Customer-facing jobs have not been finding many takers off late

livemint.com:

₹20,000-25,000 or less, with the rigors of big-city life thrown in, many don’t think the deal is worthwhile. Attrition rates in customer-facing roles have been observed to go beyond 40% in sectors like retail and banking, financial services and insurance, and employers should be thankful that the country has so many fresh graduates looking for jobs each year. But why do so many quit within months? One probable reason for the lost appeal of customer-centric roles is the fading buzz of sectors that offer most such jobs.

Recruiters in the retail and banking sectors estimate that young job-seekers are keener to join newer sectors like e-commerce and information technology, but resist the idea of working in a bank outlet or store. “During the harvest seasons, a large number of front line employees leave their jobs for few days to help their families, and many do not come back. The salaries are not high in the initial years and the number of executives willing to work in farmlands or look for another job than return to their billing/teller/help-desk counters is getting higher," observed the HR chief worried about it.

Another reason may be the image that many customer-facing jobs have acquired. There is a sense of servitude that such jobs tend to demand, a kind of behaviour code by which any response other than “Yes Sir/Ma’am" is considered blasphemous. Some are deterred by harsh exposure to constant ratings and social media posts, a system under which even a remotely ‘unsatisfactory’ experience has consequences.