Industrial Relations Journal 30:2
ISSN 0019-8692
‘An assembly line in the
head’: work and employee
relations in the call centre
Phil Taylor and Peter Bain
To date, academic studies of the call centre ‘sector’ remain
limited in scope. Here the authors attempt to remedy that
omission by analysing the recent and spectacular growth of
call centres in the UK, drawing on a wide variety of sources,
including two extensive surveys of developments in Scotland
during 1997.
No sector of British industry has attracted more publicity in recent months than
‘call centre’ operations. Newspapers and business journals have been awash with
projections of dramatic growth in both the number of call centres and the people
employed in them, up to 2.3 per cent of the total UK workforce by the year 2002
according to one authoritative survey (Datamonitor, 1998, 143). However, the optimism generated by predictions of spectacular expansion has been tempered by more
critical assessments in which call centres have been portrayed, for example, as the
new ‘dark satanic mills’ by one prominent consultant (IDS, 1997, 13). Indeed, it has
been claimed that Jeremy Bentham’s nineteenth century ‘Panopticon’, designed for
prisoner surveillance, is ‘truly the vision of the future’ for call centres (Fernie and
Metcalf, 1997, 3).
Academic studies of the call centre phenomenon remain limited in both number
and scope, particularly in the fields of the employment relationship and the labour
process. While this is hardly surprising given the recent, rapid growth of the sector,
we would suggest that academic research has been hampered, additionally, by confusion over what precisely constitutes a call centre. As IDS recognised (1997, 8) ‘not
every worker with a telephone and a computer screen is a call centre operator’;
estimates of the numbers employed have been inflated by the inclusion of existing,
often low-tech operations, re-classified as call centres. Conversely, in response to
critical media attention, some organisations, keen to differentiate the nature of their
❒ Phil Taylor is Lecturer in Industrial Relations in the Department of Management and Organisation
at the University of Stirling. Peter Bain is Lecturer in Industrial Relations in the Department of
Human Resource Management at the University of Strathclyde.
Two articles published in 1996 by R. Richardson and J.N. Marshall should be regarded as pathbreaking attempts to analyse developments.
 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Call centres 101
operations, have substituted the title ‘customer service centre’ or ‘customer satisfaction centre’ for the ‘call centre’ epithet. Confusion over definition has obscured the
significance of what is a distinctive industrial development.
In this article, we define a call centre as a dedicated operation in which computerutilising employees receive inbound – or make outbound – telephone calls, with
those calls processed and controlled either by an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
or predictive dialling system. The call centre is thus characterised by the integration
of telephone and VDU technologies. Although technological developments such as
the ACD system or Inter-active Voice Recognition (IVR) are central to the operation
of the call centre, the roots of their rapid growth can be located in the adoption by
organisations of vigorous, direct selling techniques and by perceived dramatic savings in costs and overheads emanating from the centralisation of ‘back office’ customer servicing functions.
These changes in operational methods originated in the USA, and in Britain were
first developed in the finance sector, where they were introduced in tandem with
the widespread closure of high street bank branches (BIFU, 1996, 6). However, these
new practices were quickly adapted to comply with conditions in the travel industry,
telecommunications, IT products and public utilities, as organisations in diverse
industrial sectors sought to extend customer service facilities and/or to gain direct
sales based upon exploiting a large existing customer database. Commenting upon
the intensified competitive environment reflected in the universality of round-theclock, 365 days a year operations in his industry, one finance sector manager identified the primary impulse as ‘once First Direct had done it, the rest of us had to
follow’ (Taylor and Bain, 1997, 33). In all sectors the driving force behind the decision
to establish call centres, either as the rationalisation of back office functions or as
entirely new creations, has been the pursuit of competitive advantage.
In this article our overall aim will be to analyse the reality of the call centre labour
process and associated employment relations issues. In so doing, it will be necessary
to touch upon debates concerning the nature of IT work and the modern organisation. Of greatest relevance to the call centre labour process are two areas of theoretical concern. Firstly, and most importantly, consideration will be given to the applicability of Foucauldian ‘electronic Panopticon’ perspectives, whose attraction has
proved irresistible to both popular commentators (Arkin, 1997) and academics
(Fernie and Metcalf, 1997) as they have attempted to theorise the nature and experience of call centre work. Secondly, we will make reference to the concept of
‘emotional labour’, as elaborated initially by Hochschild (1983).
We will then present evidence from research conducted between 1996 and 1998
on UK developments, drawing extensively on a survey of Scottish call centres (Taylor
and Bain, 1997). An analysis of the labour process which captures the complexities
of both the way work is organised and the way it is experienced by operators, will
be followed by a discussion of what are widely regarded within the industry as
central issues in the management of employee relations. In countering overly-pessimistic and deterministic accounts of employee relations we argue that call centre
managements face a plethora of problems concerning motivation and commitment,
labour turnover, the effectiveness of supervision and the delivery of quality and
quantity performance, which academic accounts have, to date, largely neglected. We
will, finally, develop an analysis of the extent of, and prospects for, trade union
organisation and employee resistance in which we comprehensively challenge the
view that electronic surveillance has rendered workers powerless.
Theoretical issues
The prison, the workplace and Foucault
Recent descriptions of the call centre labour process have elicited pictures of Orwell’s
‘Ministry of Truth’, with ‘Big Brother’ management exercising total control. This
characterisation has received some academic endorsement leading, in one study, to
102 Industrial Relations Journal
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the conclusion that ‘the possibilities for monitoring behaviour and measuring output
are amazing to behold – the ‘tyranny of the assembly line’ is but a Sunday school
picnic compared with the control that management can exercise in computer telephony’ (Fernie and Metcalf, 1997, 3). As Thompson and Warhurst (1998, 6) observe,
‘it is as if contemporary management theory has produced its own dystopian offspring’, whose accounts emphasise ‘captured subjectivity and labour trapped in totalising institutions combined with new, oppressive forms of regulation and surveillance . . .’. This judgement would certainly seem to apply to Fernie and Metcalf, who,
like many, have been transfixed by Foucault’s adaptation of Bentham’s prison Panopticon, seeing it as a prescient metaphor for the domination of electronic surveillance
in the contemporary organisation. In their study of payment systems, they quote
extensively from Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and then assert,
In call centres the agents are constantly visible and the supervisor’s power has indeed been
‘rendered perfect’ – via the computer monitoring screen – and therefore its actual use unnecessary.
(1997, 10)
Later restating this claim, one of the authors expresses her unequivocal conviction
that electronic surveillance creates total managerial control (Fernie, 1998, 8). A
thorough empirical critique of this simplistic and mistaken application of the Panopticon metaphor to the call centre labour process will form the latter part of this article.
Recent assessments have criticised the application of Foucauldian perspectives to
the labour process. As several writers have emphasised, ‘the factory and the office
are neither prison nor asylum, their social architectures never those of the total institution’ (McKinlay and Taylor, 1998, 175; Thomson and Ackroyd, 1995; Lyon 1993).
The dynamic process of capital accumulation and the contested nature of power,
authority and control in the workplace creates and reflects fundamental differences
between the workplace and institution. Further, to describe the workplace as a ‘carceral regime’ characterised by all-encompassing surveillance is to erect a model of
complete control which understates both the voluntary dimension of labour and the
managerial need to elicit commitment from workers. Finally, whether from a crude
reading of Foucault or from ‘the danger in a ‘totalizing dynamic’ which disables
critique and disarms the very possibility of meaningful opposition’ (McKinlay and
Taylor, 1998, 176) there has been a tendency to accept the most pessimistic interpretation of Foucault’s views which, in practice, entails a diminution or dismissal of the
importance of resistance.
In accepting the view that the electronic Panopticon totally dominates the workforce, Fernie and Metcalf disavow the possibilities for collective organisation and
resistance. This position coincides with a recent tendency in labour process theory
where a preoccupation with individual subjectivity has obscured the importance of
collective, trade union organisation as a more developed form of resistance. For
example, the introductory chapter of a recent collection in the labour process series
entitled ‘Resistance and Power in Organizations’ contains no reference to trade union
activity or organisation (Jermier, Knights and Nord, 1994, 1–24). Missing from this
version of labour process theory is a focus on the connections between the labour
process as experienced by workers and the development of collective expressions
of resistance.
Emotional labour
In her examination of the flight attendant’s labour process, Hochschild posited, ‘In
the course of doing this physical and mental labour, she is doing something more,
something I define as emotional labour’ (1983, 6). This labour which requires one ‘to
induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces
the proper state of mind in others . . . calls for a coordination of mind and feeling’
(1983, 7). If we include the range of appropriate telephone manners and behaviours
particularly the ever-present necessity to ‘smile down the phone’ within Hochschild’s
definition of ‘outward countenance’, it is evident that the call centre operator per Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
Call centres 103
forms emotional labour. Indeed, the emotional labour literature provides valuable
insights. For example, examining the proposition that rigorous managerial surveillance ‘can completely transform the bodies of emotional labourers’, Taylor and Tyler
(1997, 16) conclude ‘on the basis of empirical research . . . that managerial control
and prescription of organisational bodies is never “total”’. Their research uncovered
numerous examples of telephone sales agents expressing deviant behaviour. However, we will examine whether the concept of emotional labour is sufficient, on its
own, to capture the totality of the subjective experience of the call centre operator’s
labour process.
Research methodology
Detailed case studies of the contemporary office (Baldry, Bain and Taylor, 1998) have
highlighted the emergence of call centres as an increasingly important development
in the organisation of white-collar work. These studies stimulated a two-year investigation of the UK call centre industry, including two extensive surveys for Scottish
Enterprise of the call centre sector in Scotland, undertaken between March and November 1997. Survey One was based on a telephone questionnaire with managers to
secure basic data on workforce size, composition, industrial sector and location. This
survey was continuous, extending beyond the closing date for the full questionnaire
(which formed the core of the second survey) and including those centres which did
not complete the more detailed survey. With basic data on 108 of the 119 call centres
operating in Scotland in November 1997, we achieved a near-complete profile of
the sector.
The more detailed Survey Two involved comprehensive analysis of a 12-page questionnaire distributed, following telephone contact, to managers of all call centres
known to the researchers in May/June 1997. Questions on key employee relations
issues were formulated following consultation with leading HR and Call Centre
Association personnel. Questionnaires were sent to the 85 centres identified and 55
were returned; a response rate of 64.7 per cent from the targeted list. Set against the
final known total of 119 call centres we have a 46.2 per cent sample, covering 52.5
per cent of Scottish employees. Given the number and complexity of the questions,
this can be regarded as a very high return rate.
Key issues, identified through provisional analysis of completed questionnaires,
were then explored in interviews with centre managers, representative of the industry in terms of size and function. To enable an even fuller examination of these issues,
the authors facilitated focus group discussions involving a similarly representative
sample of managers and supervisors from eleven different centres. The statistical
analysis of Surveys 1 and 2 and insight from these qualitative sources formed the
bulk of the Scottish Enterprise report (Taylor and Bain, 1997).
This article draws on both the Scottish Enterprise report and additional sources.
Attendance at Call Centre Association and Glasgow Development Agency conferences yielded valuable insights into the industry’s current preoccupations. Several
visits in a three month period to a financial services’ call centre provided a more
rounded picture of operations. Work on outbound and inbound tasks was observed,
and free access was granted to interview employees, supervisors and managers. As
an important corrective to managerial perceptions, interviews were recorded with
21 agents/operators from twelve different call centres, providing indispensable information on the subjective experiences of work. These were particularly useful where
we succeeded in gaining interviews with managers and workers within the same
centre. The strength of both quantitative and qualitative evidence accumulated provides a solid basis for our interpretation of the nature of call centre work and organisation. Evidence on trade union developments comes principally from interviews with
national and regional officials of the six main unions active in the sector. Attendance
at the Financial Services Direct Staff Forum, comprising most trade unions and staff
associations in the financial sector, yielded rich data.
104 Industrial Relations Journal
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Research findings
Calculating from full data for 108 centres we estimate that 16,000 were employed in
Scotland in November 1997. The most important sector was ‘financial services’ with
36.9 per cent of the total workforce, followed by ‘consumer and subscriber products’
(17.4 per cent) and ‘telecommunications’ (15.4 per cent). In terms of function, 48 per
cent of centres utilised both inbound and outbound operations, an equal number
were devoted to inbound calls alone, while a mere 4 per cent performed only outbound telemarketing or telesales.
Table 1 displays data on organisational size, and demonstrates the polarity
between small and large operations. While there were fewer than 50 employees in
46 centres, a profile confirmed by a UK-wide survey which found that ‘four call
centres in ten employ less than 50 staff’ (Mitial, 1996), these accounted for only 8 per
cent of Scottish employment. In contrast, 72.9 per cent worked in centres employing
150 or more, and over a third of the Scottish workforce were in establishments
employing more than 500. With a mean 138 employees, the average call centre in
Scotland is larger than the average workplace size calculated by WIRS 1 (118) and
WIRS 3 (102) (Daniel and Millward, 1983; Millward et al., 1992). These figures give
no support to, for example, Handy’s optimistic anticipation of the disappearance of
the large-scale office which intensive IT utilisation would deliver (1985, 25–6). Given
the size of planned operations (eg. 5,000 at First Direct) and the projected growth of
existing centres (eg. 1,300 at Kwik Fit by December, 1998), work in white-collar factories will be the future experience of the overwhelming majority of call centre
employees. Recognising that perhaps the single most important raison d’etre of the
call centre is the centralisation of operations delivering putative cost reductions and
economies of scale, these developments are to be expected.
Parallelling this tendency to organisational centralisation is a pattern of geographical concentration, with the overwhelming majority of call centres and employment
located in the two largest cities; Glasgow with 49.6 per cent of Scottish call centres
and 45.5 per cent of total employment is followed by Edinburgh with 19.3 per cent
and 15.4 per cent respectively. The main five locations account for 79 per cent of call
centres and 84.1 per cent of total employment. The technological determinism which
suffused predictions that information and communication technologies (ICTs) would
lead to the widespread dispersal of call centre operations has been confounded by
the reality of developments. In the UK, call centres have been established primarily
in the main conurbations, with Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle/Sunderland at the centre
of important regional concentrations (Mitial, 1996, YHDA, 1996).
Analysis of workforce composition reveals several significant features. The Scottish
workforce is young with 69 per cent of employees under 35 years and 31.6 per cent
Table 1: Numbers of call centres and numbers/percentages of employees by call centre size
Size of
call centre
⬍750
500–749
200–499
150–199
100–149
50–99
25–49
⬍25
Total
Numbers of
call centres
3
3
15
8
13
20
24
22
108
Total numbers
employed
3060
1924
4469
1396
1507
1334
861
336
14887
Percentage
employed
Cumulative
percentage
20.6%
12.9%
30.0%
9.4%
10.1%
9.0%
5.8%
2.3%
100%
20.6%
33.5%
63.5%
72.9%
83.0%
92.0%
97.8%
100%
(Source: Survey 1, Scottish Enterprise Report, n=108).
 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
Call centres 105
Table 2: Full/part-time composition of Scottish workforce, 1997 and at January 2000
Full-time
%
Part-time
%
1997
Jan. 2000 (projected)
66.5
50.4
1997
Jan. 2000 (projected)
34.5
49.6
(Sources: Survey 1 for 1997 figures (n=108), Survey 2 for 2000 figures (n=33).
below 25 years of age. With 32.6 per cent male employees and 67.4 per cent female,
the call centre is a major locus of women’s employment, with part-time working
more pronounced among women (36.4 per cent) than men (25 per cent). Nevertheless,
almost two thirds of Scottish employees were full-time (Table 2), a proportion which
concurs with a UK-wide survey (Mitial 1996). However, when asked to estimate the
contractual composition of their workforces in January 2000, organisations predicted
a significant increase in part-time employment, anticipating near equivalent proportions of full-time and part-time staff. These figures are the aggregate expression
of a series of decisions by management to significantly increase recruitment of parttime permanent staff. Finally, the vast majority of staff (86.4 per cent) were directly
employed by a call centre with just over one in eight (13.6 per cent) supplied by
agencies.
Survey 2 reveals substantial evidence of ‘flat’ organisational structures in call
centres. Operators/agents made up 71.3 per cent of staff, other clerical workers 11.6
per cent and professional/technical grades 4 per cent of the Scottish workforce.
Supervisory grades accounted for only 8.8 per cent of staff and managers 4.3 per
cent. These high ratios of operators/agents to supervisors/managers statistically
demonstrate the constraints on career advancement and promotion opportunities,
which, as we discuss later, are widely-recognised concerns within the sector.
The utilisation of monitoring and surveillance measures can be seen in Table 3
where the nine most common quantitative measurement and qualitative assessment
techniques are listed. The measurement of ‘wrap-up’ times and a range of methods
for appraising customer satisfaction are also employed. These statistics are remarkable testimony to the degree of electronic and human monitoring prevalent across
the sector. The intensity of surveillance efforts in certain locations is even more striking when one considers that all nine of the listed measures operate in almost a quarter
(23.1 per cent) of centres. A positive correlation between call centre size and intensity
of monitoring seems to be confirmed by our data. Whereas the mean size of the call
centre workforce in Scotland is 138, in centres where all nine measures operate it
is 248.
Operating alongside these control measures are techniques aimed at eliciting
Table 3: Utilisation of monitoring measures
Form of
monitoring
% of call
centres
Form of
monitoring
% of call
centres
Politeness towards customer
Length of calls
Adherence to set procedures
Call taping/review
Adherence to script/form of words
84.6
76.9
73.1
69.2
65.4
Content of calls
Satisfaction measures
Quality audit
Time between calls
65.4
57.7
53.8
48.1
(Source: Survey 2, Scottish Enterprise Report, n=55).
106 Industrial Relations Journal
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employee commitment and involvement. Table 4 shows the extent to which the five
most commonly used employee involvement (EI) methods are adopted but the survey identified an additional 24 different techniques, including ‘1–1 meetings’ and
‘Observe and Coach Sessions’.
Finally, evidence of the extent of trade unionism and other representative arrangements shows that nine unions have a membership base in 27 of the 55 Scottish centres
(49.1 per cent) who responded to Survey 2. BIFU, CWU and UNISON have members
in the greatest number of call centres. PTC, MSF, TGWU, GMB/APEX have either
members in more than one call centre or a substantial membership in one particular
organisation. TSSA and USDAW each have representation in a smaller centre. A full
analysis of density awaits the completion of ongoing surveys, but it is clear that in
several locations there are very high levels of union membership. In addition to this
widespread trade union presence, 10.9 per cent of call centres surveyed have staff
associations and 43.6 per cent of the sample report the existence of health and safety
committees. However, at the other extreme, 30.9 per cent of establishments say they
have no employee representative structures.
‘An assembly line in the head’: The call centre labour process
While forms of ‘measured daywork’ have existed for some years in offices with high
IT and VDU/telephone usage, producing huge increases in the volume, speed and
intensity of work (Baldry, Bain and Taylor, 1998, 342), the call centre takes the
measurement of white-collar output to new levels. What makes the call centre labour
process distinctive is the integration of telephone and VDU technologies. As Richardson and Marshall observe, ICTs have been extended ‘further into the customer interface’ as the ‘mature technology’ of the telephone has been exploited in innovative
ways (1996, 310). It is important, however, to distinguish between inbound and outbound operations, which combine VDU and telephone technologies in differing ways
and make varying demands upon call centre employees.
Central to inbound operations is the ACD system which receives incoming calls
and automatically channels them to waiting operators or ‘agents’ according to preprogrammed instructions, removing the need for switchboard operators. If all agents
are engaged on calls, those waiting are ‘stacked’ and then distributed, in sequence,
to operators as they are ‘freed-up’. ‘Agents’ or, to use the currently fashionable appellations, ‘customer service representatives’ or ‘advisors’, sit in front of a VDU and
keyboard and take the call through a headset comprising an earpiece and small
microphone.
Communication between agent and customer involves differing combinations of
query and response but, in all cases, necessitates reference to the computer screen
as the operator retrieves, adds or manipulates data. Calls may involve simple
requests, for a bank balance or for booking a train or concert ticket. Others may
require complex or detailed responses concerning, for example, the redemption
options on an insurance policy or, the diagnosis of a faulty PC perhaps in a foreign
language. Therefore, within a labour process composed of common defining charac-
Table 4: Extent of EI and communication methods
Method
% of call
centres
Method
% of call centres
Team briefings
Suggestion schemes
Quality circles
98.1
69.2
44.2
Newsletters
Videos
82.7
53.8
(Source: Survey 2, Scottish Enterprise Report, n=55).
 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
Call centres 107
teristics, important variations exist along what can best be described as a continuum
of complexity.
Outbound operations, concerned largely with telesales or telemarketing, have
recently seen the implementation of what might be considered ACD technologies in
reverse. Predictive dialling systems work their way through databases of customers’
phone numbers and, in accordance with programmed requirements, automatically
dial the number, connecting operator to customer. Prior to, or at the precise moment
of connection, the relevant customer details appear on the screen enabling the agent
to make informed communication. In outbound operations the onus is placed upon
the agent to either sell, or create interest in, a particular product or service.
The simple inbound/outbound dichotomy does not capture the full range of possibilities for in a growing number of call centres, operators, when dealing with
incoming queries, are also required to attempt to sell from a menu of products. For
example, in financial services, a banking call centre competes with an insurance call
centre in selling a service which traditionally was the ‘product’ of the latter, and vice
versa. In the utilities sector, gas and electricity centres compete in a shared energy
supply market.
Despite both this qualification and the subtle, yet significant, differences between
inbound and outbound tasks, there is a common and defining call centre labour
process in which operators scan and interpret information on VDU screens, manipulate keyboards to enter or retrieve data and simultaneously communicate with
phone-based customers. It is the integration of the telephone and computer technologies which both structures this labour process and generates the extreme levels of
surveillance, monitoring and speed-up which are manifest in the call centre.
Recent technological developments have sought to minimise wasteful manual
operations and maximise the ‘real time’ agents spend with customers. The consequences are both speed-up and intensification of work as time gaps between calls
are progressively reduced. Many ACD systems have voice recognition capabilities
which help to ‘. . . speed up the interface time between caller and agent’ (Richardson
and Marshall, 1996, 310). The impact of power/predictive dialling on outbound operators is similar as an insurance centre manager explained:
Dialling manually you can only make 30 calls and maybe speak to 10 people. The power dialler
will get 80 phone calls and you’ll speak to every single one of them in a 4-hour shift and that’s
the difference - 10 to 80. (Focus group, 24.9.97)
However, in the drive to reduce costs and secure competitive advantage it is impossible to disentangle the objective of speed-up from the widespread implementation
of surveillance and monitoring measures. One widely-used package boasts the following potentialities:
The Real-Time Adherence module . . . continuously monitors ACD real-time messages associated
with each ACD position. These messages indicate when an agent signs in and out, initiates an
incoming or outgoing call, and enters after-call wrap-up. . . the software constantly tracks each
agent’s actual work state and compares it to the schedule. The moment a discrepancy arises. . .
the agent’s name and the amount of time involved [is noted and] each notification or alarm is
color-coded to show the nature of the problem . . . Supervisors can create detailed alarm summary
reports on the agents they have been monitoring. Supervisors can see an agent’s status at any
given moment and take appropriate action to meet the center’s performance objectives. (TCS
Management Group publicity)
While software technology such as this permits extensive monitoring it does not spell
the end of human supervision. Employee performance data, electronically displayed
or in hard copy print-outs, still requires interpretation. If improvements are deemed
necessary the team leader or manager, in person, will coach, cajole or discipline the
‘under-performing’ operator. Active supervisory intervention is equally central to the
assessment of taped conversations. No electronic system can summon an agent to a
coaching session, nor highlight the deficiencies of their dialogue with the customer.
Call centres rely on a combination of technologically driven measurements and
human supervisors whose job it is to interpret and act on those figures.
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Both the forms and extent of monitoring (Table 3) expose significant developments
in the Taylorisation of white-collar work. Elsewhere we have analysed the huge
increases in managerial control, the routinisation and fragmentation of tasks consequent upon intensive IT/screen use and target-driven customer demand, which
characterise much contemporary office work (Baldry, Bain and Taylor, 1998). In call
centres these developments are taken to a more advanced stage. The use of scripts,
either in the form of typewritten prompt or on-screen template, is an attempt to
structure the very speech of workers into a series of predictable, regulated and routinised queries and responses. Whilst scripts are not universally utilised, even in
inbound operations where they are most common, and despite, perhaps, a partial
relaxation in their employment, they remain, nevertheless, a distinctive and widespread feature of the call centre sector. To the extent that they are utilised, they
represent a qualitative transformation in the degree to which management attempts
to exert control over the white-collar labour process. The use of tightly-defined scripts
combined with the taping of each operator’s every conversation, to ensure compliance, represents an unprecedented level of attempted control which must be considered a novel departure.
Call centre operators have joined, with flight attendants, shop assistants, fast food
and waiting staff, the swelling ranks of service workers whose performance at work
is shaped by the objective of customer satisfaction. All these employees, in various
ways, are required to conform to pre-determined phrases, scripts, and modes of
behaviour and delivery. If anything distinguishes the call centre worker it is both
the extent to which they are subject to monitoring and the unrelenting pressure to
conform to acceptable forms of speech, whether scripted or not. It is difficult to conceive of another occupation where the entire working shift requires the articulation
of the same vocal patterns in such a repetitive and uninterrupted sequence. However,
as the rich testimony of call centre operators makes clear, it is not the performance
of emotional labour alone, but rather the particular combination of pressures, which
makes the labour process so demanding.
An operator has to listen intently to the voice on the phone, think through and
promptly articulate an appropriate response (or repeat a script), whilst simultaneously scanning a VDU screen and manipulating a keyboard. The customer’s
voice may be distant, partially audible or in an unfamiliar accent. The screen may
be difficult to read because of glare. Sore throats and ‘voice loss’ are common (BIFU,
1997) as are the physical strains to fingers, wrists and arms which repetitive keyboard
usage induces. It is no surprise to find that operators testify to levels of exhaustion,
physical, mental and emotional, which are directly related to the length of the shift
and the sheer intensity of the job. The following quote is quite typical.
I suffer from mental fatigue; your brain gets overloaded. Although taking enquiries is not necessarily a difficult job, it is when you get all these culminating factors coming through, mostly the
repetitiveness, call after call, and you get annoyed about something and you just think ‘no’! . . .
As a home insurance advisor I use the same script, so you do the same thing every day, repeating
the same things, asking the same questions, getting the same answers back. (Female, 21 yrs,
24.11.96)
Inbound operators, aware that their own output and performance is being monitored
electronically, are also confronted with prominent digital displays, making highly
visible the number of stacked calls waiting to be answered. They may also be cajoled
or encouraged by supervisors to deal with backlogs. It may be difficult, if not impossible, for the operator to speed up, yet s(he) is conscious that the current call must
be terminated promptly, in order to take the next one. We describe this as a situation
in which the operator has ‘an assembly-line in the head’, always feeling under pressure and constantly aware that the completion of one task is immediately followed
by another.
Monotony, repetitiveness and stress can be exacerbated by the imposition of stated
or indicative targets, which relate not just to the number of calls taken, but to the
percentage which are deemed successful. In one insurance company, where agents
were expected to convert one in six calls into policies, a particularly acute source of
 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
Call centres 109
stress emanated from the fact that all calls received were counted against the
operator, even general enquiries which could not be translated into sales. Operators
are placed under increasing pressure to convert ‘potentials into actuals’.
The ramp-up of production targets is an additional and common source of
pressure.
There was no pressure at first, it wasn’t hard sell, it was a case of ‘do you want me to arrange
it for you?’ After three months it had become, ‘why don’t you want it?’. We were on the phone
from 9 till 5 with a half hour break%We were then put onto 12 hour shifts, 8 till 8, and the
conversion rate was one in four, at least. At first, it had been fine, the money was good%but
then I got depressed, it was just one of the worst years of my life. (Interview, female insurance
advisor, 20 yrs, 11.12.96)
Because many employees find it difficult to cope with rejection and hostility from
potential customers, sales jobs are perceived as more emotionally draining. The brief
respite between calls which operators were able to exploit when using manual
phones is being rapidly eroded with the introduction of predictive dialling. Nuisance
and abusive calls and, worse, sexual harassment, are widely experienced by both
inbound and outbound operators and are a source of incalculable stress.
Just as call centres differ in the degree to which surveillance and monitoring measures operate, so too is there variation between centres in the intensity with which
operators experience these pressures. One important variable is the relative importance the employer places on the quantity of output as opposed to the quality of
service they are seeking to provide. However, even in the most quality driven call
centre it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the labour process is intrinsically
demanding, repetitive and, frequently, stressful.
Managerial dilemmas
The staff element has to be absolutely right. You get a golden two minutes when the customer
decides whether to take out a mortgage. If the rapport isn’t established in that two minutes, then
it costs your organisation. I believe that we are getting it badly wrong at the moment because
we are abusing the people who are entrusted to our care. Days are boring, repetitive and mindless
and staff are having a mind-numbing experience with no chance of promotion because of the flat
structure. There is a call centre in the UK that knows when their staff have diarrhoea, because
they monitor toilet visits. We know staff have a mind of their own and because of all these things,
they are uncomfortable and sometimes unhappy. (Speech by mortgage company manager to the
CCA Conference, 2/7/97)
This passage highlights concerns which are widely-held by management. The consequences of a fiercely competitive environment and a demanding labour process, combined with labour market pressures, are generating a series of profound problems
for employers. Firstly, as the role of call centres has ‘shifted from simple inquiry
handling to customer relationship management’ (Frenkel and Donoghue, 1996, 2)
and organisations prioritise ‘value-adding’ business, the importance attached to the
quality of operator contact in that ‘golden two minutes’ has grown. Demotivated,
stressed-out staff are less capable of sensitive and responsive interaction with the
customer. Surveillance and compulsion alone cannot guarantee productive performance.
Secondly, many centres experience high levels of labour turnover, which
employers attribute in large part to the intrinsic pressures of the job, and to flat
structures which curtail promotion opportunities. Annual turnover rates in excess of
30 per cent are far from uncommon and cause deep concern. A majority of organisations surveyed anticipate an increase in employee movement between centres, as
the continued growth in the sector generates shortages in skilled and trained staff.
Operators, and here the youth of the workforce appears to be an important factor,
are constantly comparing alternative employment possibilities, drawing on a fertile
body of collective informal knowledge which permits comparison of the salaries,
bonuses and conditions on offer in centres close to their current employment. Stories
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circulating the industry are symptomatic of the deep worry many managers have of
an ‘overheating’ labour market. According to one HR manager, when a newly-established call centre advertised for staff, 230 employees from a neighbouring centre,
keen to escape notoriously poor working conditions and attracted by better pay,
applied for jobs.
Managers have made a series of tactical and strategic responses in an attempt to
overcome these problems. Recognising that over-strict adherence to scripts can lead
to both operator fatigue and customer dissatisfaction, a number of centres have
moved to flexible scripting or jettisoned them completely. However, these tactics
have not delivered straightforward solutions, as some centres have returned to scripting, on the grounds that technical and business considerations impose limitations
upon the amount of discretion that can be ceded to employees. This points to a more
general dilemma which appears irresolvable. If operators are driven too hard with
targets and quantitative output measurement, then the quality of service may suffer,
as motivation and commitment are adversely affected. If on the other hand, there is
an over-emphasis on informality with a relaxation of targets and surveillance, the
centre may not turn over sufficient business. It is difficult to overstate the extent to
which this quantity/quality dilemma preoccupies call centre managers.
There is widespread acknowledgement of the counterproductive effects of seven
or eight hour shifts, during which it is difficult to sustain high levels of commitment.
The growing preference for part-time permanent staff (Table 2), seen as able to
deliver optimal performance for the entire duration of a shift, reflects both a recognition of the inherently stressful nature of the job and the desirability of shift patterns
which correspond to the peaks of customer demand in the late afternoons, evenings
or weekends.
To counter labour market pressures, many employers have introduced a range of
financial incentives, including individual and group bonuses, loyalty payments and
straightforward pay increases, as well as non-financial inducements, in the attempt
to retain staff. Recruitment strategies targeting, particularly women returners, have
been inspired not just by the search for untapped sources of labour but by the perception that these more mature workers will be less ‘difficult’, more loyal and will provide a stabilising influence.
The major thrust of management’s efforts to deal with the problems which derive
from the demanding nature of work lies in the operation of the wide array of
employee involvement techniques we documented in Table 4. The extensive application of communication and involvement methods is, indeed, further evidence that
intensive electronic monitoring cannot secure the requisite quality performance from
operators. It would be wrong to assume, however, that these methods actually
deliver the levels of motivation and commitment which management seek.
Teamworking, almost universally employed in call centres, best exposes the practical limitations. The development of genuine teamworking, involving, at the very
least, verbal interaction between team members is inevitably inhibited by the organisation of work. An operator, answering a continuous flow of calls and probably partitioned from other desks, is thus separated physically and audibly from other team
members, isolated both by the architecture and an individualising labour process.
At the same time the quantitative imperative often takes precedence over considerations of team building. The need to sustain a high level of calls during operational
hours and the reluctance to distract operators from telephone tasks means that many
team meetings are either cursory or non-existent. In many centres the main purposes
of teamworking are to stimulate a sense of collective identity and to provide a basis
for competition within the workforce, a combination of ideological, cultural and
material objectives.
This brief account of employers’ difficulties and their attempted resolution challenges the tenability of the ‘electronic Panopticon’ perspective. For if supervisory
power has indeed been ‘rendered perfect’ through technology and surveillance then,
logically, these problems would not exist. It might also be instructive to pose a simple
question. If electronic surveillance and monitoring is so dominant, and managerial
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Call centres 111
control over the workforce so total, why do call centre managers bother to employ
such a welter of communication and involvement techniques?
Employee resistance—‘the best-laid schemes of mice and
men . . .’
There are growing signs of resistance. The more management monitor, the more resistance there
is. You can see this pattern developing where the more management takes time off the workers,
the more workers try to take time back from management. (Interview, BIFU official, 30.6.98)
The final, and most important, problem with the ‘electronic Panopticon’ perspective
is that it neglects both the actuality of, and potential for, employee resistance.
Although Fernie states ‘case study visits have provided the opportunity to talk at
length with call centre workers’ providing ‘some very positive feedback’, no reference
is made to any form of employee resistance (1998, 11). Fernie and Metcalf only mention resistance when citing two examples quoted elsewhere (Arkin, 1997) but this
leads them to concede that ‘disaffected agents still find ways of avoiding work’ (1997,
10). However, the possibility that these individual expressions of worker resistance
are, or may become, widespread – or, more importantly, that they can take a collective form – is not considered. Our research has revealed evidence of both individual
and collective forms of employee resistance.
(a) ‘Individual’ forms of resistance
It is not uncommon for workers to give the impression of being engaged on calls
when no interaction is actually taking place. Despite the existence of intense monitoring, a number of interviewees also reported being able, albeit to a limited extent, to
disengage from the waiting queue of calls. Additionally, employees indicated ways
in which they were able to influence both the basis for, and the output of, bonus
calculations by taking various kinds of ‘deviant’ action. Workers are not automatons
and, to varying degrees and in a variety of ways, will seek to combat or circumvent
what they perceive to be unacceptable managerial practice. Where individual,
oppositional practices are deeply embedded in particular workplace cultures and are
supported, shared or emulated by other disaffected workers, they adopt a quasicollective form.
In one financial services centre, part-time workers operated a strategy for prising
improvements from a reluctant management by threatening to leave when staff shortages loomed.
I handed in my notice two months ago and they said, ‘Don’t leave’. I knew they were going to
say that, which is why I did it because I wanted a different shift. I wanted a Wednesday and a
Saturday shift and I said I was leaving if I didn’t get it, so I got it . . . other people started doing
it and when they caught on they went mad, but there is nothing they can do. (Interview, 22.1.97)
Furthermore, in both union and non-union environments, the frequency with which
operators described the limitations of the monitoring equipment was clearly related
not only to the widespread resentment at its utilisation, but also to a collective desire
to defeat its purpose. The following comments from employees reveal a spirit of
opposition, and confirm Tyler and Taylor’s observation that, ‘with experience
[agents] learn to ascertain when their conversation is being directly supervised’
(1997, 17).
With the new system you know when they are listening in. (Interview, 12.2.97)
They could tape calls . . . but you could always tell when the calls were being taped.
(Interview, 17.12.97)
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These emotional labourers develop sophisticated way of wresting back control when
talking to customers. An operator in a telecommunications centre described how,
Some customers are just a pain in the arse and they treat you like dirt. But I’ve worked out a
way of saying things that puts them in their place. If you choose your words carefully, there’s
no way they can pull you in and dig you up for what you’ve said. (Interview, 20.5.98)
The actual performance of the technology seems to fall some way short of ‘rendering
perfect’ the monitoring of the electronic Panopticon.
Some of the more outrageous team-building exercises are treated with considerable
cynicism and in this television subscriber centre were defeated through collective
ridicule.
If you can imagine a supermarket-sized building, we would be sitting in rows, one after the other
. . . if you sold something the whole row had to do a Mexican wave and at the end of the shift
the whole office would do a Mexican wave. If the marketing people sold something the team
leaders would stand up and shout ‘sausages’! But they don’t do any of that now because people
took the piss. (Interview, 24.3.98)
Managerial attempts to use a combination of ‘Stakhanovism’ and peer pressure to
increase output are frequently thwarted by tacit collectivism. In one non-union
centre, the individual target for sales appointments, although never openly stated,
was known to be twelve over a four-hour evening shift. Expressing satisfaction at
the downfall of an employee who had been temporarily successful in securing 25
appointments through pressuring customers, the interviewee continued, ‘They try to
play you off one against the other, but most of us try to keep relaxed about it’
(Interview, 8.8.97). Marshall and Richardson observed that close monitoring of sales
performance in the finance sector had ‘caused internal dissension and has given way
to team-based performance evaluation’ (1996, 1855).
Collective forms of resistance
Our survey demonstrates that more than half of call centres in Scotland had a union
or staff association. Other recent research concludes that ‘unions do matter’ in the
sector. The widespread union presence in call centres newly opened by major companies is to some extent due to the transfer of long-established collective bargaining
arrangements from other parts of their operations (IDS 1997, 13). Several unions
‘inherited’ a significant membership as employees transferred internally to new call
centres and/or some unions were able to utilise their overall strength within an
organisation to gain entry. Conversely, some employers who recognise unions have
endeavoured to exclude them from newly-established centres.
Having won the right to address new employees during induction, some unions
have recruited large numbers of new workers (CWU, FSDSF, 1998). Identified as a
promising sector for recruitment, financial services has seen an unusually high level
of inter-union co-operation (FSDSF, 1998). High union densities have been achieved
in several centres including Commercial Union and TSB Phonebank (90⫹ per cent).
Woolwich Direct (85 per cent) and Eagle Star, Chelmsford (78 per cent). BT agency
staff are also highly unionised. The first dedicated Inland Revenue call centre in East
Kilbride will operate under conditions negotiated by the PCS. Of some significance,
in terms of finance sector trends, is the abandonment of the staff forum at Royal Sun
Alliance with the MSF anticipating recognition (FSDSF, 1998). Proposed legislative
rights are focusing union efforts on centres where they have hopes of either automatic
recognition or success in a workplace ballot.
Conditions in many call centres have already prompted significant numbers to see
the relevance of trade unionism, particularly where unions have been responsive to
employee demands for protection at work. As the CWU’s recruitment material says,
‘our job is to ensure no one is bullied, harassed or treated unfairly’ (1997). Given the
practice of individual resistance which we have documented and the existence of
widespread workforce discontent (Austin Knight, 1997), the potential clearly exists
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Call centres 113
for these manifestations to be channeled into the more effective forms of trade union
organisation and action.
There are many examples of how that potential is being translated into reality.
Already, unions negotiate on standard bargaining items (pay, holidays, hours, shifts,
overtime premiums) with many organisations operating in diverse product markets.
On issues more specific to call centre work, unions have either negotiated agreements
or are mounting campaigns. Tea-breaks have been introduced at Eagle Star, Southampton, following union pressure, and are included in the PCS/Inland Revenue
agreement for East Kilbride. BIFU is currently campaigning on its policy of linking
reward systems to length of service and has negotiated improved maternity leave
for the predominantly (65 per cent) female staff at First Direct. Successful union
campaigns, like that conducted by the CWU in securing the reinstatement of 15 Glasgow members suspended by BT, have been consciously utilised to build membership.
Facility time for workplace union representatives has always been crucial for effective representation and strengthening union organisation. To negotiate facility
arrangements in call centres, as a number of unions have done, is no small achievement, given managerial insistence on employees being continuously engaged on calls.
A good example is the agreement between British Telecom and CWU where representatives are entitled to one day per week facility time for every 100 members.
Where unions have been sufficiently strong they have raised their concerns with
employers over monitoring and surveillance. Following complaints from customer
service advisors over BT’s practices, the CWU successfully negotiated a Code of Practice. (Hazards 53, 1996; BIFU 1997). This agreement, although not eliminating call
monitoring, does impose stringent controls. Information can be gathered only with
the employee’s knowledge and during formal processes such as quality checks and
performance reviews. After counselling, all tapes must be wiped in the employee’s
presence and personal identification removed from those retained. Additionally,
there must be no monitoring of personal calls. Although concerns remain that managers may ignore the terms of the agreement, it is nevertheless regarded by call
centre sector unions as a model, and was used by the PCS during negotiations over
conditions in the Inland Revenue’s first, greenfield call centre (PCS, 1998). The
resulting agreement states that monitoring software ‘will not be used to unnecessarily
pressurise staff and should not impose an oppressive working environment’. Both
the CWU and BIFU annual conferences have passed motions condemning the growing use of telephone call monitoring by management without employees’ knowledge
(Hazards 59, 1997).
BIFU’s analysis attributes occupational voice loss to stress suffered by operators
induced by monitoring practices (BIFU, 1997). This confirms evidence from a Communication Workers of America survey which found that ‘electronic monitoring as
a major stress factor in the workplace’ was linked to feelings of depression and deep
anxiety (Hazards 53, 1996). Accordingly, BIFU advises members to insist on the
implementation of the 1992 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
under which employers are required to carry out risk assessments and, further,
remove ‘monotonous work and work at a pre-determined rate’ when designing tasks
(Hazards 56, 1996). Similarly, under the 1992 Display Screen Equipment Regulations,
employers must build in regular rest breaks and changes in activity for all DSE users.
Even at this comparatively early stage in the development of the call centre sector,
unions have established a significant presence. The evidence of membership gains
and negotiated improvements, combined with an expanding bargaining agenda, indicates growing union organisation. All this points unmistakably to the conclusion that
the call centre is indeed ‘contested terrain’. Of great significance is the success, however limited, that unions have achieved in the crucial sphere of challenging management’s hegemony over an intensive labour process. The CWU’s monitoring agreement with BT, the unions’ use of the European health and safety legislation, the
negotiation of tea-breaks and facility time, all represent important steps. Given
employee dissatisfaction with the extensive mechanisms of surveillance and monitoring and recognising the inherently demanding nature of call centre work, the pros114 Industrial Relations Journal
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pects for continued union recruitment and organisational growth must be considered
favourable. This is not to deny the existence of problems facing unions whether from
hostile employers or from obstacles to developing basic workplace union structures,
which arise from complex shift patterns and the constraints imposed on communication and mobility between workers. According to a BIFU official, high turnover of
the predominantly young and female workforce means that, despite continued ongoing recruitment of new employees, membership densities can remain unchanged in
overall terms. However, as the quote from the same official indicates, there is a tangible connection between the intensity with which management drives workers and
the resistance it produces. That resistance can manifest itself in disobedience or in
individual solutions like quitting, but equally it can, and does, take a collective form
which is expressed and structured through trade unionism.
Conclusion
In developing an analysis of the labour process and the employment relationship
our aim is to make a useful contribution to the fledgling literature on call centres.
Publicists for the sector seek to present the image of call centres as staffed by relaxed
and co-operative employees, ‘smiling down the phone’ as they communicate with
customers in reassuring regional accents. Descriptions such as these resonate with
Handy’s optimistic anticipation of the benefits which information technology would
bestow upon office workers, who would be transformed into empowered IT professionals.
Mass production is disappearing in factories and offices . . . the days of the large employment
organisation are over . . . the assembly lines of the office (the typing pool, the ledger department)
are disappearing . . . [replaced by] gangs, grouped around sophisticated electronic equipment . . .
(Handy, 1985, 25–6,72)
Our research points to a very different reality. The typical call centre operator is
young, female and works in a large, open plan office or fabricated building, which
may well justify the white-collar factory description. Although probably full-time,
she is increasingly likely to be a part-time permanent employee, working complex
shift patterns which correspond to the peaks of customer demand. Promotion prospects and career advancement are limited so that the attraction of better pay and
conditions in another call centre may prove irresistible. In all probability, work consists of an uninterrupted and endless sequence of similar conversations with customers she never meets. She has to concentrate hard on what is being said, jump
from page to page on a screen, making sure that the details entered are accurate and
that she has said the right things in a pleasant manner. The conversation ends and
as she tidies up the loose ends there is another voice in her headset. The pressure is
intense because she knows her work is being measured, her speech monitored, and
it often leaves her mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted.
There is no question that the integration of telephone and computer technologies,
which defines the call centre, has produced new developments in the Taylorisation of
white-collar work. That the labour process is inherently demanding, and frequently
stressful is incontestable, as the volume of evidence from a variety of sources amply
testifies. However, recognition of the existence of extensive mechanisms of surveillance, unprecedented in white-collar work, should not mean acceptance of the ‘electronic Panopticon’ perspective. The assertion that ‘the supervisor’s power has been
rendered perfect – via the computer monitoring screen’ is demonstrably false on
both theoretical and empirical grounds. Managers of call centres would certainly be
surprised to discover that they exercised total control over the workforce.
The terms of the employment relationship are, and will remain, contested terrain.
In the drive to maximise profits and minimise costs, call centre employers are under
constant competitive pressure to extract more value from their employees. From the
point of view of capital, this is a far from straightforward project. For while call
centre management may increasingly acknowledge the range of problems which
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Call centres 115
confronts them, this recognition does not bring with it ready-made solutions. They
face two interconnected and irresolvable dilemmas. Should they prioritise quantitative output or the quality of service? There is a perpetual and dynamic tension
between these two objectives. Furthermore, they face the central contradiction of
control and commitment in the management of labour. Far from giving management
‘total
control’, intense surveillance can be counterproductive, costly in terms of workforce
motivation and commitment. However, abandonment of surveillance and monitoring
mechanisms can never be an option as these are integral to the operation of the
call centre.
Call centre operators are not passive occupants of some Foucauldian prison. Not
only are they active participants in the productive process, but are capable of individual and collective resistance. The evidence of widespread oppositional behaviour
and practices, combined with the rich detail of emerging trade union organisation,
confounds the pessimism of those who would seek to resurrect Jeremy Bentham’s
Panopticon as an effective metaphor for the call centre.
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