Calçotada

Calçotada served

Today we went to enjoy calçotada which is a Catalan gastronomic feast. It is a rural feast to enjoy long shaped onions called calçots which are prepared in barbecue until they turn black. You peel of the burned layer, then dip it to the romescu sauce and enjoy. The menu is typically eaten by hand and it is messy. Therefore you are given an aprin and plastic glowes. We took calçotada menu for 31 euros which included calçots and alcahofas with romescu sauce, bread with tomatoes and garlic, barbecued meat, beans, potato, wine, a dessert and nuts. At the end we were given a special bottle of very sweet kind of wine called moscatel which you pour straight to your mouth from the bottle. With this menu everyone will get full.

The background of people working in outsourcing

Last month I wrote about the high turnover of personnel in BPO/SSC.  EU has given chance for many people to go work abroad. On the other hand EU has made it possible for corporations to centralize activities in service centers in one country and moving activities from many different countries under one roof in one country. This has created demand of people speaking different languages. I will shed some light to the backgrounds of people who work in language dependent outsourcing activities.

The workforce in BPO/SSC is female dominant. Even 70 % of the personnel are females. Outsourcing of language dependent activities have given a chance for language students to enter corporate jobs. Therefore you can find many locals with the background in studies of humanities. As the language skills is the most important criteria there are the native speakers with different kind of backgrounds who move from their home countries to work abroad with their native language. Some people do not have any degree after high school studies, some have changed from other field to corporate work and others have just started their career.

Finding people who speak big European languages like Spanish, French and German is easier than finding speakers of small European languages like Finnish, Swedish and Dutch. Hiring person from another EU country is easier for paperwork wise than hiring someone outside of Europe but as finding someone inside Europe can be challenging some companies are ready to hire also from outside of Europe. One friend of mine who works in HR of BPO/SSC said that "We would hire a monkey if it spoke the required language"