The Hindu Business Line : 23 adversities a day!

Adversity quotient is the new scale to measure success and denotes the survival of the fittest. In the world of new age, pressure-cooker jobs, it measures the grit of employees who can thrive in the face of adversity.

It is a normal working day, never mind that the slog hours are from 8 p.m. to about 4.30 a.m. the next day. Handling international credit-card frauds, for instance, is all in a night's work! And in Mumbai, a city that never sleeps, they are the ones who keep the midnight oil burning, so to speak. Meet 25-year-old Samson Silvera, your quintessential BPO (business process outsourcing) guy. He is more than happy to be part of the "happening sector that contributes to the economy of the country", he says when queried.

Probe a little further. The unearthly hours, several cups of coffee to keep awake, the long seated posture and most important, the shadow of job insecurity in a market economy... Is all well for youngsters like Silvera or are they turning a blind eye to lifestyle-related health concerns that are lurking round the corner?

"Yes, I do take a lot of coffee through the night. But once a person adjusts to the shift in pattern, the work pressure keeps you oblivious of the time," he says. And like others in his tribe, he does not agree with the observation that they could well be headed for serious health problems, even a burnout. "It takes some time to adjust to any new system, whether it is a new job, even if it were one during the day. But we have doctors and psychologists on the premises to take care of that. We have recreation rooms, dorms to sleep, a gym and there is even yoga on offer. Employees are made aware that such facilities are available. And yet, there was an incident when a lady employee was giddy and unwell. She was taken to the hospital right away on the doctor's advise — the illness was not due to the workplace, but because she ignored the symptoms of the illness," he says. Silvera is a client response executive with GTL Ltd, a services provider in e-business applications, software and engineering services. Though he personally finds no time to use the recreational facilities at the workplace, he says that he does stick to a personal fitness regime in the morning. "I go to a gym and keep fit, so I don't think I would have a health problem when I grow older, because of my current lifestyle. But yes, not all people can adjust to such work conditions. Some of them do complain of nagging back-pain," he admits.

And it is precisely such health problems that will come to a boil if not addressed right away, says Sanjay Salooja, a human resource (HR) consultant in Mumbai. "Working long hours, taking stimulants to stay awake and sitting in a chair non-stop — these affect you physically, and studies have shown that one's thinking skills slow down and frustrations build up," says Salooja, who is the founder of HR counselling firm — Sanjay Salooja Inc. "Ask any company to run a test on how many employees come to work when they are unwell. A physical illness does spill over to your professional life. You will be surprised at how many people look normal, but could be concealing a serious case of stress or depression. Offices need to have a system in place to capture the illness and help people deal with it. If the BPO segment goes on the way it does for the next 10 years, I worry about the condition of our young people," he says.

Based on his work with Indian corporates, Salooja has evolved an employee assistance programme called "Empower". This programme goes beyond assisting employees and reaches out to their families. The aim is to address issues at work or at home that can cause stress to either the employee or their families, he points out.

According to Dr Amukanth Mittal, a Mumbai-based psychiatrist, the BPO culture has a good and bad effect. Having interacted with "various levels of the BPO segment, from team-leaders and supervisors to ordinary staff at the centres," he says, "Companies need to address these issues by enrolling counsellors to guide them with their health, emotions and money. The larger BPOs may still be doing it."

He adds that in some cases, "where youngsters from difficult backgrounds get into the BPO segment, they end up becoming the bread-winner of the family. So their earning of Rs 15,000-plus a month earns them respectability in their homes, along with the responsibility that comes with it. The family structure changes around them and they become the achievers in the family."

But for youngsters who get into the segment for the lure of money, with no responsibilities to boot, long-term plans are put on hold. "Just out of school or college, young people let plans for higher education take a backseat for the lure of money that comes on landing a BPO job. They end up becoming part of a pseudo-community, since most of them work through the night and are out of touch with the real world. They create their own world and social interactions within the community. This gets aggravated by the health problems that come with erratic timings," he observes.

But Nandita Gurjar, Head and Vice-President (Human Resources), Progeon, an Infosys BPO company, is tired of people making the BPO segment out to be sick. According to her, there is an induction time, when new-comers in the company are trained and allowed to adjust to the shift in the biological clock. Typical symptoms they face in this period, when they have not started handling clients, is hunger or the lack of it at odd hours and a sense of self-pity when the rest of the world is probably socialising. "We have doctors and counsellors to help them deal with the change in lifestyle and that happens in about three months. In fact, even for people who work through the day, where is the time to socialise, except the weekends? As for physical illnesses, people are encouraged to take breaks in their work and walk around. We even have nutritionists to figure out for you, for instance, whether an idli that makes a good breakfast is just as good when taken at night," she says.

"Some BPOS go too far to hold back their employees and stem attrition. But, being an Infosys company we make it clear that the youngsters are here to work and build a career. We take complete care to see our employees are well adjusted. It is the fastest growing industry, and youngsters have a great career here," she adds. The company has also initiated a "stress-study" on the BPO sector, "to see if we are really that stressed," she quips.

Minoo Thomas, a team leader with GTL says life in a BPO does not hugely differ from life in any other industry. "It is a normal office life. People get married here, they have kids and social lives," says the 24-year-old, who has been in the profession for two years.

She is bullish on the growth prospects of the BPO segment and points out, "Any job these days has competition, exertion and stress."

But Salooja cautions: "The attrition rate is high in this segment and that is not because the next job is lucrative. Even the best BPOs lose people because of the nature of their work. Companies will have to have a formal system to capture the work-life value index and help employees deal with the problems they face, even if it is a simple fever." A simple solution, he says, given that an individual faces about 23 adversities every day. He says the adversity quotient (AQ) is the new scale to measure success. It has become the contemporary version of the adage "survival of the fittest". In the world of new age, pressure-cooker jobs and the stiff demands that come with it, AQ measures the grit of the employee who can thrive in the face of adversity.

As Dr Mittal puts it "Employees can be encouraged to pursue higher studies and continue with the BPO company. This way they can climb the corporate ladder, rather than jump from one BPO firm to another."

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