CALL CENTRE WORK

from The Vacuum by Liam ORourke

If looking for work in Belfast, whether by looking on the Internet and newspapers or visiting recruitment agencies, one is struck by the amount of jobs available in call centres. Call centres are reputed less for being boring than fast becoming the sweatshops of the 21 st century. Global exploitation misery was the graffitti that appeared last year on the walls of a well-known call centre in Belfast. But how true is this? Objective data to assess working practices in call centres is becoming increasingly available. What we can gather of empirical studies and independent research on labour practices of call centres is this. The organizational structures of call centres are more or less similar. At the top, there is a chief executive officer, assisted by one or two vice presidents. Reporting to vice presidents are managers and team leaders. While managers are given generic assignments, team leaders have specific tasks. Trainers are more or less on a par with team leaders. Call centre agents are at the bottom of the hierarchy. Space management tends to reflect organizational structures: The design of the workplace is unique. As per the organizational hierarchy, there are separate floors or wings for top executives, managers and process teams. The entry of the employees are strictly restricted to their work area and the common spaces earmarked for recreation and refreshment. Within the work area of process teams, the space is organized as a factory row of clean, bare cubicles, each of which houses a computer and a telephone with designed headsets. The team leaders are usually positioned in a central point, which allows easy supervision. Work is monitored live with the help of specially designed software, computer networks and closed circuit cameras. Workplace interactions are continuously recorded/taped, which are randomly checked by the team leader. The degree of surveillance required at work is even comparable with the situations of 19th century prisons or Roman slave ships. A call-centre worker is a prime example of a cyber-coolie with precarious employment , low wages and no professional opportunities. The workforce in call centres is dual in nature, with the simultaneous existence of core (permanent) and periphery (non-permanent) workers. Managers and team leaders tend to constitute the core workers. Only a small proportion of recruited staff will become permanent employees. Employers are looking for two kinds of people. People who are completely brain dead, who accept commands and carry them out and then they want a smaller number of believers who will become managers and trainers. The organisation of work in call centres is atypical and flexible in terms of working hours and work pattern. A typical centre will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Companies will thus practice flexibility in working patterns where the agents work schedules do not have any fixed days off. Flexibility is also practised in the case of shift patterns, where the agents are expected to be flexible in adapting the hours of work if the firm requests them to change. The odd working hours in call centre negatively impact upon the workers and cause physical stress. Such working times conflict with the natural rhythm of the human body. The change inflicted on the routine day and night body responses, with regular work in the nights causes many physical ill effects that also lead to a lot of mental strain. Odd working hours also lead to disturbances in personal and social life.

The rhythm of work is imposed by automatic call distribution (ACD) technology (such as Avaya) on which call centres are based. The technology-induced efficiency at work requires the agents to submit to a highly controlled work regime which is similar to assembly-line manufacturing associated with Fordism and Taylorism. The agents are to meet daily targets, which are stipulated in terms of number of calls /e-mails successfully answered. These quotas are often fixed at a high level so the agent has to burn out to fulfill it. The performances are rated in terms of quantity and quality of work done. Mistakes will result in warnings. Linking performances with incentives and punitive actions condemns agents to continuous stress. A rising number of call centre workers complain of stress, panic attacks, depression, relationship troubles, alcoholism and eating disorders, multiple personality disorders and other psychiatric problems. Apart from headaches and eye strain due to computer work, there are also complaints of back pain, aches and pains in the neck, shoulders, arms or wrists. It was also noticed that workers do develop poor eating habits, overeating, smoking, excessive drinking of coffee and so on to cope with the psychological and physical stress. All these findings point towards the desirability of undertaking a detailed epidemiological study on call centre work.