"Workers are suffering from obesity, sleep
disorders, depression and broken relationships -
problems which can lead to more serious conditions
such as diabetes or heart disease. In a country
where a public healthcare system is virtually non-
existent, overworked outsourcing employees could
present a health crisis in the making."
That's a lot of the people I work with.
India outsourcing workers stressed to the limit
Summary
The outsourcing industry has brought jobs and prosperity to India - but, asks Saritha Rai, at what cost to workers' well being?
Topics
The outsourcing industry has brought jobs and prosperity to India - but, asks Saritha Rai, at what cost to workers' well being?
The cheery, chatty voice at the other end of your customer care helpline may be a stressed-out, sleep-deprived and depressed twenty-something in Bangalore.
As many young people in India's outsourcing industry are beginning to discover, underneath the heady promise of an exciting job, a good paycheck and attractive career prospects lie long spells of night shifts, ruthless targets and the dreadful monotony of writing code or pacifying angry customers.
The outsourcing industry has long been hailed as a key driver to India's rise as a global economic power. Now, that growth is beginning to take its toll on its workers who labour for long hours in stressful work environments to meet tight deadlines for customers thousands of miles away.
Workers are suffering from obesity, sleep disorders, depression and broken relationships - problems which can lead to more serious conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. In a country where a public healthcare system is virtually non-existent, overworked outsourcing employees could present a health crisis in the making.
The troubles have worsened since the start of the global economic downturn last year. Employees are now particularly worried about job security. They watch anxiously as colleagues get axed from their jobs and their own salaries get slashed.
Karuna Baskar, director at 1to1help.net, a Bangalore-based counseling firm, says there is a recent rise in the number of workers coming in with mental issues like depression, bi-polar disorder and suicidal tendencies.
Many workers struggle to make the transition from the college campus to the office environment and find they cannot cope with the stress, says Aashu Calapa, executive vice president of human resources for outsourcing firm Firstsource Solutions. The industry loses a slice of its workers solely to work stress, he says.
Ash (not his real name), an employee with a multinational firm's captive outsourced unit in Bangalore, has just been discharged from a week's stay in the hospital. Ironically, he prides himself for being near-religious about eating correctly and getting adequate sleep and exercise.
But in the end, all it took was a schedule that went out-of-whack for a week for him to land up in the hospital with acute gastric problems. The doctors advised him to ease off alcohol and better manage work stress.
Ash, who has worked night shifts during his entire four-year career at the back office firm, believes he got away lightly.
His friends suffer from migraines, backaches, insomnia and anxiety attacks. The causes are a combination of long work hours, disrupted eating and sleeping schedules, a fondness for junk food and deadline pressure, he says.
Many outsourcing workers are in their early 20s, just out of college and in their first jobs, and often feel they are invincible. But partying, shopping and living a reckless life on new found economic freedom soon begin to take their toll.
During the weekends, to relieve a week's pressure at work and to keep up with peers, they often indulge in chain smoking and binge drinking.
Not everybody is tough enough to handle the pressure and the lifestyle. Along with health, the invariable casualty is family and relationships, says Baskar whose confidential counseling service sees a surfeit of 19- to 29-year-olds with issues like loneliness, relationship problems and marriage breakdowns.
Globalization and the outsourcing industry in particular have brought rapid and enormous changes in the culture of India cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. In the homes of outsourcing workers, clashes over the traditional system of arranged marriages and the working woman's domestic role are common.
The industry is concerned, says Firstsource's Calapa. Firstsource provides on-call counselors and quality checks on food served to workers - and is currently considering a proposal to offer workers options for their work hours and workdays.
Other companies are doing their bit too, providing counselors, doctors and nutritionists, as well as gym facilities and medical insurance. However, many young workers simply ignore the help available to them.
Outsourcing worker Ash looks back and rues that he entered the job market so young. He now thinks he would have liked to pursue graduate studies. But now he is in, he feels there is no quick exit from the outsourcing industry and wants to stay healthy and get ahead.
This article was originally posted on silicon.com.
Talkback Most Recent of 45 Talkback(s)
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HollywoodDog26th Aug 2009 -
Zukuzu26th Aug 2009 -
Just like the farmers that committed suicide when the big boys moved in.
Welcome to capitalism, indeed. At first it was fun, "America's comeuppance", free training, and the rest. Not so pleasant these days...
HypnoToad7226th Aug 2009 -
Cheery and Chatty? What Indian outsourcing company are YOU talking to?
They are anything but cheery and chatty with me, they just want off the phone as fast as possible, whether they solve your problem or not.
samiamagain26th Aug 2009 -
RE: India outsourcing workers stressed to the limit
You get exactly what you pay for. There is already a backlash starting amongs some american companies against outsourcing to india, some going as far as to use american phone support as a marketing point. There is another issue not mentioned in this article and that is the culture of outsourced labor over there. That culture is to work one job for at most a year, then hop to something that pays more. Problem is that in that year you've barely learned anything about the current job, so you are only really productive maybe the last half to a quarter of said year. Again, American companies are taking note of the poor quality of work that comes out of this due to the fact that most outsourced employees know little to nothing of the business they've been outsourced.
So, by my count, outsourcing A) decreased jobs available in the states B) results in sub-par quality of work product C) is apparently destroying the health of employees that are being outsourced to D) causes public backlash against company doing the outsourcing due to point B.
Am I missing some good points here other then short term savings in labor costs (which may well be offset by poor product/service and loss of consumer loyalty - need to see some numbers on this). Isn't it time we start cutting back just a little?
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."
gnesterenko26th Aug 2009 -
Totallt Agree....but one point
I totally agree with everything you have said...But also must insert the working 1 year, and Job Hopping also happend here in the U.S....Seen it all to many times...all else ...you hit on the nail with...
MeYou&Them26th Aug 2009 -
Oh sure
Definitely happens here in the states as well. My point was more that, that is the accepted mode of behavior over there. EVERYONE does it. Here in the states, folk try to hang on to their jobs a little more and its also frowened upon by employers. Vetting and hiring a new employee is very expensive and employers do not like to see someone working 5 jobs in 5 years - its telling the employer that he/she is going to have to look for another new hire very soon if he/she hires this person in front of them. Over there, the employer knows for a fact that the turnover is going to be at approximately a year and there is no way around it, so they take whomever comes along. Like I said, its a difference of professional cultures.
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."gnesterenko26th Aug 2009 -
The chicken or the egg
Some in the media claim gen-X'ers only want money and have no loyalty...
Some in the media claim companies don't like having to train...
Some job-hop because they're in a dead-end job with no chance for personal or professional growth.
The truth is undoubtedly in the middle somewhere, but there's plenty of blame for ALL sides to take.
HypnoToad7226th Aug 2009 -
You're joking....
right? American companies don't care about the state of outsourced tech support. They know the consumer will bend over, take it and like it. The consumer has no will power to wield the power of his check book. This would require him to say no to buying all the junk he wants - not needs, wants. I've personally only heard on ad where the producer is bragging about US based tech support - Cricket phone. Who else have you heard sell US based tech support?
bjbrock26th Aug 2009 -
Ehh
I don't pay attention to ads. Ever. As a matter of principal. However, stuff does get through even through the zoning out and I have been hearing several TV ads boasting that you can get someone on the phone that is actually in the US. Couldn't tell you what company though - like I said, just zone it out.
As for the consumer saying no, what you said may have been true up until about a year and a half ago. THings have changed quite a bit since as you may have noticed, consumer spending is down quite a bit, and I guarantee you people are becoming much more informed consumers as a result.
I'll mention another personal example. A erlative of mine works for company X (not the real name of course, but can't really reveal, especially since I'm posting from work) In any case. Company X has been using outsourced IT labor from India. Without fail, every week, my relative has another story about the horrible quality of work that is being sent over by these folks - sometimes just terrible quality, sometimes its not done AT ALL. At first it was just my relative complaining. Now management in company X is taking notice because its hitting their deliverabales and time-tables for application release since my relative and her co-workers have to work sometimes 12-15 hour shifts actually redoing all the work that the outsourced folks were supposed to have done. Just this last week I caught my relative staying up past 1AM in the morning not even redoing, but JUST doing the work that the oversea IT folk told her was done. It wasn't. Nothing was done. She had to do everything on her own. And you better believe he management knows about it full well.
Result? Outsouricing significantly reduced at said company. Not immediately of course as there are contracts to fulfil, but new ones are NOT being written. And company X is a very big, major one that I'm sure you've all heard of if I were able to mention it.
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."gnesterenko26th Aug 2009 -
RE: India outsourcing workers stressed to the limit
Welcome India, to the IT World ....and the pains it also brings....Quality of Life working in IT, is something during this economic downturn I have been applying a lot of thought to. Not sure if I want to continue in the IT Rat Race....Love tech...but there is a lot of pressure...which even the health industry states stress, long hours of work, IT job instability, and all the other baggage that goes along with IT....can have detrimental effects to one's health..MeYou&Them26th Aug 2009 -
Salary is directly related to stress.
You can quit IT but don't expect to find a decent paying job where there is no stress.
One thing about India, the stress is there but they don't earn as much as we do in the US.bjbrock26th Aug 2009 -
Oh really?
And we earn so much in the U.S.? Outsourcing has artificially depressed domestic salaries. Check the cost of living and therefore actual value of the salaries in India vs. U.S.
Equally importantly, IT professionals are not compensated as well for overtime and stressful conditions compared to other professions, such as medical. We're considered "salaried exempt" in many places, and often expected to take our turn with the pager for no extra $$, and put in overtime with no comp for it.
IT in the U.S. is no longer what it was.
techboy_z26th Aug 2009 -
Another issue
Is an oversaturated market. Too many folks trying to do IT because, as the poster above said, they enjoy it. I understand - but I also saw how two of my relatives have to work (both in IT) just to maintain their job security. And that's when I went to business school. Huzzah!
But I digress. Outsourcing has certainly damaged the IT industry here in the states, no doubt about it. But even on top of that, there's a LOT folk trying to do IT here and hence its become so easy to find someone adequate that its simply become comoditized. And comodities are cheap. At the end of the day, its as simple as Supply > Demand = lower price for product.
"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."gnesterenko26th Aug 2009 -
Supply and demand - biggest, handpicked misnomer ever
Life is what we make of it, we openly apply value to what we want.
We could make garbageman rich because nobody wants to do the job -- and there's plenty of trash. With 'supply and demand', the wages have to go up so people will do it.
Then again, why put value on cleaning up trash? Just litter the planet... and I don't see anybody really doing anything of substance. If they did, then "60 Minutes" would run out of topics to air...
HypnoToad7226th Aug 2009
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