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Deccan Herald » DH Avenues » Detailed Story
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Shifts shafting one’s health
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Irregular working hours can affect the performance of an employee and HR policies should take preventive measures against it, says Aarti.
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Fifty five year old Anil (all names changed), accountant in a private firm, had arranged a bank loan to enable his only son, Rajat, pursue a three-year course in IT after graduation. The 20-year-old had hardly completed two semesters but was quite disturbed at the condition of his seniors who were unable to get campus placements despite successfully completing the course.
To cut the story short, Rajat quit the course midway much to the displeasure of Anil and joined a call centre. Eighteen months later, Rajat’s lifestyle has changed considerably. His English is laced with American accent. No more rides in rickety buses. An air-conditioned cab picks and drops him at his doorstep. Once in three months he is away on a picnic, sponsored by his company. That he earns a five-figure salary makes his mother happy. But she is worried about his lack of sleep since he is always on night shift.
Married to a business executive, Radha (36) quit two well-paying jobs on account of her husband’s transfer. She opted working for a call centre notwithstanding the pressures of balancing office (performing night shifts) and home (especially managing her six-year-old daughter).
Rajat and Radha are not alone. Thanks to the burgeoning business process outsourcing (BPO) industry or call centres. They offer employment to an estimated three lakh people in the country, a majority of them in the age group of 21 to 27. While customer care representatives (CSRs) and team leaders (TL) earn between Rs 8,000 and Rs 15,000 and Rs 17,000 and Rs 26,000 per month respectively, managers earn to the tune of Rs 3-5.5 lakh per annum.
To keep employees motivated and overcome attrition, every month top performers are rewarded and cash incentives added to their salaries. Then there are incentives to broaden an employee’s career path besides awards, certificates, rolls of honour, paid holidays and even foreign assignments.
Many such organisations have a 24-hour cafeteria, gymnasium, recreation rooms, yoga centres and cyber cafes. Apart from picnics, discount coupons for shopping at malls and passes for discotheques, fun-filled activities are encouraged to break the monotony.
It is a human tendency to be successful but what makes us tick and sick? Working on one’s strengths will create opportunities for growth and advancement. Extra effort plus smartness can lead to better performance at work. Many people log long hours to achieve it.
Merely working harder, without proper precautions can cost one’s health dearly. That nearly 25 per cent of our urban population has been found to suffer from stress should serve as a wake up call as to how poorly we manage ourselves.
Thanks to a sedentary lifestyle, coupled with increased intake of fast food containing high salt content and extraneous factors like smoking, drinking. Apparently, hypertension has been responsible to put young individuals in 20s and 30s at risk to a host of ailments.
A recent assessment of people in the 22-44 years age group by doctors at AIIMS, the first of its kind worldwide, found that hypertension, especially, reduces the blood flow to the brain, thus decreasing a person’s efficiency in day-to-day tasks, like forgetfulness, which can even lead to early strokes.
Not long ago, a Helsinki heart evaluation had warned that those who had put in five years in odd hour jobs stood 50 per cent more chances of a heart attack. Night shift, particularly extending beyond 8 hours, adversely affects the health of individuals in the long run.
Such persons crash cars four to five times more and women working odd hours pay a higher price. Other risks range from acidity, diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal pain, heart diseases etc.
That today’s heart patients are quite young — a fair number of them are in their 30s and even 20s — depicts the gravity of the problem and the WHO has predicted a cardiac epidemic for India by 2010.
For most call centre employees catering to international clients, owing to the time difference, the work starts late in the evening and extends until dawn. Such permanent night shifts in the long run can bring in a host of health problems including digestive diseases, hair loss, back pain and stress. Compared to the US, where about eight per cent of the people in call centres report sick, per day, no statistics are available in India.
Working life is bound to have official deadlines to be met and business deals to be closed. But individuals ought to equally take adequate care of one’s health. Physical activity and proper eating habits can contribute significantly in keeping the most dreaded silent killer — hypertension at bay.
HR managers need to especially keep a close watch on employees with declining work performance. The frequent smoke breaks or cups of stimulants that an employee takes, including other signals like getting easily angry, edgy, irritated and depicting hostile behaviour, all merit to be handled with care and concern.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005
