"Four years ago, I was working at a call centre where every day was a challenge for me,” says Naeem Ahmed, a former customer service agent. Ahmed used to do night shifts because he was enrolled at a university in the day. Working for eight hours straight, managing dissatisfied customers and meeting targets, such as sales volume and call handling time, were making Ahmed anxious day by day.

Every day he attended around 200 calls. Most of them would be irate customers shouting at him. Adding to Ahmed’s frustration was the company’s stringent policy, where being even one minute late could cost him negative marking. There was no concept of a one-hour break, and headphones had to be worn constantly.

While sharing his agony, Ahmed says that all of this made him agitated. “I became rude, irritated and began hating myself. I was sleep deprived, frustrated and would vent my anger outside the workplace — on my family and friends. My job was affecting my social life and I was clearly distressed.”

While businesses benefit from call centres by knowing what their customers want, call centre employees face workplace challenges that affect their health and well-being

It took Ahmed weeks to tell his manager that he was struggling. But his manager did not pay any heed to his grievances and just instructed him to work hard. After two years, Ahmed quit. He was jobless for nearly two months after which he began teaching part-time to meet his expenses.

Sadly, Ahmed’s case is not uncommon. According to a study published in 2013 in Pakistan Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, almost 40 percent of the employees working at call centres experience alleviated levels of stress, whereas 20 percent experience stress at moderate levels. “There are several stress factors associated with call centre jobs. One of the basic [factors] is handling non-stop calls on a daily basis and no break in between calls,” elaborates Sabin Jawed, a clinical psychologist who has worked for over five years at a medium-sized call centre as HR manager.

Jawed explains that while Ahmed had opted to join a call centre because of his financial issues, there are some instances where money is of least concern. She conducted a survey based on face-to-face interviews where she found that some individuals working the graveyard shift belong to disturbed families. “They treat night jobs as a form of escape from family turmoil,” she says. But when at work, they have to deal with obnoxious callers, listen to harsh comments and abusive language without losing patience — what would be the state of their mental health?

Health experts believe that hiding your true feelings leads to negative consequences, such as depression and anxiety. Other factors such as day and night duties, repetitive calls, time constraints, working extra hours, lack of work benefits, difficulty in achieving targets as well as ill-mannered, irritating and abusive customers, contribute to stress and depression among employees.

Jawed says that, in the absence of a healthy emotional outlet, emotional repression can profoundly affect a person psychologically.

BENEFITS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

Considering call centres a stressful pace, why do people join this industry? Good salaries and other remunerations, such as bonuses if you meet sales targets, plus attaining a lavish lifestyle — youngsters have the notion that this job will enable them to fulfil their dreams of travelling or buying a small car — are the main attraction for young people. Also, since getting a job at a call centre or leaving it is fairly easy, it is a preferred job option for fresh graduates and university students. While for other high-paying jobs, a college degree and many years of work experience is a prerequisite, here you are hired even if you are a student and on a decent salary. You can resign from your job after one year without facing any repercussions.

The range of services a call centre covers is vast and includes telemarketing, sales, customer service, technical support and emergency services. Atif Ali has been associated with a call centre for around five years and currently works as a team leader. He says that call centres are fast-paced environments where most work is conducted via telephone and display screen equipment. Call centre agents are given a script to follow and they repeat the same sentences and carry out the same tasks over and over again.

Ali points out that a call centre is geared towards reaching performance targets. Targets can differ depending on the type of centre a person is working for. These targets are set by the organisations and calls are recorded to monitor the employees’ performance.

Inbound centres (for instance, technical support) typically focus on ‘call duration’, ‘wrap time’ and ‘daily call volume’. So for inbound, it is important to achieve the targets which focus on these parameters.

‘Call duration’ is the time an agent takes with the customer. ‘Wrap time’ is the time an agent takes after the call has finished, such as updating the system with call details, data entry or other follow-up actions resulting from a call — the global metric is six minutes. ‘Daily call volume’ is the total number of calls handled for the day.

Outbound centres (e.g., telemarketing) lay emphasis on completion targets, such as achieving the desired sale volumes targets per day, which are closely monitored.

STRESS FACTORS

A growing body of researchers have found that a significant source of stress for call centre employees is meeting unattainable targets set by employers and team leaders and the monotonous work routine.

Erum Abdullah, a customer support executive in an IT company, says that doing the same work every day is “killing” her. “I feel like a mindless zombie who just goes with the flow. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months and am perpetually sleep deprived.”

The primary reason of sleep deprivation among employees, explains Jawed, is the disturbance of the circadian rhythm because the sleep-wake internal clock setting is at odds with the sleep-wake cycle of the shift schedule. Furthermore, sleep deprivation can result in stress, fatigue, depression, irritability and a predisposition to infections.

Generally, people think that aggression prevails in our society and until it is not taken out of their systems, other people won’t listen to their woes. The interaction with angry or abusive customers as well as tight schedules and supervisors’ rebukes can drain an employee’s energy, says Jawed.

In addition, the job characteristics of an eight to nine-hour shift, short lunch and loo breaks (also decided by the shift in-charge), poor team-leader support, stringent rules such as deductions on salary and deprivation of bonuses for coming late or not meeting daily targets, unconstructive performance appraisals and inadequate training are linked to stress and poor well-being for call centre workers.

Health experts say that stress leads to physiological and psychological mental disorders such as headaches, high blood pressure, vulnerability to heart disease, stomach discomfort, ulcer, backaches and more serious health problems.

It’s been 10 years since Shirley Fernandes left her job as a phone banker where she worked for two years in the day shift. She was responsible for providing customer service over phone on various products and services offered by the bank. “I left my job because I was diagnosed with typhoid,” says Fernandes.

“It was a stressful job as I had to deal with different customers who were upset with the product and would get angry and abusive. Being a professional, I had to maintain my tone, in which I succeeded. However, I was physically exhausted. I didn’t have medical leave benefits and going for a long leave was considered impossible. Therefore, I realised this was enough and I quit.”

Constantly wearing headphones aggravated my problem, adds Fernandes. Jawed says that vibrations emanating from headphones go directly from your ear to your brain which results in a feeling of agitation.

MANAGING WORKPLACE STRESS

According to the World Health Organisation, one in five people experience mental health problems in the workplace. Untreated mental disorders result in diminished productivity at the workplace, significant time off work (absenteeism), increase in workplace conflicts, job burnout and high turnover.

The question is what can call centre employees do to manage stress and overcome depression and anxiety? People usually find quick-fix solutions to counter stress and anxiety, says Jawed. A study reports that 10 percent of employees take time off from work to cope with depression. Other solutions that employees may resort to to alleviate stress include poor eating habits, excessive caffeine intake and substance addiction, such as tobacco and drugs.

Solutions to the mental health crisis which can help improve employees’ well-being are necessary. Individuals can develop habits that help support their own mental health. Fernandes recalls her phone-banking job which, despite it’s stressful nature, still allowed her a breather. She would take a small loo break, listen to a soothing song or talk to a friend to lessen work pressure.

In case of extreme anger and frustration, Jawed advises daily exercise/walk and good sleep. Another way to lower stress, she recommends, is to keep a punching pillow. Whenever anger builds up inside, she tells her charges, take a few deep breaths for five minutes and then punch it out on the pillow; later take more deep breaths for 10 minutes. When you take out your physical aggression, she says, mental peace follows.

Call centre managers and supervisors need to focus on mental health and employees’ well-being above performance expectations. Most of the time, managers are lowly trainees themselves, and due to pressure from their own superiors to meet targets, there is rarely any time left for them to show compassion to subordinates. Jawed suggests that training of call centre managers related to managing mental health be made mandatory. (Mental health first aid is basically a course which will helps managers to notice employees who may be experiencing mental health issues or emotional distress and can provide them support.) This training is aimed to help improve work environment and also spot early warning signs among staff.

Also, regular employee feedback can actually boost job satisfaction. “If performance is low, there is a need to monitor the reason and work on it, instead of scolding employees. Give them a little time and ask them if they need help because only small, caring words do the trick,” says Jawed.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, co-workers can help create a supportive atmosphere in a workplace. Pay attention to your co-workers’ noticeable behavioural changes — are they overtired, irritated or sad? Talk to your colleagues and hear them out. Moreover, share any resources that can offer your colleagues additional help.

Jawed emphasises that call centres should invest in part-time counsellors. However, sometimes the counsellors are there but team leaders are hesitant to let go of their subordinates for an hour. With the help of psychologists and public health specialists, periodic examination can be conducted for early detection of mental illness and other lifestyle diseases among call centre agents. finally, Jawed recommends that call centre employees pursue a hobby that makes them happy as well as following a healthy lifestyle.

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 13th, 2019