Why the Implementation of an English Only Policy (E.O.P.) Usually Does Not Work (PART 3:)
Mike Doria
2013 February 09
(Click here to read Part 1)
(Click here to read Part 2)
It is not uncommon for Filipinos, who do not work in call centers, to exchange stories about call center employees whom they’ve presumably observed standing outside call center offices, cigarettes in hand, 
smokingconversing in English with annoying fake American acccents. Yet in the over ten years that I have been exposed to call center environments, I have never actually been witness to such scenario. In actuality, most call center employees, when on break, use the vernacular. Except in cases where the ones having a conversation are English Trainers having a lunch meeting, that kind of scenario is quite rare. I would say 99% of those stories are just made up by story-tellers for the sake of making a case against English usage among call center agents. Most of it tainted with bias. Besides, the ones they are telling the story to are often just as clueless as they are when it comes to call center culture. To outsiders, all call center employees have the same habit—speaking in English out of turn and with contrived accents everywhere they go. This misperception stems from the outsider’s predjudices—that call center agents bring their habit of speaking English to the outside world. Surprisingly, regardless of how believable it may sound, nothing could be further from the truth. The reality of it is quite the opposite. For the only habit that call center agents bring with them to the outside world is the habit of not speaking in English.
Everyone who has worked or is currently working in a BPO company in the Philippines knows this irony as fact. The typical notion is that call centers are predominantly English-speaking zones. This is only half-truth. English is mostly limited to conversations between the agent and the customer. Ocassionally one would come across English conversations outside the call, especially if it is within earshot of a client. 
But more than half of the time, the global lingua franca begins and ends inside a call. Outside of it, the so-called “English-Speaking zone” dissipates. Any illusion of an “English-speaking culture” inside call centers disintegrates. What is exposed is exactly what one would expect of a work environment composed of Filipino employees: a Tagalog-speaking culture. This should come as no surprise to anyone who understands the link between language and culture. This may lead one to wonder why so much effort is placed in ensuring the success of an EOP program. It would do well to uncover the reasons behind the almost obssessive compulsion.
The following are some of the overt as well as covert reasons, motives, or rationales behind the implementation of an EOP program:
To ensure that no customer (on the other end of the line) would not feel ill-at-ease hearing a foreign language in the background.
This makes sense especially when it comes to American customers who are uncomfortable with the idea that their personal information (i.e. name, address, occupation, credit card information, etc.) is privy to employees from a third world country.To show courtesy to American clients
who are present on the operations floor.To maintain an atmosphere of professionalism or competence.
To keep agents in line. This is applicable especially in accounts whose agents tend to spend too much time bantering with fellow agents. Put up an EOP and the noise level is reduced dramatically.
To impress the client.
Or the Director. Or the visiting Board Members. Or other accounts.To hit EOP metrics
as mandatedby higher-ups.No reason.
A lot of times, EOP programs are regarded as a given. “We’re a call center. therefore we ned to have an EOP program.” End of story.
All the above-mentioned reasons seem reasonable enough. They give valid justification for the implementation of an EOP program. Yet despite these, EOP programs are not received well by their intended targets—the agents. Why?
When implementers of EOP programs conceptualize an effective means of getting everyone on the operations floor to speak exclusively in English, what they are fully aware of is that they face the daunting task of changing the language habits of their agents. Not that it is a complicated objective. I mean, how hard could it be to come up with a way to get everyone to speak English outside the call? But EOP programs, more often than not, fail in that regard. They mostly fail not because of poor planning or implemention. They fail because of poor understanding of what language is. On the surface, it may seem that language is what they are attempting to change. But in truth, what they are really attempting to change is NOT language, but culture.
(to be continued in Part 4)