An incredible story of mental endurance while being a close observer of unethical practices promoted @ VCS against Velstra customers..
It wasn’t easy taking a stand for what was right, against the wrong people to the right extent at the right time and in the right way..!! It wasn’t impossible either..!!
Human being is a social animal. Society plays a vital role towards human life development. We just can’t think about development of human life, in the absence of society. But the question is: What exactly is Society all about? How is it formed? How does Society exist? A lot of us would agree and say that, Society is formed by people. Definitely, that’s right. People define Society and vice versa (Society influences People). It’s all about clarity of thought n understanding. Today, whatever and wherever we are in life, our respective societies have a huge contribution towards it. Similarly, we must always try to contribute towards our society regardless of our status in life. ‘Tit for tat’ aptly applies here; Like People, Like Society. I have received and learnt a lot from the society, it’s time to return the favor in a way to create a brightly connected future for one n all.
I can imagine what most of the readers of this post might be thinking. They must be wondering why exactly, am I so strongly against the wrong behaviors displayed by few employees.Well, all I can say is “Nothing else defines whether one’s right/wrong, except for the actions and choices made.”
Most important question boggling few minds was: Why now, after having left my job? Honestly speaking, I do not have a specific reason in particular; it’s all about clarity of understanding about right n wrong. I firmly believe that if something is wrong, it just can’t be justified as right no matter what. Meanwhile, there are a lot of so called Professionals who use their designated authority for promoting wrong actions to justify a good end. About this sudden disclosure, I believe “It’s not lost until one gives up.”
Actually there’s a lot that I had been through in those 2 years with VCS both as a frontline advocate & as a QA for various Velstra-MBM functions. It wasthe worst and most unprofessional experience which is sufficient enough a reason for a decent employee to get upset to a level that he/she commits suicide and otherwise. Fortunately, I was strong and survived it all.
If we want to have something badly that we never had, we have to do something different which we never did. Going the extra mile is all it takes to match ability with ambition. There’s no dearth of opportunities and talent in India. It’s nothing else but a pity that people with talent bite the dust, while the incompetent ones have a gala time @ work. The sole reason being, display of poor/lack of HR skills and of course the manipulative hiring practices adopted.
Indulging in and displaying wrong behavior at work has never been, a part of an offer made by any company while hiring/a part of an employee’s roles n responsibilities while working. Please correct me if I sound wrong.
If a leader isn’t making an attempt/contribution towards preventing unethical practices and wrong behavior been displayed @ work, it’s quite obviously an act of promoting such instances highly critical to customer advocacy/experience.
Why should so many innocent customers suffer abroad while they are under the impression that it’s their service provider’s fault/challenge/limitation?
Willful negligence at work is something; a socially responsible corporate professional would never ever refer to.
Any n every such instance as mentioned above just doesn’t make the respective organization look bad in the client’s eyes but in turn also brings a bad name to my country. It is completely unacceptable coz I take pride in being a citizen of this nation and otherwise.
It was my bad that I couldn’t highlight the critical instances to the client partner SME’sreal time, due to the stringent policies wherein all such reporting should be highlighted internally. I didn’t receive anyrevert from a Senior Leader during my notice period back in July 2015 while I highlighted the instances of unethical practices adopted by an advocate which was critical to customer advocacy/experience. It was in mid July 2015, when I came across this incident while performing audits for this advocate from one of the teams I used to handle as a QA. Trust me, this instance which will blow any professionally responsible employee’s minds off.
Suddenly, a tenuredteam member started working on few Velstra customer accounts without even been certified by On-shore Client SME’s. There was no official communication sent about the same either. Velstra customers were supposed to be called and informed about the status of their orders as required.
BAU Process: As per Velstra systems & MBM Co web portal update customers are supposed to be called and informed about the current status of the progress on their respective orders for getting connected on MBM.
Process followed by Team Member: As per the relevant systems check and update customers were either not called @ all, or called but no voicemail left as expected. The beauty of all such orders been worked upon was revealed when the notes left by the team member on these orders were checked. The notes updated on such customer accounts were completely contradictory to the actions taken by the advocate. Notes stating “called the customer”, where there were no such calls found during audits performed. Notes stating “left voicemail”, where the calls were disconnected by the advocate the moment the automatic IVR message for leaving a message was about to end and in some cases as soon as the automatic IVR message started “You’ve reached the message bank of”.
The moment I came across such orders, I highlighted the same to my immediate supervisor. My supervisor as usual displayed a laid back attitude towards such a critical incident, asking me to sleep over it. Instead, I wrote an email to the all the respective senior leaders to bring this to their notice. However, the same wasn’t taken up for action on priority as usual.
Such laid back attitude and behavior displayed by employees @ work Off-shore might as well cost someone their lives’ (mostly customers on Medical priority Assistance).
I am ready to get my hands dirty as long as I know it’s in the best interest of my country. This is the best and least I could do for all those Velstra customers is, take a stand for what’s right and make things happen for them the way they expect. It’s coz of their calm and patience that I could learn so much about Velstra. Not to forget the internal advocates, who appreciated me for something as small as displaying a can do attitude and the will to take ownership about MBM orders which I believe was a part of my daily routine @ work.
I am proud to have had the opportunity and enjoyed working with Velstra. The various processes I worked for during my tenure of employment always helped me scale new heights of understanding about Velstra. I take pride about having recommended a lot of solutions in the absence/unavailability of client partner SME’s or when a nearest possible solution wasn’t available on Velstra’s knowledge tool. Fortunately, it always worked successfully with a positive impact on customer experience.
I discussed these critical incidents with few colleagues working with Velstra project outside VCS. They were shocked n surprised when they got to know about the same. Their 1st response was: it definitely would cost the respective employee his/her job if the same would’ve been highlighted with their respective employer organizations. They also mentioned that their respective organizations have zero tolerance for any/every unethical practice and wrong behavior which is customer impacting.
Few so called leaders @ VCS believe and preach that it’s because of VCS that they have a job and not the respective client or the client customers. I beg to differ to that point of view. I believe any/every BPO employee has a job because of theOn-shore client’s outsourced business with their respective employer and otherwise. A BPO doesn’t create job opportunities itself, it’s the client’s outsourced business that does. It’s all about an opportunity to serve client customers in a way they expect and are ready to pay for. Practically meaning that a BPO wouldn’t exist in absence of a prospect client’s outsourced business. A BPO is a business that co-incidentally runs around the client’s directcustomers as I did mention in my very 1stpost were given a run around and nothing else for months.
According to the BPO Industry standards, a QA’s job is not to be easy on people. It’s only about n a matter of, making people better than yesterday. I am terribly sorry if few people didn’t like my harsh honesty. Simultaneously, I didn’t like the sugar coated false assurances provided by the Senior Leaders & HR around correcting the unprofessional behavior of few employees.It was also a pity to see few employees with determination, dedication and a confident vision biting the dust while those with tongue skills climbed up the ladder keeping business ethics and professionalism @ stake.
While our respected PM, Mr. Modi is visiting countries across the globe with a vision to make healthy future relations and bring in foreign investments for mutual growth and success. I’m afraid this attempt might not be as successful as expected over the years with such kind of co-operation in the name of unethical practices from organizations like the last one I worked with. I believe the citizens of the country need to understand and accept their social and corporate responsibilities to make this country a better to place to stay and work. It could be quite a cake walk for CEO’s in the media to do all the big talks, while internal employees know the ugly truth about what’s happening inside.
Logically speaking, I am sure you would agree to and accept the fact that every foreign investor would like to be associated with a trusted brand for business purposes with high hopes around delivery of quality products n services. Just imagine, if the kind of product n service experience delivered is as disclosed in my last 2 posts. Do you think, it’s really going to be favorable in the nation’s interest?
It was after having spent n wasted two years @ VCS, I realized why exactly organizations like Apple, Google n Oracle are cited as examples for pioneers in delivering quality service instead of VCS, despite its presence across the globe. At VCS it’s all about going against the industry standards in the name of employee centricity and women empowerment. ‘Xperience Certainty’ is nothing else but stands for “No matter what exactly the respective industry standards are, we have our own rule book to suit our needs”. For all those who are in doubt, please visit the VCS Confessions page and experience the truth from the horse’s mouth. A community page on Facebook that includes 1st hand experiences of employees in words, from nymphomaniac bosses hitting on female employees to incompetent bosses forcing a subordinate to put bugs in the client’s software to get repeat business.Is it really worth?, participating in CSR activities while the quality of service delivered to customers is being compromised, due to promotion of unethical practices @ work? It was disgusting to see how few employees abused the very basic first clause of the Code of Conduct day in day out, leading to a poor and bad impression about our country and its people in the eyes of foreign nationals. This refers to every such instance where a poor customer experience was delivered due to wrong practices followed against the client specified guidelines. I believe just coz few Senior Leaders are entrusted with the authority to run the business, they shouldn’t support wrong ways to showcase performance (numbers) keeping the quality (ethics) @ stake.
Every industry has its own dignity. To maintain the dignity is why HR personnel are hired n employed. The funny part is yet to be unleashed. Besides the HR team, VCS also has an ethical team claiming to provide unbiased resolution against any unethical behavior reported and take necessary strict measures to prevent it from future repetition(as defined in the books). The beauty of this team is that it has few so called Ethics Counselors who simultaneously are also, already aligned to the respective projects as Business HR’s. This is just another favor done to deal with the unethical behaviors highlighted. Sorry the word is, “to sleep over/overlook the unethical behaviors highlighted”. Ideally, the Counselor is supposed to mitigate the discrepancies through an unbiased look @ the instances reported and proofs provided to maintain the dignity of the organization. The bitter reality is that the Ethics Counselor acts as a mediator to sleep over unethical behavior in the favor of the respective projects’ Senior Leaders. A perfect example of how few HR professionals who use their authority for promoting wrong actions to justify a good end and the name of the fact that it’s because of VCS that employees have a job and not the respective client’s outsourced business.
Choose Wisely, Stay Safe (against the inconvenience of working with an unprofessional organization) coz The World Has Gone Dark.