Outsourcing tech jobs to India is not only causing turmoil for workers in the US and Europe, but in India as well. Young, English-speaking Indians who work in call centers in India, are exposed to a host of health problems. Because of the time difference between India and the US, the work for these workers in call centers in India starts late in the evening and extends till dawn. Such odd hours bring in a host of health problems including digestive diseases, hair loss, back pain, and stress.

Some girls develop menstrual problems. Orthopedic problems and sharp increase in smoking are common features. Assuming a foreign accent for long periods causes sore throats. Though call centers in India claim that they try to make life better for the workers by improving the overall work environment, all said and done, there is no alternative to a good night’s sleep. Employees in call centers in India find it difficult to maintain a positive attitude towards life, because everything seems dark and gloomy when one works ungodly hours.

Not surprisingly, the attrition rate is high in call centers in India, as 30–40 percent of the workers quit in a year. But they are quickly replaced, as there are enough English-speaking youngsters in India available for jobs that pay $160–300 per month.

Long hours of work, permanent night shifts, incredibly high work targets, loss of identity-these are the dark clouds hovering over the call center industry in India. Many of these youngsters, between 18 and 21 years are seeking counseling for work-related stress, irregular sleeping hours, unhealthy food habits, and chronic fatigue. Although most such cases do not require treatment or medication, they do need guidance on physical and mental coordination to cope with a job that requires hyper-alert efficiency.

Today most top executives acknowledge that a steady attrition rate is an inevitable aspect of the call center industry. The reasons for this could be boredom with the job, seeking better prospects or a change, or even the failure of the call center to effectively train employees to stay at the job.

Some call centers in India have started looking for counselors to refer the employees with problems. No call center in India actually retains psychologists or counselors, perhaps wary of even admitting to work-related stresses and problems.

When a fun-loving city graduate joins a call center in India, in addition to commendable command over the English language, the employer sees a lot of enthusiasm and positive attitude in him or her while hiring. However, the new call center employee’s zeal dies in the first few weeks. Despair and disillusion sets in and the final outcome is that he or she quits the job.

Little do these call center employees realize, while they are being hired, that instead of fun, what lies ahead of them is much hard work and long, stressful workdays. The unrelieved monotony of their jobs and the repeated rejections from the sometimes-abusive clients keeps adding up. The world of the call center worker isn't all vivacious prattle. It is often a cup of woes that brimmeth all night long.

Long Working Hours
Long working hours is the greatest cause of stress for Indian call center agents, just ahead of work timing. Of the respondents surveyed, 39.3 percent endorsed the fact. Together, both these factors, no doubt, account for the high rate of attrition in the industry. Long hours, in themselves, are a combination of workload, call volume, and commuting time. Since most BPO players are still primarily voice based, the workload is tremendous; add to it the increasing call volume as more and more outsourcing continues to happen despite threats of backlash. Plus the time involved in commuting between home and office. Any average agent works for 11–12 hours per day-the number goes up to 14 in case of companies that encourage overtime. Plight of the operational heads is worse-they regularly clock 17–18 hours per day working their shift besides staying back for customer conference calls.

Work Timing
The second biggest cause of stress for BPO employees is unique to the Indian industry. Many in the industry, in fact, feel that this is the root cause for most of the malaises afflicting Indian call centers. It is an irony that the raison d'être for the success of the industry is also turning out to be its Achilles' heel. No doubt, geographical time difference with the US and UK gives Indian industry one of its biggest advantages, a possible solution to the problem is unlikely to be found in the near future. Even the endorsement from 38.6 percent of the respondents seems to be somewhat tempered by the fact that many of the respondents were either senior non-call floor people, or those in the day shift.

Repetitive Nature Of Work
No surprises here-it is a commonly accepted fact that the monotony of the same kind of work in call centers can indeed be very stressful. Of the respondents, 37.1 percent say this in the survey. The male fresher seem to be the group particularly affected. Again, solutions are not readily available, though measures like hiring retired personnel or housewives might be of some succor, since groups with more experience tend to get frustrated the least. Some others have also devised innovative measures, like periodic job rotation, though not much can be expected out of these in a pure call-center environment.

Insufficient Holidays
While this was not amongst the top 10 causes of stress in last year’s survey, this year more than 36 percent of the respondents complained about it. Not too surprising, considering that most of these employees have to work on all Indian calendar holidays. True, they enjoy holidays like 4 July and Thanksgiving, but that is scant solace for working 12–14 hour shifts even during a festival. To add to the woes, many companies dangle the bait of additional incentives for working on holidays-it is initially attractive to the freshers, but as the attraction weans more heartburn happens.

Pressure To Perform On Metrics
This is particularly galling for the first timers-working in an environment where every single action needs to conform to a performance measuring metrics. Like most other problems, this one also looks unlikely to go away soon, since most call centers are keen on different standards certifications. It’s no fad, but an absolute business necessity for most companies to follow these quantifiable business metrics to attract customers. However, not many are keen to look at the effect this pursuit has on their employees. More than 36 percent point to it as one of their major grouses-the only silver lining here is that, with experience, the stress level goes down and more importantly, working on such quantifiable performance parameters helps these people later in their career.

Workload
Some would argue that even IT services employees are burdened with tremendous workload, so how does one justify 34.7 percent of the respondents complaining about it? The real story lies elsewhere. True, even IT-service employees work for long and odd hours, but these are interspersed with smoke breaks, coffee breaks, or plain chatting with colleagues. Unfortunately, this is not the case in call centers where sometimes agents do not even get toilet breaks. Sounds draconian? But that is the business-driven reality for the Indian call center industry. Absolute freshers get a little respite, since their first few months on the job involves a lot of training time.