A recent report from the Associated Press underscores what many of us in the call center industry have known for years: The job just simply isn’t healthy.
Call center agents sit all day and barely move from their cubicles. And as many agents in India are coming to learn, that lack of activity can lead to a wide range of health problems, from obesity to heart disease to diabetes to sleep disorders. Not to mention depression and family discord (the latter probably stemming from the really strange hours most call center agents need to keep -- many of them have to work the “dead man’s shift”). After all, it’s tough working in a place where the air is stagnant, germs are abundant, and there’s little to no natural light (not to mention the generally lousy attitude and gloomy outlook on life that is so pervasive among call center workers).
The article makes it sound as though the call center industry in India, which employs literally millions of people, is causing a widespread health crisis that is spiraling out of control – a crisis which might actually end up ruining the industry in that country. According to the article, many agents are quitting after they discover that they are piling on the pounds and encountering a variety of health problems. But perhaps the bigger point is that the industry is causing a health care crisis which the state will ultimately end up having to pay for (as health care in India is government subsidized).
“Experts warn the brewing crisis could undermine the success of India's hugely profitable outsourcing industry that earns billions in dollars annually and has shaped much of the country's transformation into an emerging economic power,” the article states.
The one thing the article doesn’t point out, however, is that call center agents aren’t the only ones who are chained to their computers all day. There are all kinds of jobs out there that require you to sit at a desk and use a keyboard, mouse and phone all day long. And as businesses become more and more reliant on technology, there will only be more of these “sedentary” type jobs out there. As everyone well knows, it is a matter of balancing the lack of activity with exercise and healthy eating habits. Maybe that’s what the call center agents in India need to wake up and realize.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said this about the call center agents who are encountering these health problems:
"After working, they party for the rest of the time ... (They) have bad diet, excessive smoking and drinking," he said at a public meeting last month. "We don't want these young people to burn out."
So there you have it. Fix the problem yourself, stupid, and stop blaming your job.
When I worked as a call center agent doing outbound telemarketing and surveys, me and my co-workers used to always joke about the various ways we could keep ourselves healthy while at the same time doing our jobs. One idea I came up with was to have some sort of a treadmill or exercise bike at each work station that would enable the agent to dial and talk on the phone while getting some mild exercise. Of course, the treadmill or exercise bike would have to be pretty darn quiet, and you’d have to find a way to not make it sound like you’re out of breath when you’re handling an interaction. I also thought that maybe my employer should let every worker have 30 minutes of exercise, for every four hours of work. My manager said, “as long as you don’t mind getting paid for eight hours out of a 10-hour shift (lunch included, of course), by all means ….”
I think the call center workers in India are just now starting to encounter the general health problems caused by desk jobs that we’ve already been dealing with, and trying to prevent, here in the U.S. for the past 20 years – it’s just now catching up with them. I wonder how many call center workers in India have health club memberships. Hey Bally’s, are you reading this?
Call center agents sit all day and barely move from their cubicles. And as many agents in India are coming to learn, that lack of activity can lead to a wide range of health problems, from obesity to heart disease to diabetes to sleep disorders. Not to mention depression and family discord (the latter probably stemming from the really strange hours most call center agents need to keep -- many of them have to work the “dead man’s shift”). After all, it’s tough working in a place where the air is stagnant, germs are abundant, and there’s little to no natural light (not to mention the generally lousy attitude and gloomy outlook on life that is so pervasive among call center workers).
The article makes it sound as though the call center industry in India, which employs literally millions of people, is causing a widespread health crisis that is spiraling out of control – a crisis which might actually end up ruining the industry in that country. According to the article, many agents are quitting after they discover that they are piling on the pounds and encountering a variety of health problems. But perhaps the bigger point is that the industry is causing a health care crisis which the state will ultimately end up having to pay for (as health care in India is government subsidized).
“Experts warn the brewing crisis could undermine the success of India's hugely profitable outsourcing industry that earns billions in dollars annually and has shaped much of the country's transformation into an emerging economic power,” the article states.
The one thing the article doesn’t point out, however, is that call center agents aren’t the only ones who are chained to their computers all day. There are all kinds of jobs out there that require you to sit at a desk and use a keyboard, mouse and phone all day long. And as businesses become more and more reliant on technology, there will only be more of these “sedentary” type jobs out there. As everyone well knows, it is a matter of balancing the lack of activity with exercise and healthy eating habits. Maybe that’s what the call center agents in India need to wake up and realize.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said this about the call center agents who are encountering these health problems:
"After working, they party for the rest of the time ... (They) have bad diet, excessive smoking and drinking," he said at a public meeting last month. "We don't want these young people to burn out."
So there you have it. Fix the problem yourself, stupid, and stop blaming your job.
When I worked as a call center agent doing outbound telemarketing and surveys, me and my co-workers used to always joke about the various ways we could keep ourselves healthy while at the same time doing our jobs. One idea I came up with was to have some sort of a treadmill or exercise bike at each work station that would enable the agent to dial and talk on the phone while getting some mild exercise. Of course, the treadmill or exercise bike would have to be pretty darn quiet, and you’d have to find a way to not make it sound like you’re out of breath when you’re handling an interaction. I also thought that maybe my employer should let every worker have 30 minutes of exercise, for every four hours of work. My manager said, “as long as you don’t mind getting paid for eight hours out of a 10-hour shift (lunch included, of course), by all means ….”
I think the call center workers in India are just now starting to encounter the general health problems caused by desk jobs that we’ve already been dealing with, and trying to prevent, here in the U.S. for the past 20 years – it’s just now catching up with them. I wonder how many call center workers in India have health club memberships. Hey Bally’s, are you reading this?
I think it's hilarious that you can't find the words "blue pumpkin" on the verint.com website. And while they decided to keep the "Impact 360" product name they totally failed to build off of the brand name recognition that exists with blue pumpkin. Even though verint.com comes to the top of the google search lists, there's nothing on the page you visit that tells you they are the new blue pumpkin company. We use their product and nobody in our call center refers to it as "Impact 360" or veritable actionable witness workforce optimization enhancement improvement solution or whatever the heck it's called. It took me ten minutes before I finally found a news article that told me that Blue Pumpkin was now verint.com and their wordy web pages wasn't some weird verbose spam site.