Calling time on the call centres

Having talked to a few Indian's about their experiences of working in the call-centres it seems my personal anecdotal evidence appears very true from this story .

Young men and women in call and contact centres across India are over-worked and stressed out. Many are leaving the industry.Call centres hold no attraction for these people anymore. They are changing professions.

Shabana Pavaskar, a senior staff at a reputable call centre in Mumbai, feels it is not a career, just a job.
"I have been working here for many years but there's no promotion, no motivation and the hours are extremely demanding," she says. "Over-time is not an option but a compulsion. A government job with a fairly less salary will be more feasible than working here."
She says it loud, she says it clear. And so do many others. The industry has tried hard to make it lucrative for young people by creating cool recreational facilities and improving infrastructure, but that has failed to stop them from leaving for greener pastures.
"Where's the time to use their damn gym or cafeteria or other facilities?" says Ms Pavaskar.

Shameela Zaidi was among the first to join the fledgling BPO industry at the beginning of the decade. She found little time to spend with her growing son and the shifts were at odd hours [ due to varying time zones ].
"I didn't get time to spend with my son and my health completely deteriorated," she says. "The other important thing is that there is no growth in terms of salary and career."

There was a time when our office was cluttered with 500 to 600 people who came for recruitment in one day," Abhishek Tiwari, with many years behind him as a call centre man, left the industry recently despite being promoted to senior manager and recruiting youngsters for his call centre says. "Today, even after lowering our standards, getting 40-50 people a day was a struggle."

Little Boxes

Call centre and other outsourced businesses such as software writing, medical transcription and back-office work employ more than 1.6 million young men and women in India .

They are, however, facing sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys. The IHT writes that the outsourcing industry has come under fire because the sedentary lifestyle of its employees combined with often stressful working conditions makes them more vulnerable to heart disease, digestive problems and weight gain than others. Some complain of psychological distress. A recent survey showed sleep disorders topped health complaints among outsourcing industry workers. About 32 percent of respondents complained of sleep disorders; 25 percent had digestive troubles; and 20 percent reported eyesight problems, said the survey. Sleep and digestive disorders, doctors say, can grow into bigger problems: hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

One out of 10 persons aged 35 years or more in India is prone to heart attack.Heart disease is projected to account for 35 percent of deaths among India's working age population between 2000 and 2030 according to a World Health Organization study. That number is about 12 percent for the United States, 22 percent for China and 25 percent for Russia.

Most call center jobs involve responding to phone calls through the night from customers in the United States and Europe -- some of whom can be angry and rude. It is monotonous and there is little meaningful personal interaction among co-workers. That can also be true of other jobs such as software writing and back-office work. Long, odd working hours means couples don't have much time together.

Loneliness can also take a toll."There is no social life," said Vats, who worked at night and either slept or watched television during the day. "You are not meeting new people"

The outsourcing boom has created new employment opportunities for Indian women, but there has been little change in social expectations. Adding workplace demands to responsibilities at home, which often includes taking care of in-laws, leaves women workers with multiple stresses

According to this article Indian outsourcers are suffering from high staff turnover rates because many workers see it as a “dead end job”, according to a new report . The study puts the current staff attrition rate in Indian call centres as high as 40%. This turnover has previously been blamed on long, unsocial hours associated with servicing overseas customers in different time zones and higher salary offers from rival firms. But the survey of agents found more than 50% said they considered call centres a dead end job.
The staff attributed their exits to a lack of growth opportunities, expectation mismatches and dissatisfaction with company policies. Night shifts, monotony of work and better salary offers elsewhere were given as reasons for moving on by only 39% of respondents.

Here , we read , that in the past five years, more than 100,000 young Indian graduates have made the move to Bangalore, or the suburban New Delhi city of Gurgaon, to answer calls from credit card holders, make sales pitches or maintain records. The jobs are eagerly sought with pay from 500 to 1,000 dollars a month, compared to per capita annual income in India of around 600 dollars. But late hours far from home led to high staff turnover and companies found that a good salary was not enough to attract employees who were increasingly eager to return to small-town India.

"I was hating every minute of my call centre job in New Delhi," says Sanjeev Rana "I barely got four hours sleep between shifts and meals were at dingy roadside restaurants..." he adds.