One Trick Pony

On my way to campus this blazing hot afternoon, I pulled up to the drive-thru at Jack in the Box to order a smoothie. “Hi! My name is Ryan! May I take your order?” said the box, in a tone that was over-the-top cheery. I recognized the practiced American accent with an Indian one suppressed way below it. In response I said, “Hi… how are things in Bangalore?”. Ryan’s voice dropped an octave, he became dead serious and tried again, “May I take your order?”. It was as though I had outed his secret identity and he didn’t like it much.

I don’t think it’s widely known that Jack in the Box is outsourcing its drive thru order taking on a trial basis. Googling around, I see reports of orders being taken in North Carolina and Odessa, Texas by kids sitting in El Paso. Perhaps because San Diego is the headquarters for Jack in the Box, we’re the first to go international. It’s not outsourced all the time at the one near SDSU, but late at night it seems to happen more often. One night, “Sally” forgot what time zone I was in and wished me a wonderful day.

For customers, it’s not a bad thing. The Indians on the other end always sound happier and are easier to understand than the sometimes tired local kids you’d get otherwise. Having one less person dealing with the drive thru means one more person to talk to the walk-in customers. Or does it?

Fast food service jobs are an easy way for kids with no other options to begin to make a living. It doesn’t pay well and they never stay long, but it’s a first step towards independence and responsibility. To the extent that the drive thru jobs are being outsourced, there are fewer openings for these kids. Memo to kids: get some skills. Now more than ever.

UPDATE: December 7, 2008. I drove through this morning to order a breakfast. Yet another chipper Indian-accented voice took my order. “Just for fun”, I said, “… where are you?”.  El Paso, she said. Could it be that all these subcontinental order-takers are indeed in Texas?  According to latest census data, Asians account for only 1.7% of El Paso’s population. Is the University a major source? The Indian Student Association has only 100 or so members, so it’s probably not a huge community. Are they instructed to say they’re in El Paso to avoid backlash against exporting this job (such as it is) abroad? These burning questions persist, though I really should be grading projects instead.