Monday, July 14, 2003		Feature

"THESE days large number of young people in the age group of 18-21 years are seeking counselling and out of that 10 - 15 per cent cases are those who work in call centres", says Dr Jitendra Nagpal, Consultant Psychiatrist, Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (VIMHANS) here. "Burnout Stress Syndrome or BOSS syndrome is seen commonly among youngsters working in call centres. The symptoms of this syndrome include chronic fatigue, insomnia and complete alteration of 24-hour biological rhythm of the body", says Nagpal.

Gastrointestinal problems are inevitable for those working at nights as the body is put under chronic stress. A potentially fatal increase in heart rhythm can result in severe chronic gynaecological problems in women and sleep disorders in both men and women, he adds. Although most of these cases do not require medication, guidance about physical and mental coordination to meet the demands of a call centre job is necessary. While good money, weekend parties, bubblegum culture, chick and ultra-modern decor of the offices does lend call centres a glamorous image, it’s certainly not easy to adjust to their work culture, those in industry say. Continuous night shifts, monotonous and stressful back-office work and working according to an American and British holiday schedule leaves employee’s lives completely out of sync.

"Once in a call centre your life becomes restricted to that place only because you hardly get any time to spend with your family. The whole day is spent sleeping and at night you rush to office", says Deepika Maini, working with a leading call centre here.

Social life is the worst hit and married women find it even more difficult to cope.

"At times people find it difficult to convince friends and family that what they are doing is respectable. It is strange to adopt an American accent and answer to Anglicised names, which often leads to a strange loss of identity in some cases", says Nagpal.

Vandana Ranganathan, Head, Corporate Communication, Daksh, a leading call centre in Gurgaon avers that health concerns of the employees working at call centres cannot be ignored." The call centres, while acknowledging that they were looking for counsellors to have tete-e-tete with their employees facing stress problems, however, refrain from employing them on permanent basis.

"Also, large number of organisations are recognising the importance of open culture among management and employees, which is effective as a destressing tool. Besides, team building exercises like mock rock climbing, contests, parties at regular intervals do help in combating work-related stress", Ranganathan adds.