The Caribbean Team “Vibes” or “Not”: Another Day in the Life of a Call Centre In a rare moment alone in her office, Jennifer Ames reflected on the past 10 years of her career at GerberGoodstart Corporation (GGC) She could easily chart her successes: She had taken on challenges and produced results where her colleagues had failed; she had increased the diversity of the work force in every unit she had led; she had successfully launched new products and developed several new markets. In fact, just a few months before, Ames had been part of a team that had led a highly successful launch of several GGC product lines into the Latin American market. That success and the ensuing demand for its products drove GGC to centralize customer support in a call center in Kingston, Jamaica—and to create Ames’s new position: senior director for global customer support. Ames had studied other call-center models and created a team of four as a prototype for customer support. She had a goal of scaling up as the business expanded. But as she sat in her office, looking at the latest financials and mentally reviewing the events of a disturbing meeting earlier that morning, she saw the failure of her prototype looming large. The call response times were on an upward trajectory that would quickly plunge her budget into the red if the trend continued. Even worse, only one short month into her new position, Ames was worried that her team was stonewalling her. She was deeply troubled by the interaction she had just observed: there was friction among her staff members that was dividing them along Jamaican-versus-non-Jamaican lines. The team consisted of three Jamaicans from the Kingston, Jamaica, headquarters and one Costa Rican from the Central American sales office. The three Jamaicans, already thinking about customer support, had spent the past few months working with product developers to create the web-based training videos that provided step-by-step product use information, as well as testing competitor products. The employee from Costa Rica had also spent time with the product development team and had been an outstanding sales representative. She had transferred from the Central American sales office to join the Kingston call center. The problem was that the Jamaicans were angry about the work habits of the Costa Rican member whose call times were longer than theirs, so they accused her of effectively lowering their pay. During that morning’s meeting, things had deteriorated into a verbal onslaught that culminated in one of the Jamaican members calling the Costa Rican member a “chatty Latina.” After that, the conflict got personal and highly emotional. Was this the “cultural iceberg” she’d heard so much about? And what exactly should she do to steer the team away from it?
The Caribbean Team “Vibes” or “Not”: Another Day in the Life of a Call Centre
In a rare moment alone in her office, Jennifer Ames reflected on the past 10 years of her career at
GerberGoodstart Corporation (GGC) She could easily chart her successes: She had taken on challenges
and produced results where her colleagues had failed; she had increased the diversity of the work force in
every unit she had led; she had successfully launched new products and developed several new markets. In
fact, just a few months before, Ames had been part of a team that had led a highly successful launch of
several GGC product lines into the Latin American market. That success and the ensuing demand for its
products drove GGC to centralize customer support in a call center in Kingston, Jamaica—and to create
Ames’s new position: senior director for global customer support. Ames had studied other call-center
models and created a team of four as a prototype for customer support. She had a goal of scaling up as the
business expanded. But as she sat in her office, looking at the latest financials and mentally reviewing the events of a disturbing meeting earlier that morning, she saw the failure of her prototype looming large. The call response times were on an upward trajectory that would quickly plunge her budget into the red if the trend continued. Even
worse, only one short month into her new position, Ames was worried that her team was stonewalling her.
She was deeply troubled by the interaction she had just observed: there was friction among her staff
members that was dividing them along Jamaican-versus-non-Jamaican lines.
The team consisted of three Jamaicans from the Kingston, Jamaica, headquarters and one Costa Rican from
the Central American sales office. The three Jamaicans, already thinking about customer support, had spent
the past few months working with product developers to create the web-based training videos that provided
step-by-step product use information, as well as testing competitor products. The employee from Costa
Rica had also spent time with the product development team and had been an outstanding sales
representative. She had transferred from the Central American sales office to join the Kingston call center.
The problem was that the Jamaicans were angry about the work habits of the Costa Rican member whose
call times were longer than theirs, so they accused her of effectively lowering their pay. During that
morning’s meeting, things had deteriorated into a verbal onslaught that culminated in one of the Jamaican
members calling the Costa Rican member a “chatty Latina.” After that, the conflict got personal and highly
emotional. Was this the “cultural iceberg” she’d heard so much about? And what exactly should she do to
steer the team away from it?
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