Call Center Employees: Is Work Life Stress a Challenge

Abstract

The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the global scenario. The sector is showing a remarkable growth in the Indian context also. It is performing a number of activities relating to customer interaction and service. Some of them are involved in pure back office work and some others are directly dealing with the customers. Call center is a voice based part of BPO organization. The BPO sector is developing the young generation not only by providing employment opportunities but also by building confidence in them. Indian BPO companies are paying great attention in inducting and training the employees. But most of the employees are youngsters and they are facing a lot of problems. They are working on continuous night shifts, which affect their biological balance. Apart from this, excessive work loads, unreachable targets and pressurizing customers are creating stress among the employees. This ultimately results in physical, psychological and behavioural deviations among them, which not only affects the employees and the organization, but, the country on the whole. This paper aims to identify the problems in the sector and the nature of the stress created by such problems. First hand information regarding the problems, the sources of stress and the experience on stress situations is collected from a project leader who has five years of experience. A questionnaire is circulated to measure the stress level of employees. It also identifies the various stressors prevailing among the employees. The impact of job satisfaction, feed back, working conditions, work family balance and workload in creating stress among the employees are analyzed. Some strategies for coping up with stress are also suggested.

Health issues amongst call center employees, an emerging occupational group in India

“…( 2 ) Higher levels of stress of more than 65% have also been reported by researchers from call centres in other metropolitan cities. ( 3 4 14 20 ) Anxiety levels were also found to be higher (45%) among them. ( 14 )…”

Call Centers and Associated Health Hazard for Women Employees: A Review of Health Implications for Women Employees of Transnational Call Centers in India

“…Maslach defined burnout as ''a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do 'people work' of some kind'' (Maslach, 1982). The type of work, the work pressure, and the prolonged combination of stress and fatigue in call centers lead to burnout stress syndrome (BOSS) among the employees (Latha & Panchanatham, 2011;Nadeem, 2009). BOSS can also result from personal frustrations and inadequate coping mechanisms for stress.…”

Differences in call centre agents’ perception of their job characteristics, physical work environment and wellbeing

“…Although call centres enhance customer relations, improving efficiency and are cost effective to businesses, call centre agents experience stress due to excessive workload, time pressures to reach targets, abusive customers and the fact that they need to work night shift (Latha & Panchanatham, 2010). Emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress can lead to burnout (Sowmya & Panchanatham, 2011).…”