JOHN KERRY WANTS YOU TO DO THIS JOB:

Faces of Globalization: A dilemma in India (Indrajit Basu, March 12, 2004 , UPI)

It's good for the economy; it creates employment, lots of it, and working nights at India's back offices is pleasing and financially rewarding for a huge number of young Indians.

However, India's money-spinning industry of taking service jobs from overseas is turning out to be a source of discomfort for U.S. and European politicians. And also the subcontinent is now fast realizing that its famed success in so-called Business Process Outsourcing may have come at the cost of a generation's mental well-being.

Owing to the 10 1/2 hour time difference between the Western Hemisphere, particularly the United States, which sends more service jobs abroad than anyone else, almost all Indian back office operations have to work at shifts typically running from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. local time to coincide with the daytime office hours in the United States.

And it's this working at nights that requires adjusting the biological clock and social practices to a different time, which is turning out to be a major cause for health-related and social problems. [...]

Indeed, the high degree of dissatisfaction that is fast dawning on Indian back office employees is getting to be a major cause for worry in India's back office sector, which is billed as one of the country's most important sectors for economic growth.

In a recent survey of employee satisfaction in what the industry calls Business Process Outsourcing, a staggering 35 percent of respondents said they are likely to leave because they cannot handle the schedule. The survey also showed something else: Money remains the biggest reason why most people join call centers. Forty-five percent of all respondents across the industry said they joined up for the money, with another 42 percent adding that they would most likely leave for better opportunities, i.e. read money, elsewhere.

And 27 percent said they would leave either because of work stress or the sheer physical strain that was too much to handle.

Even work related ailments are reality. Sleeping disorders, digestive system disorders and eyesight problems are prevalent.

Low pay, bad conditions, no future--is that really the Democrats' vision for America?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2004 7:44 AM