Indian call centre staff ‘depressed’

The bubble may have burst for Indian call centres – with many brands coming back to the UK – but those who still outsource to India might be interested to know that the vast majority of operatives are sleep-deprived, depressed and hooked on drugs.
That is according to a study carried out by sleep disorder specialists. It found that more than 80% of staff in call centres close to the capital New Delhi were showing signs of depression. Their symptoms are linked to the disruption to their normal sleep patterns by working regular night shifts, the researchers said.
Conducted by a team led by Dr JC Suri, head of the Indian Sleep Disorders Association, the study compared a group of daytime workers aged 19 to 37 with call centre staff on night shifts.
While 81 per cent of call centre workers showed signs of depression, only one in six of the day workers displayed the same symptoms. The call centre workers drank more heavily and a quarter regularly took illegal drugs, compared with only 4% of day workers.
Dr Suri said: “These young people have to work when their bodies want to sleep and they have to sleep when their bodies are awake to face the day. As a result, they resort to consuming stimulants like coffee and energy drinks throughout the night, and use alcohol or sedatives to put them to sleep during the day.
He said their body clocks cannot adjust to the Western time zones they serve. “The body’s clock is programmed, both genetically as well as by habit from birth, to remain active during the daytime,” he added.
Earlier this month, it was claimed that a double-whammy of security fears and customer dissatisfaction are forcing brand owners to abandon offshore contact centres, according to a new study. The report by Ovum found that only 2% of large enterprises in Europe, North America and Australia plan to offshore customer services in the next 12 to 14 months.

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