio you'd think they could at least find some mexicans to do the work

[Danger Ranger]

Mar 27, 2008 7:34:02 GMT -5 Gary said:

I wonder how much of the problem is the minimal pay package that AT&T is offering for these positions, and where they are offering them.

DING DING DING!!! We have a winner. Please collect your AT&T branded water bottle, frisbee, and keychain online at the website.

These call centers where they are having all the trouble filling positions are extremely stressful places to work, where your work is constantly reviewed and critiqued, and metrics are changed like socks. The ideal candidates actually avoid these places like the plague because the pay scale is so low, and the stress factor so high.

[Danger Ranger]

Mar 27, 2008 7:40:22 GMT -5 @gridbug said:

I doubt pay is the reason - indian workers are often paid more than americans, and then there are additional costs to get them here and sponsor their visas.

In San Antonio you'd think they could at least find some mexicans to do the work

You're right about the ones that are brought over on H1B's, but this article is referring to the outsourcing of these jobs to Indian workers in India, where not only are they paid less than 1/4 of a US worker, but no payroll tax, or insurance is tacked on to that worker either.

[gridbug]

I can understand choosing off-shore call centers for companies that want to save a buck and do not care about customer service. I'd still lean toward the mexicans though, they are easier to communicate with and people working in a call center in Mexico won't need to cross the US border for a job.

[Kordax]

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs,"

Reminds me of a drug addict hooked on initially low-priced drugs who whines & whines when the supply dwindles & the prices rise.....

[bluckarma]

I've worked in a call center. It is a high stress job since you are always dealing with people who are upset about something. I'd be curious to know where the call center was. If you put it somewhere the economy was depressed I'd think you would have no problem filling the positions. I bet a call center in Cleveland, TN so could easily support a 4-500 person call center. Especially with all the factory jobs going away.

[el Gusano]

So, who's ready for their phone rates to be raised to pay for the improved customer service?

[Justin Thyme]

Depends on by how much. I'd pay a buck more a month just to know when I called about something I would be able to understand what they were saying and they could understand me.

[elf]

This is off subject, but I have to ask. When MaBell owned everything, the government stepped and cried monopoly. They were forced to break up. Now that AT&T owns everything, where is our government? Why aren't they forced to break up? Just asking. I have a $9.88 charge on my land line every month from AT&T. My land line is AT&T. Doesn't make sense to me.

[Justin Thyme]

Call them and ask them about it. You do speak Hindi. Don't you?

[el Gusano]

Justin, I"m sure you'd be willing to pay an extra buck. But, how many people would switch to another company to save that buck? (Then complain about their customer service.)

[snarkalicious]

Call centers are very stressful places to work-BUT, you sit in a cbair all day and talk on the phone. For the pay it's a pretty cushy job...

[LimitedRecourse]

I'm sure the stress level is nigh on unbearable.

[She That Is Wicked]

I have worked at call centers on and off for the past 7 years... and frankly they are the worst and best places to work...
I miss working for Earthlink.... I like doing customer service work.
Wish AT&T would call me

[mouse]

AT&T sucks, I got Comcast digital voice (though even that is fubar'd, network error still isn't fixed).

I got tired of AT&T jacking up the bill so much with crappy service and worse customer service.

Best landline service I ever had was Verizon when I was living in Indiana... which probably explains partially why I have my cell with them.

[gridbug]

Mar 28, 2008 15:48:40 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

I'm sure the stress level is nigh on unbearable.

Exactly! Everyone should have jobs a s stress free as yours & Shot's

[Homebrew Dave]

Mar 28, 2008 15:48:40 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

LR said with his tongue firmly implanted within his cheek: I'm sure the stress level is nigh on unbearable.

For some people, it is. We had a significant attrition rate at the DirecTV call center -- especially among female CSRs -- because they couldn't take the daily abuse heaped upon them by customers. I realize police work is incredibly stressful but if you have someone in your face screaming at you and making death threats against you, you can zap them with your taser and cuff 'em and stuff 'em in your cruiser and haul them off to the pokey. Telephone CSRs don't have that option. We have to sit there and take the abuse and be polite and helpful in accordance with corporate policies on call handling. On an average workday, I fielded about 130 calls. Typically half of those would be customers with billing issues and they would be very angry and upset and verbally abusive when calling in. Out of those 65 calls, the vast majority of them would be from people who failed to pay their bills for the previous two months and thus their service had been cut off. So their problem was their own fault but we CSRs got the blame even though it wasn't us who cut off their service -- that happens automatically via the computer program that remotely controls their satellite receiver equipment. During the 7 months I worked as a DirecTV CSR, I had at least two death threats a week. Me, I can take that kind of stress. Some people can't -- as shown by the high employee turnover rate that we had. For them, $8.15 an hour just wasn't worth the amount of stress and abuse they had to endure. Really, LR...would you put up with the stresses of your job for a mere $17k a year before taxes?


Dave

[Tookie]

Dave, don't forget the verbally abusive drunks especially on weekends. And God Bless the elderly who got their remotes messed up and can't hear what you say when you're trying to walk them back through setting them up properly.

[LimitedRecourse]

"We have to sit there and take the abuse and be polite and helpful in accordance with corporate policies on call handling."

Lines were made for disconnecting.

Your stressors are MILES away...ours can kill us NOW. I have worked as a call handler though not directly in customer service, and understand it can be extremely stressful. And at this point in my life, I wouldn't work in phone services again. It wasn't meant as a dig. Tongue in cheek can also be used for perspective.

[Homebrew Dave]

Mar 31, 2008 12:36:14 GMT -5 LimitedRecourse said:

"We have to sit there and take the abuse and be polite and helpful in accordance with corporate policies on call handling."

Lines were made for disconnecting.

Hanging up on a customer, regardless of how rude and abusive they might have been, was grounds for immediate termination if you were caught. And since we never knew when we were being monitored by QA, disconnecting just was not an option if we wanted to stay employed. All calls were recorded and subject to review at any time by several levels of QA and supervisory personnel. As a training supervisor, I was required to monitor and grade 10 different employees a week. So the fact that not only could you be monitored live but that someone might listen to the call as much as two weeks afterwards added even more to the stress factor.

Dave

[Homebrew Dave]

Tookie, I didn't mind the technical calls so much. Even the ones from the old farts you mentioned. And like I said, the abusive calls didn't bother me. The calls I hated were the deaf-mute teletype relay calls. Those dragged on forever and just plain killed your call-handling stats for the day. Even doing activation calls all day was preferable to handling one relay call. Of course relay activation calls were the absolute worst. I had a few of those. They take hours. Kiss your stats for the week goodbye on those.

Dave