Stress levels in employees working night shifts of a call center in india-a cross sectional study

Background: In the past twenty years there is a rapid increase in the business process outsourcing (BPOs) in India. Those of the employees who work for the international call centers work in different time zones, which results in erratic working hours. These young employees need to take turns and change the working shifts on regular basis, which cause stress and their sleep wake cycle is disturbed. Most of these employees work night shifts, and have irregular shift timings which results in high stress levels. Objectives: To assess the stress levels in call center employees Methods: The present study is a cross sectional study. Perceived stress among the employees was assessed using the perceived stress scale (PSS-14). Results: In the present study the female employees were more stressed and had higher score of the PSS-14, the male employees were comparatively less stressed. Young study participants were more stressed than the older counterparts and those participants who were married were more stressed. Those employees on night shifts and longer working hours were significantly more stressed than those working day shift and for shorter hours