BPO COMPANIES: BLAMED FOR SPOILING THE HEALTH OF ASIAN YOUTH

Dr.S.Joseph Xavier, Reader in Commerce, St.Joseph’s College(Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli – 2.

Prof.V.Bastin Jerome, Faculty in Commerce, St.Joseph’s College(Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli – 2.

Today, the BPO industry’s single-largest problem is attrition. BPO services job
nature are mixed with emotions and stress. Increase in Economical Growth is not the
problem but high attrition and questionable data protection measures are put employees
under the purgatory.

Because of their stressful environment and high stress and changes in the
behavioural response result their performance is affected due to their sleep irregularity.
Their alertness is hindered making them less efficient. Least are they aware that this is
nothing but the clutches of misery and ill- health which will rear its ugly head on them
very soon.

Successful Story Versus Painful Story

The success story of India's booming outsourcing industry may soon be eclipsed
by critical problems plaguing the BPO space that include heart disease, depression, sleep
disorders, and family discord, warn industry experts and doctors.

The BPO industry employs over 1.6 million young- men and women in the
country. These 20- and 30- somethings rake-in more moolah than their contemporaries in
other professions, but their sedentary lifestyles, coupled with long hours and stressful
working conditions make them more vulnerable than others to heart disease, digestive
problems, sleep disorders, weight gain, depression and other psychological disorders.

The youth of today are most impressed ones. The demands of being rich and
affluent at a very young age make many of them to detour from their normal course of
study and move towards work in IT and BPO companies. They merely do it either for the
kicks or to earn extra money in flexi hours.

The cons of working in call-centers and BPO S’ are plenty. To name a few they are as
such:
 Insufficient breaks
 High levels of stress due to extreme pressure.
 Extreme monitoring of work
 Inadequate toilet breaks.
 Disturbed sleep due to wrong working hours.
 Loss of appetite , Loss of hair, Pre-mature aging
 Hearing problems
 Digestion problems leading to bloating and gas.
 Telephone conversations are recorded giving them no privacy.
 Inability to socialize with family and relations.
 Tendency to become irresistible, Insomnia
 Coronary malfunctions, high blood pressure
 Irrelevant sexual exposures at the work force.
  Getting into smoking habits for the sake of kicks
 Survical to lumber spinal problems due to bad postures
 Psycological disorders
 Short tempered ness at home
 In certain cases unwanted pregnancies and Degradation of moral and social values.

Unhealthy Behaviour in BPO services

People working in the night shifts face more severe problems. Says Dr Samir
Parikh "The human body has a biological clock in the brain, that relates and adapts to the
change in the day-night cycle of the environment. With the day night cycle, and the sleep
wake pattern, many body changes take place. "This includes, activity and rest, and
various body hormones and chemicals, which follow the cyclic pattern, and other
physiological processes.

"When the sleep-awake cycle is changed, then the body clock needs to readjust
and adapt, and make the body corrections. The longer the shift, more is the time needed
by the body to adjust; resulting in psychological, behavioral, and physical problems".

Sleeping Patterns
Call centre and BPO workers usually suffer from insomnia (which is lack of
sleep) excessive sleepiness or both. Some individuals may require only a short time to
adjust to a shift change while others have great difficulty. Frequent shift rotation adds to
the problems.

These youngsters also often adopt a different sleep-wake schedule on weekends

and holidays, to keep up their social life. "This can further throw the body clock out of
gear and the result is severe sleep deprivation" says Dr Samir Parikh.

People working on shifts tend to suffer from the following psychological and
behavioral syndromes like Irritability, Alcohol use, Ulcers, Anxiety and depression,
Concentration problems .

Relationship Problems
These people also have more interpersonal problems, this is not just because of
mismatch of timings with the near ones but also because these people have more anger
and frustration, and their social life is effected in turn effecting their emotional self

The Questionnable Life of the Youngesters …..

Today, Scientists have developed a new contraceptive pill that promises to
eliminate menstruation completely, developed by New Jersey-based Wyeth, one of the
world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, the new Pill, 'Anya', may help women to
avoid unplanned pregnancies and the inconvenience of periods, reported the online
edition of Daily Mail.
Why BPO Companies are blamed?
 Ageing would set in very early for sleep-deprived youth working continuously on
night shifts in BPO firms, warn experts.

 'Heavy food during night, skipping breakfast, eating lunch in the evening and all
such irregular habits affect their health,' says Dr Lim Li Ling, Deputy Director,
sleep disorders unit, Singapore General Hospital.

 Besides premature ageing, their overall performance would be affected due to

lack of proper sleep.

 'The performance of youths working in night shifts is affected. Since, they are
sleep-deprived, their efficiency and alertness is less compared to those who sleep
sufficiently. Their concentration is hindered due to lack of sleep'.

 Frequent headaches, fatigue and sleepiness are caused. Their reflexes diminish
affecting work efficiency, she adds.

 Though, they have become the envy of others with the fat salary they are
pocketing, they are actually paying a 'heavy price' by risking their health.

 Echoeing her views, Dr Prithakachari, a neurology specialist, says such youths

have a tendency to become unsociable.

 'Youths working in BPOs lose their ablity to enjoy and become irritable and
unsociable.' Dr N Ramakrishnan, director, Nithra Institute of Sleep Sciences here,
points out that sleep deprivation leads to accidents while driving vehicles.

To Strengthen the Young Mind

One may be able to prevent these problems if one follows these practises:
 Try and make only a small shift from one’s normal sleep awake cycle
 Have short spurts of change, and then a long normal cycle to allow readaptation
 Take regular breaks during work
 Avoid alcohol, drugs, and self-medications
 Avoid sedatives
 Avoid unhealthy behavioural eating habits and try to satisfy eating experience
 Skipping breakfast is a pretty bad one. Not only does starting the day with a
healthy breakfast give you a boost of energy and help clear the fog out of your
brain, it also helps you make healthy eating choices throughout the entire day.
 Eating fatty foods before bed will slow down the emptying of the stomach,
exacerbating indigestion, while spicy foods can lead to heartburn and indigestion.
 Well, when you don’t eat for long periods of time, your body thinks it needs to
store calories as fat because it doesn’t know when the chance to eat will come
again. And then, the fat remains with you.
  Not only is eating while doing something else a great way to get food all over
yourself, it also tends to lead to overeating, and subsequently, weight gain. Plus,
once you begin eating while doing something else, you often can’t stop it and
becomes a mechanical act.
 Avoid eating too fast and too slow that may discourage your eating habbits and
easily would collapse the eating habit cycle.
 Another what’s surprising is that not drinking adequate amounts of water
throughout the day can actually slow down your metabolism, making weight gain
a likely possibility, since water is necessary for all metabolic functions, including
calorie burning.

The Rural BPO and the Targeted Youth

The basic idea for establishment of BPOs in the rural area is to provide new job
opportunities in the villages, and to help bridge the gap between India's urban and its
poor rural people. Also, if rural educated finds jobs close or next to their home, they'll be
less likely to migrate to the country's overcrowded cities. The BPOs Industry feels there
are plenty of young people in the villages with college degrees. The flourishing BPO
industry of India is now eyeing villages across the country as its next destination for
launching their services and access manpower. One of the other main reasons why
companies are considering rural India to outsource is because of the cost factor; the
infrastructure cost are low as it cost 20 percent cheaper compare to urban outsourcing.

Impact of Establishment of BPOs in rural areas

• No one is ready to outsource it to the rural or No one is ready to start their
operations in the rural area.
• Recent study of working conditions in Indian outsourced call centres has pointed
to the high levels of labour exploitation in the industry—including constant
surveillance, long hours, health problems and burnouts.
• A number of states in India have exempted outsourcing companies from the
Industrial Disputes Act, which provides, amongst other things, for unfair
dismissal rights. West Bengal, headed by a Communist Party of India (Marxist)-
led Left Front government, has stretched the work week (the number of hours
after which companies are legally required to pay overtime) from 40 to 48 hours,
and has changed labour laws to allow young women working at BPOs to do night
shifts.
• The report concludes that “most of these youngsters are in fact burning out their
formative years as ‘cyber coolies’.”
• Staff in the industry reported health problems such as nervousness, chronic
fatigue, body ache, insomnia, nausea, anxiety, restlessness, irritability and
depression due to odd working hours and stress. Sick days are difficult to obtain.
Surely the BPOs companies established in rural areas will keep silent with regard
to above measures.
• The main problem faced by the BPOs employees estimated that “90 per cent of
the respondents did not balance work and family life. The respondents had no
social life or interaction with people in the family.” As a result it may hit the
village set-up also.
 • The majority of the population is already hostile to the program of privatisation
and opening up India as a cheap labour platform for transnational capital. Again
it may degrade or indirectly exploit the educated villagers.
• BPOs established in the major impediment seems to be poor infrastructure, lack
of basic amenities and low skilled work force.
• However, there are some common reasons that especially cause people to leave.
Surveys have listed night shifts, money, inability to handle various types of
stress, monotonous work; company policies, lack of career growth, problems with
those in senior positions etc., as some of the most common reasons listed by BPO
employees, as reasons for quitting jobs.

What is your Response

The establishments of BPO services at the rural areas are very much significant in
the promotion of rural employment. But the BPOs may still exploit the rural poor people
with regard to salary, welfare and safety measures and additional benefits. Most of the
BPOs/ ITES companies situated or established in cities are bound to involve in salary
hike and fail to nurture their employee’s to consider their welfare physically and
emotionally. We should take-up a better strategy to safeguard the villagers from the
giants of BPOs companies. Todays BPO companies is very much oblivion and keep silent
with regard to Safety and Healthy practices in their services. Here we have to understand
the reality is that think of poor young villagers who are soon preyed to various mental,
emotional, physical and psychological problems.

References:
1. Dr.S.Joseph Xavier and V.Bastin Jerome, “Software Business in India:
Challenges and Opportunities”, Third Concept, April 2006, Vol.20, No.230, Pp
31 – 34.
2. V.Bastin Jerome,“Business Process Outsourcing: The key of Heaven to
Developing Countries like India”, RETELL, April 2006, Vol.6, No.2, Pp15– 22.
3. www.outlookindia.com/pti_print.asp?id=421269)
4. www.thehindu.com,THE HINDU,India's National Newspaper, Tue, Jun 17, 2008.