Call centres are one of the hottest place to work for teenagers. Youngsters are making good living out of it. 'Good living' i think we need to redefine it , I mean what is good living, making money so that you are able to buy what you want to. Having a car, latest cell phone owning a house, is that good living. I dont think so. I have seen people who make hell of a lot of money and are not happy on the other hand i have seen people who make just ok money and are the happiest people on the earth. So, what is good living. Lets try and explore the subject.

.I am trying to write about the work culture and effects of working in a call centre. These call centres have really given good employment oppurtunities to the teenagers. But are they happy doing it. Trust me 90% are not at all happy.

Call centres are where workers communicate with customers via the telephone. - either to provide information, accept payments, sell products

Why i am writing about it well i worked in one of these for 1.5 years, and i had the worst time of my life. The day you start working in a call centre, forget your relations. I mean you wont get enough time to sit and chat with them. About 95% of these jobs have only night shifts. Working in the night is ok i mean there are other jobs in which one has to work in the night. But the stress that a person has to suffer in a call centre is tremendous. I mean working in the night and sleeping in the morning. No social life, just work and that too talking on the phone whole night. As they train you to do, be polite even if the other is abusing you. Thats the worst part of this job. I mean the person is providing information about something and the other person instead of listening is abusing the person. And we have to take all that with a smile. If thats not enough , one has been assigned targets to finish within a specific period of time, if you cant finish it your job is gone. Mostly the call centers give you the target of specific number of calls, sometimes you dont even have time between these calls. You just need to call again and again untill your target has been achieved. Thats really stressfull.

HEALTH HAZARDS: If one is taking so much stress, his health is bound to suffer. The main illness that a person is prone to is mental illness. One has no social life. He cant talk about his stress with his family because he doesnt have time to talk. People start to drink too much. I have seen people who are even taking drugs, not all of them but yes i have seen majority of them.

Unnatural sex is also one of the main issues related with these call centres. I mean i am not against gay relationship but having unsafe sex is really a cause of concern.

One more thing that a person working in these call centres faces is hearing problem, I mean a person is attached with his head phones all night listening to the customers.

A forced pace of work can lead to stress, repetitive strain injuries, and other ill-health. The repetitive and monotonous nature of the work can also be a cause of stress.

Another ailment that usually troubles the workers is back problems , sitting on the desk all night or day makes the back stiff.

Call centre workers' voices are under great pressure because of the nature of their work. Conditions affecting the voice (dysphonia) can be short or long term, some can be permanent.

I worked in one of the best call center in india Convergys . Other than me i saw prople joining and leaving the call centers just because of the stress . Those who chose to stay changed dramatically . They were not the same anymore , i mean if somebody wanted to talk to them they would say i have been talking whole night on the phone so please excuse me . They were like the most sadistic persons. I too almost became one of them , but i left.

I am not saying that everyone would share my opinion but all my friends who are working or who used to work in a call center do agree with me . Of course its good money but trust me its not easy money.

BPO EMPLOYEES HUNTED

Sounds absurd yes it is , I dont know about call centers around the world but here the call centers employees are an easy target for the criminals . You must be thinking what kind of criminals . Women BPO employees are raped and murdered , and there is nothing the BPO organisation is doing .

In 2005 a girl was raped and murdered by the driver and his friend of the pick and drop service organised by the call center. She was raped and then strangulated to death . Some months back a BPO employee was raped and murdered in pune .Today only i was watching the news and heard one more disturbing news that a girl working for Wipro was gangraped while going back home . This is no way an easy job, specially for women . They have to work in night shifts and so they become easy target while going home .

I think some security measures need to be taken for the saftey of the employees.