Outsource Magazine

Happy New Year to you all; I hope 2012 has begun successfully for everyone. I’m going to begin my first column of the year with a confession: I’ve had a disappointing return to work. Disappointing, that is, in that I was expecting a rush of salacious gossip from all the office parties and other opportunities for badness, but have heard virtually nothing of note. I cannot believe this is representative of what’s actually happened out there in the outsourcing jungle so I have to assume everyone’s keeping their secrets under wraps – for now. But I’d like to change that… If you know any juicy industry gossip you think should get an airing now’s your chance: write to me at insidesource.outsource@gmail.com and share everything…

It’s not gossip as such but I did overhear an interesting conversation shortly before Christmas. I was at a seminar day organised by a contact centre tech specialist and at the beginning of the lunch break had to duck out to take a call from my office and then follow it up with a couple of emails. As I sat typing away in the corner like a shy child at a birthday party I became aware of an animated discussion somewhere behind me involving two – as I understood it – employees of the host organisation. The tone and pace of the discussion – let’s actually call it an argument, for that’s what it was – grabbed my attention immediately.

As far as I can gather, the row taking place on the other side of a screen involved a piece of hardware which was about to play a mission-critical role in a presentation. One of the two gentlemen engaged in “forthright debate” was clearly the other’s superior, and was telling his subordinate in no uncertain terms that the hardware in question needed to be calibrated in a particular way. The junior employee, clearly exasperated but struggling to retain his composure, was protesting as forcefully – but professionally - as possible that this calibration would result in failure, and an embarrassing hold-up in front of the attendees.

Suddenly his boss lost his own composure and in a flurry of extreme Anglo-Saxon – which, I’m sure, I was not the only one to hear, such was the volume - proceeded to inform his junior that his opinions were not of the least consequence, and that if he didn’t do as he was told he would be out of as job the same day. The latter, clearly shaken and presumably also infuriated by this treatment, quietly said that he would obey, and walked off.

An hour or so later we were all sitting in excruciating silence as the presentation in question was delayed for some five minutes due to a technical fault.

It’s not uncommon for employees to disagree with their superiors, and nor is it uncommon for them to be treated in this way by managers who should know better. Listening to your subordinates and taking their feedback on board in a professional and courteous manner should be on page one of any managerial manual – but behaviour like that I overheard is, unfortunately, still de rigeur for so many in this industry. And every now and then it leads to disaster. I for one have lost a lot of respect for that organisation just because of that one little snapshot of what happens behind the scenes.