BPOs no more a nightmare

BANGALORE: If once night shifts were the bane for the BPO worker, it is turning to be the boon for the newer, younger breed. If earlier they worried about stress, sleep disorders, fast burnout and the lack of a social life, now they find the brighter side — that of better time management, more pay and no nagging parents.

Nandita Gurjar, head of HR at Infosys BPO, says, “There’s a new generation of youngsters which loves the night job and prefers these shifts even when offered day shifts. They claim that their life is more organised and structured.’’ And many of them are women.

People in the BPO industry say that there was lot of apprehension about night shifts earlier, especially with parents when the industry started but now is no longer an issue. Aashu Calapa, Executive Vice President of Human Resources, Firstsource Solutions said, “The night shift has ceased to be an issue now.

About 7 years ago, 10-20% of the people leaving the industry gave night shifts as their reason which is no longer true. We are not finding issues even in tier II and tier III cities where BPOs like us are increasingly going.’’

Arun, who currently works with Infosys BPO in the 9.30 pm to 5.30 am shift, says that he prefers the night time since he is able to cope with his foreign language classes as well as pursue higher studies. He also opines that his social life is much better this way since most of his friends work in call centres too and they can meet in the day.

Another Infosys BPO employee Raji, who is married to a guy working with FirstSource, says she gets lots of time to spend with her hubby. “I get a whole day to do my other things if I am working in the shifts,’’ she adds.

Rahul works in the 3.30 pm to 12.30 am shift at HSBC’s captive BPO. Though not technically a complete night shift, he says that he prefers the late hours to day time because they are a calmer period with not too many people around. “There is easy traffic, we get night shift allowance after 12 pm, can do our personal work in the day and also get Saturday/Sunday as off which we may not if we are in the day shifts,’’ he adds.

These are just a sample of the increasing set of youngsters who are finding joy in their night shifts at the BPOs. And their band is increasing even though industry sources claim that increasing business from the APAC region has seen night-time work come down from 100% to about 60%.