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Twenty four year-old BPO executive Sarita Maipal exhausted all her sick leave in a month and the rest in the next two. The reason? She's always sick.
It's sickness all around. As per guesstimates, 60 to 70 of every 1,000 IT/ITeS workers avail of sick leave a day in India. Although the usual suspects are typhoid, jaundice, dengue, malaria or viral fever, somatised depression is the main cause of absenteeism.
Its symptoms include feelings of dullness, low morale, no self-esteem, lack of confidence, sleeplessness, poor appetite, unexplained aches and gastric problems.
Clinical psychologist S Kalyanasundaram says, "People who suffer from severe emotional or mental stress are easy prey for somatised depression. They rush to gastro-enteritists or cardiologists for treatment.They get CT and MRI scans done just to find that they are physically all right, in most cases. But their condition remains unaltered."
All depressive diseases are biologically mediated. Therefore, popping an anti depressant pill often helps. "But anti-depressants are still taboo in India. People don't take them fearing that they may become addicted," he says.
Dean Rock, VP (operations) of a Mumbai-based BPO firm, Integreon said, "Lifestyle disorders, stress, unfair treatment and repetitive nature of the job often keep employees away from work. However, team leaders can play a vital role in curing many of these problems by making each employee an integral part of the team and giving her challenging, but accomplishable goals. Do not get them exposed to repetitive mental or physical injuries at work. Fuel them with fresh energies to rekindle their enthusiasm."
AnnaOldman, CEO of a responsive management, stress awareness and control solutions provider PPC Worldwide, says, "Physical, mental and emotional health of employees are the key to the well-being of any industry. It becomes a big issue, when it comes to IT and ITeS, as most of the workers are young with limited life skills and stress-handling abilities." In the US and UK, companies are legally bound to protect the mental, physical and emotional health of their employees.
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