A mischievous health message

It’s noteworthy that the Department of Health (DOH) has trained its eyes on the health issues of call center workers. It is well known that these workers are at risk of developing all sorts of illnesses ranging from ulcers to cardiovascular disease and even HIV/AIDS.

I think it can be said that the nature of their work, made worse by their odd working hours, makes it a challenge for them to shun unhealthy lifestyle habits which include excessive coffee drinking, smoking, alcohol and nonromantic sexual practices which, a call center worker once told me, is called Fubu—short for f**king buddies or something similar to it.

The worker was a graduate from an exclusive school and was in her early 20s. She was lured into accepting the job at a call center because of the high pay, which was almost double the starting salary in the other companies she applied in. After a year at her work, the toll on her health was too much a price to pay—certainly not worth the good pay she was getting.

Not a coffee drinker before she started her job, she has become dependent on it to be optimally functional at work. Her blood pressure was higher and her heart rate was much faster than normal. She had an irregular heart beat called atrial fibrillation despite an apparently normal structure of the heart. Apparently, her body systems had gone to hyperdrive, with her adrenaline perpetually increased that for the previous three days before she decided to see a doctor she could hardly sleep a wink, even when she was already off from work.

Completely recovered

She herself knew that her job was killing her. She quit and rested for a few weeks to stabilize all her medical conditions. She completely recovered and restarted her career again in another industry. We have not heard from her again after she has recovered but we trust that she’s much happier and healthier now in her new job.

We’re happy too that Health Undersecretary Enrique Tayag and the DOH have dropped that catchy but mischievous “SEX” tagline, an acronym for their campaign for a healthier lifestyle among call center workers. SEX is supposed to stand for “stress-free, eat the right foods and exercise.”

The DOH has revised the tagline to “Live Well, Work Well.”

Tayag is known to be an excellent communicator who makes his and the DOH’s message get through to the public effectively. But the SEX slogan would be doing it the wrong way. Yes, simple, catchy messages are good but that with an ambiguous and double-meaning implication can be disastrous and achieve just the opposite of what was intended.

Wrong notion

Many readers of newspapers just read the headlines and if they read that the “DOH advises call center workers to have more SEX,” some are likely to have wrong notions about it and might even think that engaging in sex is recommended to relieve call center workers of their stress at work.

Promoting this misconception will definitely be against the DOH campaign to curb the alarming increase of the incidence of HIV/AIDS among young urban professionals, especially call center workers. That was why call center companies were asked to take measures to stop the Fubu practice among their workers. Before, this was supposed to be done consensually in fire exits and unoccupied rooms.

A study done a few years ago by Dr. Edsel Salvana of the Philippine General Hospital  infectious disease department showed that three out of four call center workers surveyed have had “penetrative premarital sex.” The researchers recommended the removal of common facilities that could be used for sexual trysts, the strict monitoring of office decorum, a 24/7 in-house counseling service for emotionally distressed workers, implementing of rules and sanctions.

We’re glad that the DOH has promptly withdrawn its potentially risky SEX slogan before it could create more damage. Perhaps the next time it comes out with a similar pun for its health campaigns, it should test it out first with a limited group to find out any reaction and get whatever feedback and insights they might have overlooked. Funny messages are okay; but this “SEX” message was not “punny” at all.