The health of employees at an energy call centre was investigated by researchers from Stirling University. They identified 17 symptoms of illness, including tiredness, stiff necks, sore eyes and backache and found that call handlers experienced a higher number of such symptoms than non-call handlers. While many of the symptoms were insufficiently serious on their own to cause absence from work, large numbers of workers experienced them in clusters. Forty per cent of employees experienced at least three symptoms either daily or several times a week. It was the way the call handlers’ tasks were structured, organised and performed produced the greatest number of complaints and the most frequently reported cause of sickness. They had to answer queuing calls and meet targets so they only spent 4.7% of time away from their station, compared to 17% for non-call handlers and they had considerably less control over most of their aspects of work. More than two-thirds felt pressured as a result of work on a normal day. Also reported was a ‘draconian’ absence policy which confused absence with absenteeism with a far from sympathetic employer who appeared to be uninterested in the reasons for absence. One respondent commented:

Following a series of recommendations, management complied with most of the environmental issues but were less inclined to revise the absence procedures. No action was taken on the target-driven model because of competitive pressures – the level of targets determined the volume of business that they would win.