Study on the Sleep Deprivation and Health Status of the Call Center Agents

Over the last few years, the spread of new information and communication technologies had been exponential, including the setting up of call centers, a new type of business offering remote services via the Internet and/ or telephone. Call center agents have emerged out of the major changes that have taken place in the sphere of work and employment in the last two decades or so. Working in the destination countries for oversees customers had profound consequences on sleep and health because companies tend to synchronize their tasks with the work schedule of the countries they operate for.

Sleep duration is a predictor of an individual’s health status. Shift work had been reported to affect the worker’s health and well-being. The currently rising demand for shift workers in the Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, particularly in the contact center sector, has spurred increased interest in the research on the effects of shift work on Filipino workers. Hemels, Medic, & Wille (2017) claimed the risk factors contributing to sleep deprivation consists a combination of biologic, psychologic, genetic, and social factors.

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One of the study’s factors include medical conditions which consisted of pain, restrictive lung disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders, and the use of certain medications. A study conducted by Dong, Sung, et. al. (2018), about 39% of their participants slept for less than 5 hours, about 30% and 25% of those who slept for 6 hours and 7 hours felt high stress, one of the most common health risks under sleep disruption.

In addition, in most cases, even if call center agents have their night shifts or no in-between breaks during their day-time shifts, this results to impairing their health the next day, both mentally and physically.

Call center agents would then be held back to perform well throughout the day since energy has not been restored enough due to insufficient sleep, including their health lifestyle. Therefore, the present study focuses on the impact of the number of call center agents in Dumaguete City towards the association between sleep deprivation and health status.

The study was conducted to find out the associated factors between health care status, socio economic factors, working hours, hobbies and sleep deprivation of call center agents in Dumaguete City. The researchers have decided to choose this topic to enhance the awareness of our fellow call center agents of the harmful side effects of sacrificing their sleeping hours for working hours. Sleep has been an essential necessity for workers of different occupations to replenish the energy they need to perfectly display the best performance they can exert for their own personal purposes. Food and water can be their source of energy but nothing beats the wonderful effects of a person having a really nice rest from a really tiresome day.

In a typical office setting, employees work hard in order to get the job done and impress their boss and get a promotion. In this case, call center agents are the subjects of this research. Call center services are open to its customers twenty-four hours a day for any inquiries, complaints or issues about a certain product and call center agents are the front liners of this business. Most call center agents are often tired and stressed due to night shifts and challenging customers. Working during the night and sleeping throughout the day is not an impossible task however it is not what our bodies are used to. Sleep is very important as it helps with our brain function, metabolism, cardiac activity and so much more. It is said that our brain is most active when we are sleeping. Call center agents also tend to overwork themselves such as doing overtimes for additional pay. Most call center agents today are usually bachelors and bachelorettes at the prime of their life and tend to dive in to social activities such as partying or drinking in bars after a long and stressful day at work when sometimes all their body needs is rest. Some call center agents are full time students working hard to lessen their financial problems. Their salaries or careers or social lives are important to them as call center agents and that is why they tend to refuse to acknowledge the importance of sleep just to cope with their current situations. These habits can result to sleep deprivation which causes negative effects in our body in the long run. The purpose of this study is to determine the substantial effects of the several factors that cause sleep deprivation in call center agents in Dumaguete City and how these certain factors affect the their overall health as individuals. By establishing and comprehending these relationships, the researchers aspire to inform call centers agents about the negative effects of sleep deprivation on their individual health status and remind them of the importance of proper sleep. With the outcome of this research, the researchers aim to help call center agents to prioritize their own health by having the proper amount of sleep. In order to achieve this, the subjects must be able to know which aspects of their lives is causing them to have sleep deprivation. By gaining this knowledge they will know which habits to change and improve their lifestyle and have proper time management that will ultimately benefit their health. This study involves the conduction of a survey among call center agents from different companies in Dumaguete City who are experiencing sleep deprivation. This is important in order to determine the correlations between the socio-economic factors, workload, and lifestyle and sleep deprivation of the subject and how these factors affect his or her health status.

The presented study will solely focus on the factors associated with sleep deprivation and health status among chosen call center agents. The study will be performed exclusively within Dumaguete City and will not include other business call centers outside the boundaries of the said city. The respondents of this study should have an age not more than 40 years old and not less than 18 years old. The respondents should work at business call centers within Dumaguete City regardless of the company they are working in. Also, the study will focus on measuring the factors associated with sleep deprivation and health status among call center agents using a structured questionnaire as a primary data collection instrument. The study will then determine whether a relationship exists between the factors associated with sleep deprivation and health status to call center agents.