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It has been widely
reported that the very nature of work at BPOs has resulted in employee burnout
and other stress-related disorders. The problem was compounded in countries such
as India, where employees had to work in night shifts as these BPOs catered to
overseas clients. Working continuously in such shifts, handling stressful
transactions with clients, led to mental and physical exhaustion. In addition to
workplace stress, the personal habits and undisciplined lifestyle of some
employees further compounded their problems.
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A combination of factors including monotonous but stressful
work, and good starting salary at an early age, pushed some employees toward
high risk behavior such as alcoholism, substance abuse and promiscuity. There
were also reports of BPO employees getting involved in crimes.
The problem was exacerbated as a high percentage of BPO employees hailed from
small towns and stayed away from their families. Some of them wanted to take
full advantage of the newfound independence, while others succumbed to peer
pressure as drinking, doing drugs and indulging in other high risk behaviors
were considered ‘cool’ and glamorous.
In 2007, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that
incidents of alcohol and drug abuse and HIV/AIDS were on the rise in BPOs.
Incidents of unruly behavior by employees, including coming to work in an
inebriated condition, etc., were also not uncommon in this industry.
These incidents happened despite the fact that most organizations’ policies
strictly prohibited the consumption of alcohol in the office premises and/or
coming to offices in an intoxicated state. In addition to having a direct impact
on productivity, the employees could harm themselves or those around them.
Many organizations realized the need to curb such behavior of the employees. In
mid-2007, it was reported that BPOs were considering conducting random alcohol
tests on their employees. Some BPOs also wanted to introduce HIV testing for
employees as well.
Experts felt that organizations could conduct alcohol tests as alcohol affected
employee performance. Moreover, if the employee manual clearly stated that
employees could not be found intoxicated in the office premises, they were free
to test the employees. However, conducting HIV tests was much trickier.
While some felt that it was individual company policy to decide what tests were
to be conducted and saw no problems with HIV testing, others felt that it was
discriminatory. BPO employees felt that they were being unfairly singled out as
there was a negative perception about the culture at BPO firms, given that many
of them operated on night shifts. Making such tests mandatory might give a
negative message to the employees and further feed the popular perception about
the culture at BPOs, they said.
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