CALL CENTERS MAKE ME SICK
84
CALL CENTRES ' SOCIAL LIFE KILLER '
Call centres are one of the hottest place to work for teenagers. Youngsters are making good living out of it. 'Good living' i think we need to redefine it , I mean what is good living, making money so that you are able to buy what you want to. Having a car, latest cell phone owning a house, is that good living. I dont think so. I have seen people who make hell of a lot of money and are not happy on the other hand i have seen people who make just ok money and are the happiest people on the earth. So, what is good living. Lets try and explore the subject.
.I am trying to write about the work culture and effects of working in a call centre. These call centres have really given good employment oppurtunities to the teenagers. But are they happy doing it. Trust me 90% are not at all happy.
Call centres are where workers communicate with customers via the telephone. - either to provide information, accept payments, sell products
Why i am writing about it well i worked in one of these for 1.5 years, and i had the worst time of my life. The day you start working in a call centre, forget your relations. I mean you wont get enough time to sit and chat with them. About 95% of these jobs have only night shifts. Working in the night is ok i mean there are other jobs in which one has to work in the night. But the stress that a person has to suffer in a call centre is tremendous. I mean working in the night and sleeping in the morning. No social life, just work and that too talking on the phone whole night. As they train you to do, be polite even if the other is abusing you. Thats the worst part of this job. I mean the person is providing information about something and the other person instead of listening is abusing the person. And we have to take all that with a smile. If thats not enough , one has been assigned targets to finish within a specific period of time, if you cant finish it your job is gone. Mostly the call centers give you the target of specific number of calls, sometimes you dont even have time between these calls. You just need to call again and again untill your target has been achieved. Thats really stressfull.
HEALTH HAZARDS: If one is taking so much stress, his health is bound to suffer. The main illness that a person is prone to is mental illness. One has no social life. He cant talk about his stress with his family because he doesnt have time to talk. People start to drink too much. I have seen people who are even taking drugs, not all of them but yes i have seen majority of them.
Unnatural sex is also one of the main issues related with these call centres. I mean i am not against gay relationship but having unsafe sex is really a cause of concern.
One more thing that a person working in these call centres faces is hearing problem, I mean a person is attached with his head phones all night listening to the customers.
A forced pace of work can lead to stress, repetitive strain injuries, and other ill-health. The repetitive and monotonous nature of the work can also be a cause of stress.
Another ailment that usually troubles the workers is back problems , sitting on the desk all night or day makes the back stiff.
Call centre workers' voices are under great pressure because of the nature of their work. Conditions affecting the voice (dysphonia) can be short or long term, some can be permanent.
I worked in one of the best call center in india Convergys . Other than me i saw prople joining and leaving the call centers just because of the stress . Those who chose to stay changed dramatically . They were not the same anymore , i mean if somebody wanted to talk to them they would say i have been talking whole night on the phone so please excuse me . They were like the most sadistic persons. I too almost became one of them , but i left.
I am not saying that everyone would share my opinion but all my friends who are working or who used to work in a call center do agree with me . Of course its good money but trust me its not easy money.
BPO EMPLOYEES HUNTED
Sounds absurd yes it is , I dont know about call centers around the world but here the call centers employees are an easy target for the criminals . You must be thinking what kind of criminals . Women BPO employees are raped and murdered , and there is nothing the BPO organisation is doing .
In 2005 a girl was raped and murdered by the driver and his friend of the pick and drop service organised by the call center. She was raped and then strangulated to death . Some months back a BPO employee was raped and murdered in pune .Today only i was watching the news and heard one more disturbing news that a girl working for Wipro was gangraped while going back home . This is no way an easy job, specially for women . They have to work in night shifts and so they become easy target while going home .
I think some security measures need to be taken for the saftey of the employees.
CommentsLoading...
Interestng Hub.
Call centres are unfortunately a fact of modern life and are a neccessary service. But, as in any high stress job the casualties are the workers, as both you and Pgrundy have pointed out. In South Africa we also have numerous call centres and call centre operators are one of the few jobs where there is a continual demand because of the high turnover of staff. PG you need a medal for staying seven years in such a demanding nd thankless job.
Thanks sixtyorso! I won't get one though! I'll probably stroke out on the phone when I'm 85 and the corporation will bill my estate for removing my body and then debit the lost time from my final paycheck. Seriously, I was at my breaking point three years ago and I'm still trudging in there. I have a couple resumes out there for insurance work that is not much about dealing with the public. I hope one of them comes through.
I have to admit, when I call a call center I am very grateful to get an American speaking operator. I feel so bad for the workers from India, because they are really trying hard to help me, but I just cannot understand what they are trying to say. I know they need that job really bad, so I have not complained, but I have to keep calling back until I can finally get someone I can understand. It might be more my problem than theirs.
thanx for ur comments, pgrundy really hats of to you for sticking for 7 years, i had it enough after one and a half year. I became very short tempered and i was always fighting on petty issues. So i decided to quit, and things are better now,
I have all the sympathy with the call center workers. I never experienced myself the sufferings of these people but I learned from books and magazines about them. Is there any solution for their problems?
In my opinion, everybody is working to servive.If somebody is not that much capable to work some where else but coz of his/her communication skills he/she gets job in call center I think its good for servival.
I mean why we are discouraging people about the call centers.This is growing industry.We are getting hell of money in shape of foreign exchange and call center inviduals are getting international exposure and making good money to afford their expenses then what is harm in it. Please do not discourage some one with your opinion.
"Unnatural sex is also one of the main issues related with these call centres"
You a bit of a prick arnt u mate!
You say the Salary is good? Not ALL. Stream SUCKS!
yup super stressfull ive started working at a call center 2 weeks ago bad idea almost all of the workers either smoke,or drink alot, some even smoke weed all these days i have been feeling sick with pain in back of my head ,,,,yup stress but guess what im going to quit ..
yup super stressfull ive started working at a call center 2 weeks ago bad idea almost all of the workers either smoke,or drink alot, some even smoke weed all these days i have been feeling sick with pain in back of my head ,,,,yup stress but guess what im going to quit ..
Multichoice must have one the worst call centres. I was forced to call a financial manager at the head office after they repeatedly told me that an account to which my subs were paid does not exist. But now Liberty life call centre promised to call me back - their fault - and of course do not phone back.They tell you that they 'record'calls but bet they will not check who promised to call me.
Just came across this website by google searching "statistics of illnesses in call centers".
It's 2.15am here in Melbourne Australia, I am starting to get sick, again.
I feel for the people here who are in call center's and/or have had bad experience calling a call center. I feel everyones pain on both sides of the fence.
I have been doing Call Center work now for almost 6 years, not consecutively, but on and off and I have to admit, every job I have had that is non call centre based, I have always had a better work life balance and have been less sick !
We have to ask ourselves (those of us in call centers) if it is really worth it health wise, I've gone through bouts of depression, a few long periods of time off work due to illness and a handful of days here and there due to stress.
There will always be call center work, yet, is it really worth it in the long run, does the costs of seeing doctors, taking prescription medicine, being depressed, sleepless nights, weight problems and general job satisfaction weigh up in our favor.
Me thinks we need to start evolving the "Call Center" position into something else with a stronger focus on well being and mutual synergy between Call Center and Community, otherwise call centers will stay the same, do we really want that ?
I hate Call Centres, we get abuse from customers because we cannot get them what they are demanding. I especially hate the company I work for. I used to love it.
I currently work in a call center and I would like to call it the 10th circle of hell i.e the secret circle no one knows about. Most customers are complete as*hats and to be honest I really don’t care what there f*cking your problems are. I am only doing this job for the money so pis* off. I also have learned some tricks in my time being here that are very useful. The first one I like to call the slient treatment. If I get a really as*hole customer I simple say nothing until they hang up and if I am later comfronted by a manger I simply say “ must have been a phone problem, which would probley work because are phones are always messed up aand so is the rest of our technology. The second trick is saying I am a sup. , well I must confess this is really not a trick as the call center gave us permission to say this to help keep the really stupid customer from getting throught. Finally if you really piss me off I transfer you to the spainsh que or a dead que. So everyone just remember we can make you suffer to.
I have been working for call centres for last 9 years now. I am now half insane and my waist line has turned to 34" from 27" in last 9 years. Its a vicious circle and I am not able to come out it.
The period goes right after the last word of the sentence, dipshit. There is so much wrong with your writing not only grammatically but logically that I actually got sick reading after the first paragraph.
Why don't you try not pretentiously writing articles? Better yet, why don't you try not thinking? That'll save a lot of people from the diversion of dealing with a baby's mind.
Sounds like the guy who wrote this hasn't ever even WORKED in a call center. Describing "headsets" as "headphones," man this guy is a pretentious idiot.
pgrundy 3 years ago
Good hub. I work in a call center in the US and its no fun here either--the only difference is we do have some daytime hours. But everything else you mention is the same (I confess I don't see any gay sex going on at the call center I work at though! Wow, I can't imagine how anyone would have time!)
I'm 55 and have been unable to find other work here, so I have been doing this for 7 years. In that time I gained almost 40 pounds and went on antidepressant and antianxiety medications because of the stress. Recently I cut back to half-time, got off the medications, and now I am walking 45 minutes a day and losing the weight. Luckily I was slender to begin with, but the thing is, I had chest pains in May at work and ended up in the hospital. I thought, is it worth this? Just so somebody can unload their rage on me over the the phone? So I cut back and I'm looking hard for other work and taking care of myself. Yes we have less money. But I'm healthier and happier.
When people reach me in the US they often complain about Indian call centers. They say, "Thank God I didn't get India, that makes me so mad." I tell them, "Those people are up all night working to talk to you, and they make way less money than workers here, you should be mad at the corporations who hire them, not the workers."
What we need is a global service workers union that includes call centers. Otherwise, these big corporations will just keep this up, they don't care. I think the work is dishonorable and I pray I can get out of it. All the best to you. Thanks for speaking up about it.