Valdar's Blog

This is a new-age irony. The `gold-collar employees’ ,as the IT/BPO employees are referred to, earn fancy salaries and lead a high-flying lifestyle. Still, their status quotient has taken a beating, of late.

This is most discernible in the marriage market. It is not uncommon these days to see matrimonial ads with the tagline: `software engineers excuse’. Given a choice, fewer parents would now like to marry off their daughters to the `Americanised youths’ and leave them to the vagaries of an unhealthy, irregular lifestyle. Consequently, conventional jobs and traditional courses of study are back in demand.

Here is a wake up call for IT/BPO companies. An impression is gaining ground that there is no life beyond 30-35 for the IT/BPO staff who work in the `US/UK shifts’. I know of at least one Chinese IT company in Bangalore that intends to retire people at 30. Perhaps, the Company assumes that there would be little sign of life left in them by the time they cross that age.

The rise of BPO sector has brought in its wake enhanced standard of living, high purchasing power, flamboyant lifestyle, etc. which were hitherto out of reach of the average Indian youth. On the flip side, the long and odd working hours, work pressure, tough deadline, eating disorders, sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical exercise are taking an early toll on the health of BPO employees.

Physical ailments such as backache, constipation, BP and diabetes and emotional problems like stress, panic attacks and depression are the occupational hazards of a BPO job. Their unearthly working hours hardly leave any time for interaction with family or friends.

The culture of BPOs has shifted the focus of youngsters from education to making quick money. Earning huge salary at a very young age encourages them to develop unwise spending habits. There are cases where the individual’s whole personality has changed within a few months of taking up a BPO job.

In many cases, the individual is either not aware of the problem or is too scared to report it, fearing loss of job or denial of promotion. Many switch jobs thinking it will help, but that too seldom makes a difference. Finally, they land up in innumerable health clinics and fitness centres that have sprung up in IT hubs like Bangalore to cash in on the medical needs of the young workforce.

In Bangalore, many leading Kerala and Tamil Nadu-based ayurvedic pharmacies have opened their branches in centres like Koramangala that have high concentration of techies, offering special packages for lifestyle diseases.

Increasing sickness among employees and the high rate of attrition has opened the eyes of IT/BPO companies to the need to take better care of the physical and mental health of their employees and promote their work-life balance. Many IT companies are now setting up self-contained campuses that enable employees to manage office and home easily. Night-time work has come down from 100pc to about 60pc in the BPO industry. Women employees are given options like working from home, maternity leave extending up to one year, `paternity leave’ for male staff to take care of their wives in the pre and post-delivery days, etc. This has instilled in them more confidence and a positive attitude towards life, resulting in greater productivity at work.

But such employee-friendly measures are adopted only by a few resourceful companies like Infosys and Wipro. Vast segment of the IT/ITES workforce still toils under conditions highly injurious to their health. Now that the IT industry is projected to have many more years of steady growth, it has to take better care of its human capital. If the employees maintain a healthy balance between work and their private lives, both they and the company benefit in the long run.

Source: India Syndicate