With the rapidly increasing call center industry, more and more people are engaged in countless hours of grueling training and practicing on how to handle calls, file reports, schedule personnel and inventory checks, and more. With globalization, the various call centers required shifts even during the graveyard timeframe, this implies that call center agents would have stay awake during sleeping hours working just to accommodate transaction calls from the other side of the globe. Staying healthy in the call center industry is simple and defined into three simple key words: coffee, cigarette, and alcohol. Coffee With the long continuous hours in which the agent endures sitting idly talking to a headset, it would definitely cause the body to slow down and lessen the person’s capability to circulate the blood within. This causes a reflex action of yawning, which signifies a greater need of oxygen in the respiratory – cardiovascular area. It would also manifest a sense of sleepiness.

As a result of this common phenomenon, coffee has been one of the mainstays of the call center agents, and personnel’s alike to combat sleepiness and degradation of competent performance. Even if the direct effect of coffee to the body is to keep us awake, there are detrimental effects of too much coffee such as possible kidney complications and dehydration.

Lessening the amount of coffee per day would also lessen the amount of urged moments for the agent to go to the bathroom. Furthermore, lessening of bone density has been found on chronic coffee drinkers.

Cigarette:

Another avenue for stress release of agents in the call center industry is by lighting up a cigarette or two during break time or lunch hour. Many of these agents claim that the habit of lighting up of a cigarette during free time not only increases their social sphere but also lessens anxiety and work related stressors.

However, all of us are aware of harms caused by cigarettes to the lungs and body of a smoker. For one, the smoke coming from the cigarettes passes through our respiratory system. The smoke which reach our lungs and attach to our bronchioles is formed of impure particles. A gradual and significant blocking of the smoke in the linings of the bronchioles would lessen the amount of oxygen exchanged between, which causes us to have difficulty
in breathing.

Alcohol

After work shift hours, one of the usual stress release methods of agents is to go to the local hangout place and have a round or two of alcoholic drinks. This happens especially when salaries have been doled out. However, when alcohol is excessively ingested, could damage the liver. The liver is man’s natural fat and alcohol synthesizer. An excessive
alcohol load on the liver to synthesize in frequency may cause the liver to malfunction or lead to alcohol induced cirrhosis.

These three things are the main culprits in lessening the health status of call center agents. Staying healthy in this concept would entail being able to say no or lessen these three culprits. Staying in the call center industry is technically a tedious and health taxing job to undergo, especially due to the high demand of work. Nevertheless, substitutes for thesemay be in the form of fresh healthy fruit juice, or other healthy food. It is a matter of initiative and choice for one to stay healthy when faced with a situation.