In a recent 16-country Pew poll, India had the highest percentage of citizens with a favorable opinion of the United States, 71 percent.
But that favorable perception is starting to fade as Indian employees working in outsourced call centers spend day after day being berated, slurred, and degraded by American callers frustrated both with their computers and the effect of outsourcing on the U.S. job market.
Saurabh Jha, a 22-year-old in blue jeans, says a woman phoned from Texas recently and told him that, thanks to outsourcing, “You are getting money, food, shelter. You should be starving.” She berated him for 12 minutes before she finally allowed him to offer advice that promptly fixed her problem: to unplug her computer and plug it back in. “I was speechless,” he says. “She didn’t even give me a chance.”
Yeah, uh, really makes you proud to be American. Urgh.