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Bangladesh's Historic Heat Wave is Making Work 'Living Hell' For IT Workers 96

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: For two weeks in June, Nawshin Khan, a marketing and content management strategist at Dhaka-based outsourcing firm Datacrete, struggled to stay awake and alert at work. As Bangladesh experienced its longest heatwave in decades, temperatures in Dhaka soared to a 58-year-high of 40.6 degrees Celsius (around 105 degrees Fahrenheit). The capital city faced severe electricity cuts as power plants fell short of meeting a surging demand. Some areas reported load-shedding, or controlled power blackouts, for as long as 10 hours at a stretch. With no power back at her apartment, Khan could barely get any sleep at night. The 28-year-old didn't even have the option of sleeping next to an open window "because the air was so hot outside," she told Rest of World. Despite the sleep deprivation, going to work felt like a respite because "at least there was a generator [in the office] that operated the fans."

Khan works in Bangladesh's business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. She is one of around 70,000 workers in an industry to which companies around the world outsource entire business functions -- from marketing and payroll to human resources. The BPO industry in Bangladesh has been expanding, with jobs in the sector growing steadily in recent years, according to the Bangladesh Association of Contact Center and Outsourcing. According to local media reports, there were at least 350 BPO firms in the country as of March 2023, with an annual revenue of $700 million in 2022. They support real estate companies, health-care facilities, and law firms in the U.K. and U.S. But the foot soldiers of this industry -- BPO workers -- are now staring at a disconcerting future as global temperatures continue to rise.

Several told Rest of World they're already weary and exhausted. Five hours from Dhaka, in Chattogram, known for its balmy summers with frequent spells of rain, 27-year-old BPO worker Naima Shirmen said the heat has felt like "living hell" this year. "I've never seen heat as bad as this in my whole life. I get headaches everyday. I feel sick. I'm not able to sleep at night properly," she told Rest of World. "And as you know, if you can't sleep properly, you can't do work." Shirmen provides remote marketing support for foreign clients of BPOs in Dhaka. "The [heat] is so bad this year that when we switch on the fans, it makes no difference," she said. "It's like there's no air in the room. It's like the fan isn't working at all.
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Bangladesh's Historic Heat Wave is Making Work 'Living Hell' For IT Workers More

Bangladesh's Historic Heat Wave is Making Work 'Living Hell' For IT Workers

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  • I maintain that air conditioning was the single greatest invention of mankind. One day it may even make its way to India.

    • It's not the lack of AC units, it's the cost of energy. Each time someone can bring down the cost of that by an order of magnitude that's a giant leap for humanity.

      • It's not the lack of AC units, it's the cost of energy. Each time someone can bring down the cost of that by an order of magnitude that's a giant leap for humanity.

        Greed N. Corruption has stood in the way of those giant leaps for thousands of years now.

        We're still hairless apes who endlessly warmonger on a rock we carved up into Yours and Mine long ago. Don't pretend we've actually evolved beyond that stupid shit, because we haven't. Bullshitting about A/C units is a convenient excuse to overlook the painfully obvious.

        The deadly cost of energy is controlled by Greed, because Ignorance allows it.

      • I thought that solar panels were like super cheap and efficient now, and totally more cost effective than coal. I guess Bangladesh hasn't heard the good news yet.

        • They are "super cheap" for an American or an European. Especially if he earns like $100k a year.

          For someone in Bangladesh who only earns $5000 a year: not so much.

          On top of that you have homes that would not count as houses, and can not be cooled by AC anyway (because they are open to the outside all over)

          Hint: I live in Thailand, my house does not even have glass windows you can shut.

          Are you a dumbass or pretending to be a devils advocate?

      • You can bring down the energy required by an order of magnitude with good insulation. EPS is cheap too, unfortunately good workmanship isn't.

    • Bangladesh is not India, dumbass
      • India geographical name InÂâdia Ëin-dÄ"-É(TM) 1 large peninsular region that is usually referred to as a subcontinent and is located in southern Asia south of the Himalayas between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea; occupied by the countries India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and formerly often considered to include Burma (but not Ceylon)

      • Not anymore, at least.

    • Not as long as Electricity remains a central generation / distributed load model.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      One day it may even make its way to India.

      Quickly followed by coal plants needed to power it.

      I wonder if anyone has calculated the feedback gain margin on powering more AC with more coal plants that put out more greenhouse gasses, warming the atmosphere and increasing the demand for air conditioning.

    • Yeah nah. I work in an industrial setting were it routinely soars over 120F. I learned pretty quick AC is a crutch that degrades quality of life in many aspects. People should be acclimating in spring. 120F is still hot and yes, uncomfortable but completely manageable during my work hours. I run midday during 30-35C sunny Idaho days. Summer QoL is way up now that I've severely curtailed my use of AC and it works during winter as well, acclimate and you'll be much more comfortable throughout the year. Most h

      • Re: newsflash: third world countries suck (Score:5, Informative)

        by iikkakeranen ( 6279982 ) on Friday July 14, 2023 @02:17PM (#63686495)

        "Dry heat" is great. As a Finn I enjoy sauna temperatures in excess of 200 degrees F on a regular basis. But that's not what we're talking about here. What's making these heat waves so bad is a combination of heat and humidity.

        When the wet-bulb temperature reaches about 35C, you can no longer shed excess heat by sweating and you will die if you can't get to a cooler/dryer environment. It has nothing to do with "acclimating", it's about physics of evaporation and that doesn't vary from one person to another. These conditions used to be almost unheard of, but thanks to climate change it's becoming more common to see heat waves with dangerously high wet-bulb temperatures.

        • Yep. I spent some time bouncing around the middle east a while back ... 120 degrees in one country might be quite comfortable for me, but fly an hour away to a more coastal country and suddenly 120 degrees is completely unbearable. Humidity is a killer.
        • True! Air needs to circulate naturally. Look to the ancients who learned this long ago [aivc.org].

          • If you think our power companies want us to be able to keep our homes cool without using their product, you are crazy!

            The whole point of our society is to enrich our betters. How can we do that if we are busy living sustainably? Won't someone think of the rent seeking companies of the country?

            You want thicker insulation and ancient windcatching tech https://www.sustainability-tim... [sustainability-times.com] ? Next you are going to talk about water catchment and cisterns for outdoor watering and toilet flushing (Allah forbid you spe

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by CodeInspired ( 896780 )

        It always amazes me how whenever activists talk about climate, pollution, diet, etc, all they come up with is how to make your life more miserable. Do you drive a nice comfortable SUV that easily transports your family to wherever you need to go? Fuck You! You need a shitty, miserable, tiny electric car to do the same. Do you have a nice air-conditioned home with a pool to get through the hot days? Fuck you! Acclimate yourself and turn off your AC in the name of climate change. Do you enjoy cheeseburgers

        • Devot as much time to improving AC or generating new power that's on par with what we have now or better, and you'll be the worlds hero.

          The only problem is that what you are asking for is not possible, because independantly or our will or time we devot to it, physical laws like to remind us that they do need to apply.

          Nuclear is/was our best bet so far, but activists were not happy with it. Somewhere along the line, people forgot this is not a video game, and we had only one try to do it right.

          What is happening in Bangladesh will happen where you live too.

          • Nah I live to far inland. Dry heat for the win!

          • I don't buy that argument. Physical laws are not preventing us from creating 100K times the energy needed in the world. It's just political, ideological, and financial pressures in the way. What bugs me is instead of focusing on those issues, the activists parade around on their ideological pedestal yelling about how everyone else has to change the way they live. Demand problems are rarely (if ever) solved by telling people to live with less than what they already have. Especially when demand is increas
        • Yes, YOU need to let the REST of the Human Race survive you selfish twat.

      • Yeah nah. I work in an industrial setting were it routinely soars over 120F. I learned pretty quick AC is a crutch that degrades quality of life in many aspects. People should be acclimating in spring. 120F is still hot and yes, uncomfortable but completely manageable during my work hours.

        (emphasis added)

        Do you spend ALL your time in the over 120F, or do do you spend your days off someplace cooler, and your nights in a house or apartment where your body has a chance to cool down?

        Because the summary t

      • Yeah, dying of heart attack, stroke and liver failure due to heat stress is SUCH a good idea.
        Oh wait
        We have fields of workhands in the sun in Texas now dropping for lack of water, thanks to the Governor Abbott Immigration Control policy.

  • Solar might be an option (Score:3)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Friday July 14, 2023 @12:27PM (#63686127)

    The capital city faced severe electricity cuts as power plants fell short of meeting a surging demand.

    Considering all the rooftops available, putting up solar panels to get more electricity seems like a no brainer. Not only do you get more electricity, you also get a slight amount of cooling from the shade of the panels.

    It would certainly help relieve some of the strain on the electrical system.

    • The heck with putting them on the roofs - in Bangladesh, why not put them over the sidewalks and roads?

    • I'd vote to start immediately moving those phone support jobs BACK to the US....so we could once again have someone on the other end of the phone for support that we could actually understand.

      I'd pay extra for my products and services...and would be happy to use ANY excuse to move these jobs back.

      • Re:Solar might be an option (Score:4, Insightful)

        by systemd-anonymousd ( 6652324 ) on Friday July 14, 2023 @12:46PM (#63686179)

        Don't worry, they're coming back. As an AI chatbot with your local accent. And it'll actually do a good job, too.

        • Don't worry, they're coming back. As an AI chatbot with your local accent. And it'll actually do a good job, too.

          I'd take that in a heartbeat too...over what's currently there.

          They can barely read the script given...and takes forever to try to get them to escalate to a tier or two higher where the voices seem to get a bit easier to understand and the support person actually seems to know a bit about the product, rather than just read a checklist script with no comprehension about the product itself.

          In ge

      • My employer, a utility, got a new CEO a decade or so ago. He decided our biggest problem was our customer service sucked. As he said, "you don't offshore your call center to improve customer service". And so one of the first things he did was bring our call center back.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        I'd vote to start immediately moving those phone support jobs BACK to the US....so we could once again have someone on the other end of the phone for support that we could actually understand.

        I'd pay extra for my products and services...and would be happy to use ANY excuse to move these jobs back.

        There is a universal truth... you can hire cheap or you can hire good... you can't get both.

        It doesn't matter if it's the US, UK, Mexico, India, Japan, wherever. I've been subjected to some UK call centres where they've clearly hired the people who are willing to (desperate enough to) work for less than a supermarket offers. Basically they get the people the supermarkets reject, even though they have a nominally "UK" accent and I say "nominally" because their speech is still terrible and often barely und

    • ...

      Considering all the rooftops available, putting up solar panels to get more electricity seems like a no brainer. ....

      Too hot. Kills the watt / ft^2 AND shortens the lifespan.

    • Considering all the rooftops available, putting up solar panels to get more electricity seems like a no brainer.

      The main complaint from the summary even, is that people cannot sleep AT NIGHT because it's too hot and the power is out.

      So why is putting up solar panels a no-brainer?

      What is a no brainer to me is, I'd be sleeping in the office where it stays cool and just dropping by my apartment to take showers.

    • The entire point of using Indian IT workers is that they're cheap. The fact that they don't even have air conditioning and temperatures that high is one of the reasons they're so cheap. If you start improving their standard of living then capital is just going to want to move to somewhere else for the lower standard of living.. it's one of the major problems with a capitalist system. It's the kind of thing you would normally solve with treaties requiring equal treatment of the workers in any country that yo

    • > you also get a slight amount of cooling from the shade of the panels

      Shade doesnt cool the air. The prblem is the air is what is hot.

  • It might be getting worse every year if the planet temperature keeps trending higher and higher.
    I see sourcing some kind of home batteries to help run AC and refrigerators, charged by solar energy.
    And going very early to work or school and stay indoors during the day until 5 or 6 pm

    I see it as an emergency that needs to be handled now
    • I think we're ready to have work from home or home at work solutions.
      NO MORE COMMUTING!!
      SIngle biggest contributor to CO2
      • Actually population growth is the single biggest contributor to climate change.

        • The issue is it's hot.

          We have technology to fix that.

          The technology needs power.

          We have the technology to generate sufficient power.

          YET, the people in India fail to build adequate power generation capacity, claiming cost (I assume).

          It is hot for a lot of reasons, the fixes are known, they choose not to implement them.

          • No, the fixes are not known. Electricity is never without pollution and CO2 from cheap coal is what is making India unliveable.
            Nuclear cannot operate at elevated temperatures (Just ask France Nuclear that has to go offline every summer) and that leaves solar with huge investment in infrastructure or dead people
            Capitalists generally vote for lower wages thus more dead people.

        • Nope.
          CO2 is. And after that Methane, and as a side effect water vapour.

    • Better get used to it. We will be as warm as the Romans again soon.

      Wine, wine will flow!

  • If the fan doesn't seem to be helping, you may not be sweating enough. Unless the humidity is also really high, you should be able to get at least a little relief from a fan.

    If you're subject to rolling blackouts, I'd suggest an inverter, a fan, and a big battery. Charge the battery whenever you can, and use the inverter to run a fan at night if it helps. Charge the battery with solar if you can. (every bit helps, you should be able to hang a 100w flex panel out the window at least)

    Also, if you're withou

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GlennC ( 96879 )

      Unless the humidity is also really high, you should be able to get at least a little relief from a fan.

      In Bangladesh, the average humidity level between May and October is 80-90% so I seriously doubt that a fan will help.

      Source: http://live4.bmd.gov.bd/p/Monthly-Humidity-Normal-Data/ [bmd.gov.bd]

      Oh, and since the power is out the fan won't work anyway.

    • ...>

      I don't get why solar isn't bigger places like that. Power being overpriced AND unreliable should make it a great market for solar.

      The average income is less than 18K / year, that's why.

      • ...>

        I don't get why solar isn't bigger places like that. Power being overpriced AND unreliable should make it a great market for solar.

        The average income is less than 18K / year, that's why.

        No, that's not "why". That's a clickbait statistic that means absolutely nothing without context.

        $18K a year is poverty in a first world country currently raping citizens with food prices alone. But $18K/year elsewhere may be considered wealthy by comparison. Provide the context before you attempt to make a point using a metric that could easily be confused with gold purity.

        • Yeah, but we're not talking about a bowl of rice or something else where transporting it halfway across the globe is less profitable than selling it locally. We're talking about technology that you can ship halfway around the globe at a relatively small portion of the total price which means that this solar panel costs about the same, no matter whether you buy it in Chattogram or in Chattanooga.

        • Not if you're going to have to buy land so you CAN put solar on it. 18k won't come close.

        • $18K a year is poverty in a first world country currently raping citizens with food prices alone.
          Lowest income bracket, yes. Poverty, no.

    • Solar is extremely big in Bangladesh.

      But a poor person living in rent can not simply buy a panel and put it on the roof.

  • Living hell for IT (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Friday July 14, 2023 @12:46PM (#63686181)

    What it must be like for factory workers then? Farmers?

  • Between temperature highs rising and sea level rising... Bangladesh isn't going to be a viable place to live for much longer.

    It was already hot and prone to floods, and those conditions aren't going to improve. In a few hundred years, over 10% of the country will be below sea level and the flooding everywhere will be a lot worse and a lot more frequent long before that. And it's hard to deal with that when it's too humid to sweat and too hot to live without sweating.

    • And just look at what's happening to ocean temperatures around Florida, it's in the news right now that shallow waters are in some cases getting up to 90 degrees F. So there will be inundation with hot water that's going to make everything that much worse...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by r0nc0 ( 566295 )
        Those water temperatures are actually normal for the region - but usually not until August/September. The issue is not just the warmth but how early in the year it has gotten there and what that may mean for hurricane season.

    • 1984 and The camp of the saints -- two books i did not want to see transition from fiction to prophetic; and both are happening within my lifetime.
      what a world we live in.

    • Why worry so much?

      You're seriously asking that question in a world reeking of highly profitable clickbait bullshit....

  • When I think of Bangladeshi IT workers, I think immediately of those scum who phone me at all hours of the day, trying to convince me that they work for the Microsoft IT department or the VISA security department or the duct cleaners on the other side of town. And now if they are too hot and uncomfortable to work, well, less power to them.

  • https://timesofindia.indiatime... [indiatimes.com]

    NEW DELHI: You did not need jackets or pullovers, but June was, as summer temperatures go, the coolest in 15 years. The mean maximum temperature this June was 37 degrees Celsius, two degrees lower than the normal maximum temperature of the month. This milder maximum was due mainly to regular rainfall, overcast skies and the early arrival of the southwest monsoons.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

      The article claims 105F but I'm not seeing any evidence of June having a day over 93F, and the article it links says April 16... they're playing dishonest games.

      We get odd weather from time to time all over the place. South Dakota saw a 2-week 70F period in February a decade ago. It happens.

      • The thing is, we get weird weather all the time now. We used to have four seasons, we're down to two now.

        • Depends on the region you live in to be honest. Living in San Diego the past 30 years, I can't say we've EVER had 4 seasons here.

          • So at least in some parts of the world the weather didn't change.

            Then again, knowing the weather in SanD, I can add "at least the parts that already sucked, weather-wise".

            • I guess it's down to personal preference. I think San Diego has pretty much the best weather you are going to find. I don't want to live where it snows or rains constantly nor do I want humidity. Trust me, there are cheaper places to live if I was okay with dealing with snow.

              • I'm used to dealing with snow. I used to at least, back when I was a kid, we had that stuff quite often.

                I'm not quite as used to dealing with temperatures above 40C. At some point, you can't take off more clothing, but you could always put on more.

  • While some raise concerns about growing Chinese influence in the region, Munshi Foyez Ahmed, Bangladesh's former ambassador to China, downplayed such worries. "China is our friendly country ... and they are coming forward when we are in trouble," he said. "If anyone comes forward to help us, we should be thankful to them. There is nothing to be suspicious [about]."

    https://asia.nikkei.com/Econom... [nikkei.com]

  • Alarmist misinformation (Score:3)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 ) on Friday July 14, 2023 @02:49PM (#63686575)

    I'm sure power supply issues aren't related in the least bit: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/bangladesh-climate-friendly-transition/

    Or this:

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/bangladesh

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/08/bangladesh-renewable-energy-transition-solar-power-roadblocks/

    Furthermore, the article appears to have it's facts wrong. (Some might call this "disinformation"). The high for June was 93F, with a fairly consistent 90-91F.... the article says June, but then links something mentioning April...

    https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/@1185241/historic?month=6&year=2023

    April temps seem a little warmer but I'm not seeing any evidence of this 105F day...

    • Yes - it was April when this very hot maximum came through. Here you go:

      https://www.accuweather.com/en/bd/dhaka/28143/april-weather/28143?year=2023

      There is currently a heat wave warning in place on the BMD website - they are in monsoon season at the moment so the humidity is crushing although the temps are in the range you noted. Wet bulb temps, which are in many ways a better measure of discomfort and danger, are around 27-30 C currently, varying from day to day - higher (for the most part) than the web bu

  • Imagine the same without the record heat wave. When things get mildly warmer than you like, which happens to be lower than most people... you start to feel light sensitive, nauseated, headaches, cold hands, and a bunch of other weird things sometimes together and sometimes not.

    But I always have a very narrow temperature range that's not "bad".

  • Meaning someone is using power. Is that being done efficiently? Or is someone who has power taking a bunch?

    And force people to share what they can. Don't care what you think or want. Pay for more generating capacity, or have more people living with you. It's your choice now.

  • Bangladesh must not be allowed to get AC because global warming.

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