How Can I help you? - The faceless life behind call centres.

This story is about the faceless people who work in Call Centers, in India in the Philippines. These are the people to whom we call on a regular-basis. With this project I intend to humanize these call center agents giving them more than just a voice.

"How Can I Help you?" is about call centres and the daily life of their employees, focused on the two biggest markets in this industry, India and the Philippines. Together they employ two million people. who are calling and taking calls to and from such faraway places as the USA, the UK and Australia. With this project I want to reveal the lives of this faceless people with whom we may talk on a daily basis.

India joined this industry in the mids 90´s and quickly became the leader. There, the average agent earns as little as 100 to 500 USD/ month, even though most of them are highly qualified with engineering and business degrees. The lack of job opportunities in other businesses in the country are the main reasons why so many people work in call centres.

The Philippines overtook India in 2011, becoming the leader in this industry. Workers get paid slightly more, from 200 to 1000 USD/ month. A call centre agent in Manila might get payed twice than a nurse working in a Hospital, for instance.

Overall, these workers value their job significantly. It is paying their living, specially when it is so difficult to find a full time job in both countries. However there is a question mark about the future of this industry and its employment. The developing of technology (workers might be replaced by robots) and the fact these companies need to find cheaper outsourcing work, so they keep moving from country to country.