CNN: India's outsourcing industry takes toll on workforce

[Amerigo Vespucci]

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- 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 that earns billions in dollars annually and has shaped much of the country's transformation into an emerging economic power.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/25/india.outsourcing.ap/index.html



Call center employees face sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to experts.

[K Gardner]

1. Ah, the joys of globalization. Welcome to Merika. n/t

[napi21]

2. Well, I guess the US employers didn't realize just how good the

American workers were! They've been doing that stuff for YEARS!

[ixion]

3. exactly

[Skittles]

4. it takes a worse toll on those of us who have to deal with them

THEY SUCK

[OhioChick]

5. Cry Me A River....

:nopity:

[Selatius]

6. They're getting a taste of how American workers are worked long and hard, and they don't like it.

When you work long hours with stagnating pay and spend the rest of the time worrying about the bills, you neglect health pretty often. Notice how they are suffering from obesity and sleep disorders. We have those two problems in spades here in America.

America is a country that never went through a class revolution.