By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
July 22, 2010

Even if workers in the BPO industry enjoy steady work hours and a heftier salary than employees in other local industries, they tend to be too stressed out by other factors inherent within the nature of the job, an ILO (International Labor Organization) study on the conditions of BPO work environments in four top global destinations revealed Wednesday.

Because BPO work, often called call center jobs, requires workers to report during nighttime due to time zone differences between customers and agents, stress levels are at an all-time high, caused mainly by disruptions in individual sleeping patterns, voluminous workloads, and unsuitable design of workstations.

These are compounded by the fact that workers in the industry enjoy very little autonomy with regard the way they carry out their work, on top of very high demands from their superiors, according to the study—which collated results from Argentina, Mexico, India, and the Philippines—published in the book “Offshoring and working conditions in remote work.”

“The high demand [for employees] combined with low control is the core of the problem [in the industry],” explained Jon Messenger, co-editor of the book, during a Web conference from Geneva, Switzerland, with local reporters. “This is something we call a high-strain work organization. High job-related stress is [often] a result of this.”

The work organization in BPOs in the country often give heavy workloads bound with periodic performance targets, enforced by electronic monitoring, which give BPO workers—often young and well-educated individuals, the study found—very little autonomy within the workplace.

Even very basic things, such as time devoted for toilet or cigarette breaks, and control of their personal work desks, are deprived of these BPO workers, it added.

These are in spite of the fact that locally, BPO workers go home with a fatter wallet than the rest of the industry, at a rate at least 53% higher than the prevailing minimum wage paid to workers of the same age in other industries, or an average of more than P16,000 a month.

Despite heftier salaries, these work-induced stressors, according to Messenger, “are linked with high rates of staff turnover or attrition” within the industry, which affect both workers and employers, and keep them from fully achieving decent work.

In addition, stressed-out employees often turn to stress reducers and vices—such as smoking, drinking, and consuming large amounts of caffeine—to blow off steam.

Messenger refused to comment, however, on a local study which found high rates of risky behavior and HIV/AIDS prevalence within the industry, but surmised that due to the aforementioned stressors, “there may be some truth to [those findings].”

Call to Arms
Because of these findings, Messenger stressed the need to effect key changes in policies and company practices to make these jobs better. “We need stronger managers who will, for one, protect the health and safety of night workers,” he suggested.

“They also need to redesign their work processes, [for these workers to] have more discretion with their work, because these things can affect the employee’s perceived experience of the job,” he added.

Messenger likewise stressed the need for policies and practices aimed at improving workers’ collective voice and social dialogue in the industry, such as collective bargaining—which ultimately would benefit both workers and employers alike.

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