The following article recently appeared in the national press. As we have many representatives of the industry in India I would like to ask:

1. Is the situation really as bad as the article suggests?
2. What actions are being taken to alleviate this situation?
3. What actions will the industry take to moderate / influence public perception of the indian B.P.O. industry?

Please note - I have no direct experience of the indian call centre industry, and these questions are not meant to be judgmental... the UK industry is still, in the general public opinion, on fairly dodgy footing as an employer and I believe that we have a responsibility to address that if we wish to protect our industry; I imagine this is even more an issue in India (?)

Suicide alert over Indian call centres

Call centre staff working in India for British companies are committing suicide due to the levels of stress they suffer.

Low pay, long working hours and poor conditions have led to mounting pressure on employees, according to medical experts.

The inability of some staff on directory inquiry services to find numbers of well-known UK names and businesses also leads to rows with frustrated customers.

And with some call centres open 24 hours a day, many staff members work unsocial hours. Growing numbers are now calling in sick with stress, with some left so depressed they take their own life.

Delhi-based psychiatrist Dr Jitendra Nagal told trade journal Marketing Week that he counsels "at least two call centre employees every week" for stress.

He said: "This puts a question mark over the corporate social responsibility of the companies that operate these call centres."

I have no professional experience of the industry in India, either, but would just like to point out how many similar articles have appeared regarding call centres in the UK, and whilst we can all recognise facets and elements I would not say that these articles fully and accurately portray anywhere I have worked (not even on a bad day!).

Looking forward to reading replies from colleagues in India...

Z

Have to take issue with you on this one Zoe (sorry - we are normally so supportive of each other!).

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/magazine/issue11/cw11f5.html

Certainly the tag of Dark Satanic Mills has been around in the UK press since 2000 as the link above suggests. However to marry Indian suicides in with the working conditions in the UK is not a balanced judgement.

The UK has ratified 86 of the International Labour Organisation's conventions on working, India has ratified 40 (flexibility is built into the system). Unions do exist, function and practice in the UK, certainly stress has and is around in the UK but as for people taking their own lives I'm sure UK members (and the press) would have heard about it if it had ocurred.

To an extent I know the industry, the Call Centre Executives (CCEs) get frustrated easily as compared to other process executives due to direct client interaction. In India, we have a good lot of educated people (at times engineers or some done their master's degree also), they get jobs in CCs easily to start up the career and when they realise (generally after 8 - 10 months) that this is not what they were meant to do they get frustrated.

The reason is not the reply or bad database they get from customer but its the job satisfaction, which when not achieved causes depression. Well, for some of them its easy to sit idle at home and others facing the financial pressures stick to the job they get.

The CCEs in India are the youngsters and they are not much concerned about such depressions, may be .001% take it to their heart. rest are happy or leave for good jobs.

Hi,
Why do they get frustrated,may be there could be many reasons to this.
(a) Could be they cannot manage their time

(b) Senoirs do not acknowldge them and even if they do,its more like vomitting over a garbage can.

(c) They expect way too beyond.(Agents)

(d) There is no one in there callcentre who could guide them,may be like chalking their future in this industry.

(e) COULD BE A POSSIBILITY THEY CANNOT HANDLE THIS FREEDOM.

I am a freelance trainer and have trained in many of the callcentre in india.The above said things are my experience while training in a callcentre.

Thnks/Rgds.

Jo Pipe

Joe, I take exception to some of the comments here as they show disrespect for the managers and the agents:

"Senoirs do not acknowldge them and even if they do,its more like vomitting over a garbage can" - this is quite a cutting comment, who are you referring to, the team managers, company managers or the clients who are outsourcing. How ever you look at this is really is not a helpful or productive comment.

"Could be they cannot manage their time" or "COULD BE A POSSIBILITY THEY CANNOT HANDLE THIS FREEDOM" (shouting) - This to me is insulting the agents, we are talking about well educated individuals, many with degrees, to comment carte blanche they cannot handle their time or choice is unjust.

The likely causes of suicide are probably external to callcentres, but, and this is my own opinion, is that there are suicides across all industries and walks of life in India but the press are on the doing down Indian callcentre bandwagon and will draw on the statistics that help them in their pursuit of their version of the truth.

Remember the press on foreign clothing sweatshops when British jobs were at risk, now that has died down but the sweatshops still exist as do the conditions but as we have little industry interest there is little press.

I thought I'd make you aware of the following - http://www.brandrepublic.com/dmbulletin/daily_news_story.cfm?articleID=201834&Origin=DM17022004 -

In summary its an article regarding the existence of organised crime in India and how operators are being put under added pressure by being offered bribes to steal data belonging to the western companies that have outsourced to offshore call centres.

There's also a fairly comprehensive article written by Steve Morrell in issue 52 of Call Centre Europe magazine. I think it just helps to put things into context...

www.call-centre-europe.com/html/52content/india/htm

Thank you all for you input - I believe this to be a very worrying debate. Of particular concern are the attempts to rationalise this with "frustration" and "poor management" type reasons...

WE ARE TALKINGT ABOUT PEOPLE BEING PUSHED TO THE POINT THEY SEE NO ALTERNATIVE BUT TO TAKE THEIR OWN LIFE!!!

We've all had some pretty sh*tty days at work, but how can it get to this point without someone jumping in to control the situation? How can "poor time management" lead to suicide?

I appreciate Julian's point that we are (probably) not talking about an issue unique to contact centres, but then I would suggest that any industry in any country where people see suicide as the solution to work issues needs to do some significant soul searching, and work out what the hell they are going to do about it!

So in the interest of being industry leaders, the question bears repeating...

What is the Indian call centre industry reaction to the situation? How will the individuals & companies that visit this forum look to address the possibility of this occuring in their centres? And finally, what can the rest of us learn from this?

Sorry , had misread this as a concern that conditions may lead to, not that people actually had...

>>>>And finally, what can the rest of us learn from this?

I've learnt that this post has been here for 6 days and very few people in India have contributed to it.

From that I'm reaching some very very sad conclusions.

The compassion of humanity is one of our finest virtues, capitalism often denies such traits the breath of exposure; in this struggle it would appear capitalism has the upper hand.

Like you, I am disappointed that there was so little response from a sector of our industry normally so well represented. I will therefore try and answer my own question...

1. Is the situation really as bad as the article suggests?
2. What actions are being taken to alleviate this situation?
3. What actions will the industry take to moderate / influence public perception of the Indian B.P.O. industry?

1. Whether or not this is a "trend" developing, EVEN ONE SUICIDE BROUGHT ABOUT BY CONDITIONS IN THE INDUSTRY IS TOO MANY!
2. Judging by the lack of responses (or in at least one case a response that frankly dismays me) I would say - NOT ENOUGH IF ANYTHING AT ALL!
3. It may be a sad fact that while we remain a capitalist (me too) society we remain happy to overlook the reality in favour of the financial bottom line... JUST ASK NIKE!

If anyone does want to address this issue in their own company, I would suggest you ignore the mail from Jo Pipe (Sorry Jo, if you are a trainer then I am horrified that you would suggest suicide is due to people not handling empowerment!!!) and look at your responsibilities as employers & managers as it is you who create the work environment which some individuals have seen as second choice to death!

You are right Sullivan, the employers and the managers need to have a re-look at the responsibilities and try to follow them. By nature we all know the responsibilities of other's towards us but how often our own responsibilities are discarded ?

I think our customer contact centres (especially, the call centres) need to have one Psychologist at the centre to give an ear to the call centre executives. If call centres provide lunches, dinners, transportation etc then why not a pshychologist also. May be that helps!! Can we give it a try !!

I have worked in a couple of call centres where there is an employee assistance programme, with trained listeners among the staff as a point of contact, and the back up of professional counselling service, including a 24 hr helpline.

Yes..... to the stress, No..... to the fictuous part of suicides in the call center industry. Many lives are taken not due to the stress but due to impossibility to cope with their personal lives taking a back step. Now, that things have changed drastically with the young, their personal lives are a mess. The reason to this is not the work but their personal lives getting affected due to social constraints and Family. I would say its the families that need to support their young rather than blaming Call Centers that give them an opportunity to express their creativity and wings to grow and reach the clouds.... In my opinion, its not the call centers but more their personal lives that make youngsters take their own lives. Remember, with probablity, 60 percent of youngsters work in a call center in India.... So, you tell me if its the call center or the fact that more youth work in a call center in todays world...