India - The physical cost of outsourcing success
When I read a recent article in Daily Report, it never dawned on me that the outsourcing success enjoyed by India would come at such a personal and physical cost to the Indian worker.
Check it out…
The job came with a good salary, and good perks.
But 26-year-old Vaibhav Vats will tell you it was doing him no good. His weight had grown to 265 pounds and he was missing out on social life as he worked long overnight hours at a call center. Eventually he quit.
“You are making nice money. But the tradeoff is also big,” said Vats, who spent nearly two years at IBM Corp.’s call center arm in India, answering customer calls from the United States.
Call centers and other outsourced businesses, such as software writing, medical transcription and back office work, employ more than 1.6 million young men and women in India, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who make much more than their contemporaries in most other professions.
They are, however, facing sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys.
Experts warn the brewing crisis could undermine the success of India’s hugely profitable outsourcing industry, which earns billions of dollars annually and has shaped much of the country’s transformation into an emerging economic power.
Heart disease, strokes and diabetes cost India an estimated $9 billion in lost productivity in 2005. But the losses could grow to a staggering $200 billion over the next 10 years unless corrective action is taken quickly, said a study by the New Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
The outsourcing industry would be hit hardest, it warned.
Source: Daily Report
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Well here in India outsourcing is like a golden cage. You get everything cash, amenities, a big shiny office and all those stuff but you have to work long hours often 14 - 15 hours a day(your are not a performer if you don’t agree to this schedule), and the HR people often turn blind eye to this.