Sutherland:  Indian trainers no one can understand
By Juan Dela Cruz

The Sutherland call center in the Philippines is arguably the worst call center in the country based on bad feedback from several former and present employees. It doesn’t take too much to find out how bad things have gone in Sutherland. Just make a Google search about Sutherland Philippines and you’ll definitely find tons of rants in blogs and other forums.

From former employees complaining about their separation pay being held up, to applicants complaining of HR inefficiencies; they all seem to despise the company like a bad nightmare. Present employees also have something to rant about. Salary discrepancies have been a frequent issue in their accounting department.

Yet, Sutherland has been getting good press from the biggest Philippine news websites. Their alleged misgivings have been overshadowed by their current expansion endeavors to several different provinces in the Philippines. Most of good press often leverages the opportunity Sutherland will be giving to many unemployed people in the rural areas. Less than a week ago, Sutherland even had the Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inaugurate its 3rd call center site in the eastern province of Camarines Sur. They are reportedly investing at least 5 billion pesos in an attempt to establish themselves as the premier outsourcing company in the Philippines.

Yet a lot of people could care less about their growth. Check out this email sent to me by an anonymous former Sutherland employee.

“
I am a concerned guy, most especially for those who have not tried working and want to work at Sutherland Davao.

I was employed at Sutherland Davao in Tibungco TESDA.  The process of hiring is like all of the other call centers. I may not be speaking for the whole, but my personal experiences are similar to those of other Agents as well.

If you are lucky to be chosen to be hired then I don’t really think you’re lucky at all. Recruitment will just say” your training will start next week; we’ll just inform you about the schedule”. By Monday, nobody had called or even sent a SMS informing me about the schedule. You would have to be the one always reminding them to remind you. Their HR/Admin, I think is in complete disarray.

By the time you are on training, you would always be the one to catch up with them regarding papers/forms that need to be filled out (bank forms, Philhealth, PAGIBIG, TIN, etc. Is it not supposed to be that Admin/HR should be the one to provide you forms/papers while you guys are in class or huddled together as a batch on the floor?

Third of all, the ever interesting SALARY. They give out the highest starting salary in Davao City. Well, that is what they say. But the truth is there will be a lot of salary discrepancies. They let you sign in and out on a piece of paper to keep records of your attendance but at the end of the month, salaries will be questionable. There was a guy who has always been absent but has received the same amount of salary as given to the punctual guys. Some guy has not been receiving his salary for two pays, and was asking if he was going to get a carry over of those on the third pay; Admin replied: “of course you will”. On the third pay day, whhhaaalllluhhh!!! All he got was the equivalent of one pay.

Guys… wake up. If you had heard of some stories and now just heard mine; please consider what you have all heard. Stories are not made up without any basis.

This company has a lot of issues.
1. Salary discrepancies
2. Admin/HR unprofessional
3. Promises of Free shuttle service to Tibungco but now you have to pay
4. No night shift differential when on training
5. Poor training classroom setting
6. Indian trainers that you can’t understand
7. etc., that I do not know of as of today, because I quit and bailed out on them.
“

(For questions or comments, email me at 1delacruise at gmail dot com)