‘an assembly line in the head’: work and employee relations in the call centre

Industrial Relations Journal 30:2ISSN 0019-8692

‘An assembly line in thehead’: work and employeerelations in the call centre

Phil Taylor and Peter Bain

To date, academic studies of the call centre ‘sector’ remainlimited in scope. Here the authors attempt to remedy thatomission by analysing the recent and spectacular growth ofcall centres in the UK, drawing on a wide variety of sources,including two extensive surveys of developments in Scotlandduring 1997.

No sector of British industry has attracted more publicity in recent months than‘call centre’ operations. Newspapers and business journals have been awash withprojections of dramatic growth in both the number of call centres and the peopleemployed in them, up to 2.3 per cent of the total UK workforce by the year 2002according to one authoritative survey (Datamonitor, 1998, 143). However, the opti-mism generated by predictions of spectacular expansion has been tempered by morecritical assessments in which call centres have been portrayed, for example, as thenew ‘dark satanic mills’ by one prominent consultant (IDS, 1997, 13). Indeed, it hasbeen claimed that Jeremy Bentham’s nineteenth century ‘Panopticon’, designed forprisoner surveillance, is ‘truly the vision of the future’ for call centres (Fernie andMetcalf, 1997, 3).

Academic studies of the call centre phenomenon remain limited in both numberand scope, particularly in the fields of the employment relationship and the labourprocess. While this is hardly surprising given the recent, rapid growth of the sector,we would suggest that academic research has been hampered, additionally, by con-fusion over what precisely constitutes a call centre. As IDS recognised (1997, 8) ‘notevery 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 tocritical media attention, some organisations, keen to differentiate the nature of their

❒ Phil Taylor is Lecturer in Industrial Relations in the Department of Management and Organisationat the University of Stirling. Peter Bain is Lecturer in Industrial Relations in the Department ofHuman Resource Management at the University of Strathclyde.Two articles published in 1996 by R. Richardson and J.N. Marshall should be regarded as path-breaking attempts to analyse developments.

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operations, have substituted the title ‘customer service centre’ or ‘customer satisfac-tion centre’ for the ‘call centre’ epithet. Confusion over definition has obscured thesignificance of what is a distinctive industrial development.

In this article, we define a call centre as a dedicated operation in which computer-utilising employees receive inbound – or make outbound – telephone calls, withthose calls processed and controlled either by an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)or predictive dialling system. The call centre is thus characterised by the integrationof telephone and VDU technologies. Although technological developments such asthe ACD system or Inter-active Voice Recognition (IVR) are central to the operationof the call centre, the roots of their rapid growth can be located in the adoption byorganisations of vigorous, direct selling techniques and by perceived dramatic sav-ings in costs and overheads emanating from the centralisation of ‘back office’ cus-tomer servicing functions.

These changes in operational methods originated in the USA, and in Britain werefirst developed in the finance sector, where they were introduced in tandem withthe widespread closure of high street bank branches (BIFU, 1996, 6). However, thesenew practices were quickly adapted to comply with conditions in the travel industry,telecommunications, IT products and public utilities, as organisations in diverseindustrial sectors sought to extend customer service facilities and/or to gain directsales based upon exploiting a large existing customer database. Commenting uponthe intensified competitive environment reflected in the universality of round-the-clock, 365 days a year operations in his industry, one finance sector manager ident-ified the primary impulse as ‘once First Direct had done it, the rest of us had tofollow’ (Taylor and Bain, 1997, 33). In all sectors the driving force behind the decisionto establish call centres, either as the rationalisation of back office functions or asentirely 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 labourprocess and associated employment relations issues. In so doing, it will be necessaryto touch upon debates concerning the nature of IT work and the modern organis-ation. Of greatest relevance to the call centre labour process are two areas of theoreti-cal concern. Firstly, and most importantly, consideration will be given to the applica-bility of Foucauldian ‘electronic Panopticon’ perspectives, whose attraction hasproved irresistible to both popular commentators (Arkin, 1997) and academics(Fernie and Metcalf, 1997) as they have attempted to theorise the nature and experi-ence 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 1998on UK developments, drawing extensively on a survey of Scottish call centres (Taylorand Bain, 1997). An analysis of the labour process which captures the complexitiesof both the way work is organised and the way it is experienced by operators, willbe followed by a discussion of what are widely regarded within the industry ascentral issues in the management of employee relations. In countering overly-pessi-mistic and deterministic accounts of employee relations we argue that call centremanagements face a plethora of problems concerning motivation and commitment,labour turnover, the effectiveness of supervision and the delivery of quality andquantity performance, which academic accounts have, to date, largely neglected. Wewill, finally, develop an analysis of the extent of, and prospects for, trade unionorganisation and employee resistance in which we comprehensively challenge theview 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. Thischaracterisation has received some academic endorsement leading, in one study, to

102 Industrial Relations Journal Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.

the conclusion that ‘the possibilities for monitoring behaviour and measuring outputare amazing to behold – the ‘tyranny of the assembly line’ is but a Sunday schoolpicnic compared with the control that management can exercise in computer tel-ephony’ (Fernie and Metcalf, 1997, 3). As Thompson and Warhurst (1998, 6) observe,‘it is as if contemporary management theory has produced its own dystopian off-spring’, whose accounts emphasise ‘captured subjectivity and labour trapped in tot-alising institutions combined with new, oppressive forms of regulation and surveil-lance . . .’. 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 Panop-ticon, seeing it as a prescient metaphor for the domination of electronic surveillancein the contemporary organisation. In their study of payment systems, they quoteextensively 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 convictionthat electronic surveillance creates total managerial control (Fernie, 1998, 8). Athorough empirical critique of this simplistic and mistaken application of the Panopti-con metaphor to the call centre labour process will form the latter part of this article.

Recent assessments have criticised the application of Foucauldian perspectives tothe labour process. As several writers have emphasised, ‘the factory and the officeare neither prison nor asylum, their social architectures never those of the total insti-tution’ (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 differencesbetween the workplace and institution. Further, to describe the workplace as a ‘car-ceral regime’ characterised by all-encompassing surveillance is to erect a model ofcomplete control which understates both the voluntary dimension of labour and themanagerial need to elicit commitment from workers. Finally, whether from a crudereading of Foucault or from ‘the danger in a ‘totalizing dynamic’ which disablescritique and disarms the very possibility of meaningful opposition’ (McKinlay andTaylor, 1998, 176) there has been a tendency to accept the most pessimistic interpret-ation of Foucault’s views which, in practice, entails a diminution or dismissal of theimportance of resistance.

In accepting the view that the electronic Panopticon totally dominates the work-force, Fernie and Metcalf disavow the possibilities for collective organisation andresistance. This position coincides with a recent tendency in labour process theorywhere a preoccupation with individual subjectivity has obscured the importance ofcollective, trade union organisation as a more developed form of resistance. Forexample, the introductory chapter of a recent collection in the labour process seriesentitled ‘Resistance and Power in Organizations’ contains no reference to trade unionactivity or organisation (Jermier, Knights and Nord, 1994, 1–24). Missing from thisversion of labour process theory is a focus on the connections between the labourprocess as experienced by workers and the development of collective expressionsof resistance.

Emotional labour

In her examination of the flight attendant’s labour process, Hochschild posited, ‘Inthe 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 ‘toinduce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that producesthe 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 behavioursparticularly the ever-present necessity to ‘smile down the phone’ within Hochschild’sdefinition of ‘outward countenance’, it is evident that the call centre operator per-

Call centres 103 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.

forms emotional labour. Indeed, the emotional labour literature provides valuableinsights. For example, examining the proposition that rigorous managerial surveil-lance ‘can completely transform the bodies of emotional labourers’, Taylor and Tyler(1997, 16) conclude ‘on the basis of empirical research . . . that managerial controland prescription of organisational bodies is never “total”’. Their research uncoverednumerous examples of telephone sales agents expressing deviant behaviour. How-ever, we will examine whether the concept of emotional labour is sufficient, on itsown, to capture the totality of the subjective experience of the call centre operator’slabour process.

Research methodology

Detailed case studies of the contemporary office (Baldry, Bain and Taylor, 1998) havehighlighted the emergence of call centres as an increasingly important developmentin the organisation of white-collar work. These studies stimulated a two-year investi-gation of the UK call centre industry, including two extensive surveys for ScottishEnterprise of the call centre sector in Scotland, undertaken between March and Nov-ember 1997. Survey One was based on a telephone questionnaire with managers tosecure basic data on workforce size, composition, industrial sector and location. Thissurvey was continuous, extending beyond the closing date for the full questionnaire(which formed the core of the second survey) and including those centres which didnot complete the more detailed survey. With basic data on 108 of the 119 call centresoperating in Scotland in November 1997, we achieved a near-complete profile ofthe sector.

The more detailed Survey Two involved comprehensive analysis of a 12-page ques-tionnaire distributed, following telephone contact, to managers of all call centresknown to the researchers in May/June 1997. Questions on key employee relationsissues were formulated following consultation with leading HR and Call CentreAssociation personnel. Questionnaires were sent to the 85 centres identified and 55were returned; a response rate of 64.7 per cent from the targeted list. Set against thefinal known total of 119 call centres we have a 46.2 per cent sample, covering 52.5per 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 indus-try in terms of size and function. To enable an even fuller examination of these issues,the authors facilitated focus group discussions involving a similarly representativesample of managers and supervisors from eleven different centres. The statisticalanalysis of Surveys 1 and 2 and insight from these qualitative sources formed thebulk 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 confer-ences yielded valuable insights into the industry’s current preoccupations. Severalvisits in a three month period to a financial services’ call centre provided a morerounded picture of operations. Work on outbound and inbound tasks was observed,and free access was granted to interview employees, supervisors and managers. Asan important corrective to managerial perceptions, interviews were recorded with21 agents/operators from twelve different call centres, providing indispensable infor-mation on the subjective experiences of work. These were particularly useful wherewe succeeded in gaining interviews with managers and workers within the samecentre. The strength of both quantitative and qualitative evidence accumulated pro-vides a solid basis for our interpretation of the nature of call centre work and organis-ation. Evidence on trade union developments comes principally from interviews withnational and regional officials of the six main unions active in the sector. Attendanceat the Financial Services Direct Staff Forum, comprising most trade unions and staffassociations in the financial sector, yielded rich data.


Research findingsCalculating from full data for 108 centres we estimate that 16,000 were employed inScotland in November 1997. The most important sector was ‘financial services’ with36.9 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 percent of centres utilised both inbound and outbound operations, an equal numberwere devoted to inbound calls alone, while a mere 4 per cent performed only out-bound telemarketing or telesales.

Table 1 displays data on organisational size, and demonstrates the polaritybetween small and large operations. While there were fewer than 50 employees in46 centres, a profile confirmed by a UK-wide survey which found that ‘four callcentres in ten employ less than 50 staff’ (Mitial, 1996), these accounted for only 8 percent of Scottish employment. In contrast, 72.9 per cent worked in centres employing150 or more, and over a third of the Scottish workforce were in establishmentsemploying more than 500. With a mean 138 employees, the average call centre inScotland is larger than the average workplace size calculated by WIRS 1 (118) andWIRS 3 (102) (Daniel and Millward, 1983; Millward et al., 1992). These figures giveno support to, for example, Handy’s optimistic anticipation of the disappearance ofthe large-scale office which intensive IT utilisation would deliver (1985, 25–6). Giventhe size of planned operations (eg. 5,000 at First Direct) and the projected growth ofexisting centres (eg. 1,300 at Kwik Fit by December, 1998), work in white-collar factor-ies will be the future experience of the overwhelming majority of call centreemployees. Recognising that perhaps the single most important raison d’etre of thecall centre is the centralisation of operations delivering putative cost reductions andeconomies of scale, these developments are to be expected.

Parallelling this tendency to organisational centralisation is a pattern of geographi-cal concentration, with the overwhelming majority of call centres and employmentlocated in the two largest cities; Glasgow with 49.6 per cent of Scottish call centresand 45.5 per cent of total employment is followed by Edinburgh with 19.3 per centand 15.4 per cent respectively. The main five locations account for 79 per cent of callcentres and 84.1 per cent of total employment. The technological determinism whichsuffused predictions that information and communication technologies (ICTs) wouldlead to the widespread dispersal of call centre operations has been confounded bythe reality of developments. In the UK, call centres have been established primarilyin the main conurbations, with Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle/Sunderland at the centreof important regional concentrations (Mitial, 1996, YHDA, 1996).

Analysis of workforce composition reveals several significant features. The Scottishworkforce 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 Numbers of Total numbers Percentage Cumulativecall centre call centres employed employed percentage

,750 3 3060 20.6% 20.6%500–749 3 1924 12.9% 33.5%200–499 15 4469 30.0% 63.5%150–199 8 1396 9.4% 72.9%100–149 13 1507 10.1% 83.0%50–99 20 1334 9.0% 92.0%25–49 24 861 5.8% 97.8%,25 22 336 2.3% 100%Total 108 14887 100%

(Source: Survey 1, Scottish Enterprise Report, n=108).


Table 2: Full/part-time composition of Scottish workforce, 1997 and at January 2000

Full-time % Part-time %

1997 66.5 1997 34.5Jan. 2000 (projected) 50.4 Jan. 2000 (projected) 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 workingmore 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 whichconcurs with a UK-wide survey (Mitial 1996). However, when asked to estimate thecontractual composition of their workforces in January 2000, organisations predicteda significant increase in part-time employment, anticipating near equivalent pro-portions of full-time and part-time staff. These figures are the aggregate expressionof a series of decisions by management to significantly increase recruitment of part-time permanent staff. Finally, the vast majority of staff (86.4 per cent) were directlyemployed by a call centre with just over one in eight (13.6 per cent) supplied byagencies.

Survey 2 reveals substantial evidence of ‘flat’ organisational structures in callcentres. Operators/agents made up 71.3 per cent of staff, other clerical workers 11.6per 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 percent. These high ratios of operators/agents to supervisors/managers statisticallydemonstrate 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 3where the nine most common quantitative measurement and qualitative assessmenttechniques are listed. The measurement of ‘wrap-up’ times and a range of methodsfor appraising customer satisfaction are also employed. These statistics are remark-able testimony to the degree of electronic and human monitoring prevalent acrossthe sector. The intensity of surveillance efforts in certain locations is even more strik-ing 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 intensityof monitoring seems to be confirmed by our data. Whereas the mean size of the callcentre workforce in Scotland is 138, in centres where all nine measures operate itis 248.

Operating alongside these control measures are techniques aimed at eliciting

Table 3: Utilisation of monitoring measures

Form of % of call Form of % of callmonitoring centres monitoring centres

Politeness towards customer 84.6 Content of calls 65.4Length of calls 76.9 Satisfaction measures 57.7Adherence to set procedures 73.1 Quality audit 53.8Call taping/review 69.2 Time between calls 48.1Adherence to script/form of words 65.4



employee commitment and involvement. Table 4 shows the extent to which the fivemost commonly used employee involvement (EI) methods are adopted but the sur-vey 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 arrange-ments 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 membersin the greatest number of call centres. PTC, MSF, TGWU, GMB/APEX have eithermembers in more than one call centre or a substantial membership in one particularorganisation. TSSA and USDAW each have representation in a smaller centre. A fullanalysis of density awaits the completion of ongoing surveys, but it is clear that inseveral locations there are very high levels of union membership. In addition to thiswidespread trade union presence, 10.9 per cent of call centres surveyed have staffassociations and 43.6 per cent of the sample report the existence of health and safetycommittees. However, at the other extreme, 30.9 per cent of establishments say theyhave no employee representative structures.

‘An assembly line in the head’: The call centre labour processWhile forms of ‘measured daywork’ have existed for some years in offices with highIT and VDU/telephone usage, producing huge increases in the volume, speed andintensity of work (Baldry, Bain and Taylor, 1998, 342), the call centre takes themeasurement of white-collar output to new levels. What makes the call centre labourprocess distinctive is the integration of telephone and VDU technologies. As Richard-son and Marshall observe, ICTs have been extended ‘further into the customer inter-face’ as the ‘mature technology’ of the telephone has been exploited in innovativeways (1996, 310). It is important, however, to distinguish between inbound and out-bound operations, which combine VDU and telephone technologies in differing waysand make varying demands upon call centre employees.

Central to inbound operations is the ACD system which receives incoming callsand automatically channels them to waiting operators or ‘agents’ according to pre-programmed instructions, removing the need for switchboard operators. If all agentsare 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 appel-lations, ‘customer service representatives’ or ‘advisors’, sit in front of a VDU andkeyboard and take the call through a headset comprising an earpiece and smallmicrophone.

Communication between agent and customer involves differing combinations ofquery and response but, in all cases, necessitates reference to the computer screenas the operator retrieves, adds or manipulates data. Calls may involve simplerequests, for a bank balance or for booking a train or concert ticket. Others mayrequire complex or detailed responses concerning, for example, the redemptionoptions on an insurance policy or, the diagnosis of a faulty PC perhaps in a foreignlanguage. Therefore, within a labour process composed of common defining charac-

Table 4: Extent of EI and communication methods

Method % of call Method % of call centrescentres

Team briefings 98.1 Newsletters 82.7Suggestion schemes 69.2 Videos 53.8Quality circles 44.2



teristics, important variations exist along what can best be described as a continuumof complexity.

Outbound operations, concerned largely with telesales or telemarketing, haverecently seen the implementation of what might be considered ACD technologies inreverse. Predictive dialling systems work their way through databases of customers’phone numbers and, in accordance with programmed requirements, automaticallydial the number, connecting operator to customer. Prior to, or at the precise momentof connection, the relevant customer details appear on the screen enabling the agentto make informed communication. In outbound operations the onus is placed uponthe 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 possi-bilities for in a growing number of call centres, operators, when dealing withincoming queries, are also required to attempt to sell from a menu of products. Forexample, in financial services, a banking call centre competes with an insurance callcentre in selling a service which traditionally was the ‘product’ of the latter, and viceversa. In the utilities sector, gas and electricity centres compete in a shared energysupply market.

Despite both this qualification and the subtle, yet significant, differences betweeninbound and outbound tasks, there is a common and defining call centre labourprocess in which operators scan and interpret information on VDU screens, manipu-late keyboards to enter or retrieve data and simultaneously communicate withphone-based customers. It is the integration of the telephone and computer techno-logies which both structures this labour process and generates the extreme levels ofsurveillance, monitoring and speed-up which are manifest in the call centre.

Recent technological developments have sought to minimise wasteful manualoperations and maximise the ‘real time’ agents spend with customers. The conse-quences are both speed-up and intensification of work as time gaps between callsare progressively reduced. Many ACD systems have voice recognition capabilitieswhich help to ‘. . . speed up the interface time between caller and agent’ (Richardsonand Marshall, 1996, 310). The impact of power/predictive dialling on outbound oper-ators is similar as an insurance centre manager explained:

Dialling manually you can only make 30 calls and maybe speak to 10 people. The power diallerwill get 80 phone calls and you’ll speak to every single one of them in a 4-hour shift and that’sthe difference - 10 to 80. (Focus group, 24.9.97)

However, in the drive to reduce costs and secure competitive advantage it is imposs-ible to disentangle the objective of speed-up from the widespread implementationof surveillance and monitoring measures. One widely-used package boasts the fol-lowing potentialities:

The Real-Time Adherence module . . . continuously monitors ACD real-time messages associatedwith each ACD position. These messages indicate when an agent signs in and out, initiates anincoming or outgoing call, and enters after-call wrap-up. . . the software constantly tracks eachagent’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 iscolor-coded to show the nature of the problem . . . Supervisors can create detailed alarm summaryreports on the agents they have been monitoring. Supervisors can see an agent’s status at anygiven moment and take appropriate action to meet the center’s performance objectives. (TCSManagement Group publicity)

While software technology such as this permits extensive monitoring it does not spellthe end of human supervision. Employee performance data, electronically displayedor in hard copy print-outs, still requires interpretation. If improvements are deemednecessary the team leader or manager, in person, will coach, cajole or discipline the‘under-performing’ operator. Active supervisory intervention is equally central to theassessment of taped conversations. No electronic system can summon an agent to acoaching session, nor highlight the deficiencies of their dialogue with the customer.Call centres rely on a combination of technologically driven measurements andhuman supervisors whose job it is to interpret and act on those figures.


Both the forms and extent of monitoring (Table 3) expose significant developmentsin the Taylorisation of white-collar work. Elsewhere we have analysed the hugeincreases in managerial control, the routinisation and fragmentation of tasks conse-quent upon intensive IT/screen use and target-driven customer demand, whichcharacterise much contemporary office work (Baldry, Bain and Taylor, 1998). In callcentres 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 tostructure the very speech of workers into a series of predictable, regulated and rout-inised queries and responses. Whilst scripts are not universally utilised, even ininbound operations where they are most common, and despite, perhaps, a partialrelaxation in their employment, they remain, nevertheless, a distinctive and wide-spread feature of the call centre sector. To the extent that they are utilised, theyrepresent a qualitative transformation in the degree to which management attemptsto exert control over the white-collar labour process. The use of tightly-defined scriptscombined with the taping of each operator’s every conversation, to ensure com-pliance, represents an unprecedented level of attempted control which must be con-sidered a novel departure.

Call centre operators have joined, with flight attendants, shop assistants, fast foodand waiting staff, the swelling ranks of service workers whose performance at workis shaped by the objective of customer satisfaction. All these employees, in variousways, are required to conform to pre-determined phrases, scripts, and modes ofbehaviour and delivery. If anything distinguishes the call centre worker it is boththe extent to which they are subject to monitoring and the unrelenting pressure toconform to acceptable forms of speech, whether scripted or not. It is difficult to con-ceive of another occupation where the entire working shift requires the articulationof 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 performanceof emotional labour alone, but rather the particular combination of pressures, whichmakes the labour process so demanding.

An operator has to listen intently to the voice on the phone, think through andpromptly articulate an appropriate response (or repeat a script), whilst simul-taneously scanning a VDU screen and manipulating a keyboard. The customer’svoice may be distant, partially audible or in an unfamiliar accent. The screen maybe 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 keyboardusage 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 shiftand 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 neces-sarily a difficult job, it is when you get all these culminating factors coming through, mostly therepetitiveness, 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, repeatingthe 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 monitoredelectronically, are also confronted with prominent digital displays, making highlyvisible the number of stacked calls waiting to be answered. They may also be cajoledor encouraged by supervisors to deal with backlogs. It may be difficult, if not imposs-ible, for the operator to speed up, yet s(he) is conscious that the current call mustbe terminated promptly, in order to take the next one. We describe this as a situationin which the operator has ‘an assembly-line in the head’, always feeling under press-ure and constantly aware that the completion of one task is immediately followedby another.

Monotony, repetitiveness and stress can be exacerbated by the imposition of statedor indicative targets, which relate not just to the number of calls taken, but to thepercentage which are deemed successful. In one insurance company, where agentswere expected to convert one in six calls into policies, a particularly acute source of


stress emanated from the fact that all calls received were counted against theoperator, even general enquiries which could not be translated into sales. Operatorsare placed under increasing pressure to convert ‘potentials into actuals’.

The ramp-up of production targets is an additional and common source ofpressure.

There was no pressure at first, it wasn’t hard sell, it was a case of ‘do you want me to arrangeit for you?’ After three months it had become, ‘why don’t you want it?’. We were on the phonefrom 9 till 5 with a half hour break%We were then put onto 12 hour shifts, 8 till 8, and theconversion rate was one in four, at least. At first, it had been fine, the money was good%butthen I got depressed, it was just one of the worst years of my life. (Interview, female insuranceadvisor, 20 yrs, 11.12.96)

Because many employees find it difficult to cope with rejection and hostility frompotential customers, sales jobs are perceived as more emotionally draining. The briefrespite between calls which operators were able to exploit when using manualphones is being rapidly eroded with the introduction of predictive dialling. Nuisanceand abusive calls and, worse, sexual harassment, are widely experienced by bothinbound and outbound operators and are a source of incalculable stress.

Just as call centres differ in the degree to which surveillance and monitoring meas-ures operate, so too is there variation between centres in the intensity with whichoperators experience these pressures. One important variable is the relative impor-tance the employer places on the quantity of output as opposed to the quality ofservice they are seeking to provide. However, even in the most quality driven callcentre it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the labour process is intrinsicallydemanding, repetitive and, frequently, stressful.

Managerial dilemmas

The staff element has to be absolutely right. You get a golden two minutes when the customerdecides whether to take out a mortgage. If the rapport isn’t established in that two minutes, thenit costs your organisation. I believe that we are getting it badly wrong at the moment becausewe are abusing the people who are entrusted to our care. Days are boring, repetitive and mindlessand staff are having a mind-numbing experience with no chance of promotion because of the flatstructure. There is a call centre in the UK that knows when their staff have diarrhoea, becausethey 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 theCCA Conference, 2/7/97)

This passage highlights concerns which are widely-held by management. The conse-quences of a fiercely competitive environment and a demanding labour process, com-bined with labour market pressures, are generating a series of profound problemsfor employers. Firstly, as the role of call centres has ‘shifted from simple inquiryhandling to customer relationship management’ (Frenkel and Donoghue, 1996, 2)and organisations prioritise ‘value-adding’ business, the importance attached to thequality of operator contact in that ‘golden two minutes’ has grown. Demotivated,stressed-out staff are less capable of sensitive and responsive interaction with thecustomer. Surveillance and compulsion alone cannot guarantee productive perform-ance.

Secondly, many centres experience high levels of labour turnover, whichemployers attribute in large part to the intrinsic pressures of the job, and to flatstructures which curtail promotion opportunities. Annual turnover rates in excess of30 per cent are far from uncommon and cause deep concern. A majority of organis-ations surveyed anticipate an increase in employee movement between centres, asthe 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 fertilebody of collective informal knowledge which permits comparison of the salaries,bonuses and conditions on offer in centres close to their current employment. Stories


circulating the industry are symptomatic of the deep worry many managers have ofan ‘overheating’ labour market. According to one HR manager, when a newly-estab-lished 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 toovercome these problems. Recognising that over-strict adherence to scripts can leadto both operator fatigue and customer dissatisfaction, a number of centres havemoved to flexible scripting or jettisoned them completely. However, these tacticshave not delivered straightforward solutions, as some centres have returned to script-ing, on the grounds that technical and business considerations impose limitationsupon the amount of discretion that can be ceded to employees. This points to a moregeneral dilemma which appears irresolvable. If operators are driven too hard withtargets and quantitative output measurement, then the quality of service may suffer,as motivation and commitment are adversely affected. If on the other hand, there isan over-emphasis on informality with a relaxation of targets and surveillance, thecentre may not turn over sufficient business. It is difficult to overstate the extent towhich this quantity/quality dilemma preoccupies call centre managers.

There is widespread acknowledgement of the counterproductive effects of sevenor 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 todeliver optimal performance for the entire duration of a shift, reflects both a recog-nition of the inherently stressful nature of the job and the desirability of shift patternswhich correspond to the peaks of customer demand in the late afternoons, eveningsor weekends.

To counter labour market pressures, many employers have introduced a range offinancial incentives, including individual and group bonuses, loyalty payments andstraightforward pay increases, as well as non-financial inducements, in the attemptto retain staff. Recruitment strategies targeting, particularly women returners, havebeen inspired not just by the search for untapped sources of labour but by the percep-tion that these more mature workers will be less ‘difficult’, more loyal and will pro-vide a stabilising influence.

The major thrust of management’s efforts to deal with the problems which derivefrom the demanding nature of work lies in the operation of the wide array ofemployee involvement techniques we documented in Table 4. The extensive appli-cation of communication and involvement methods is, indeed, further evidence thatintensive electronic monitoring cannot secure the requisite quality performance fromoperators. It would be wrong to assume, however, that these methods actuallydeliver the levels of motivation and commitment which management seek.

Teamworking, almost universally employed in call centres, best exposes the practi-cal limitations. The development of genuine teamworking, involving, at the veryleast, verbal interaction between team members is inevitably inhibited by the organis-ation of work. An operator, answering a continuous flow of calls and probably par-titioned from other desks, is thus separated physically and audibly from other teammembers, isolated both by the architecture and an individualising labour process.At the same time the quantitative imperative often takes precedence over consider-ations of team building. The need to sustain a high level of calls during operationalhours and the reluctance to distract operators from telephone tasks means that manyteam meetings are either cursory or non-existent. In many centres the main purposesof teamworking are to stimulate a sense of collective identity and to provide a basisfor competition within the workforce, a combination of ideological, cultural andmaterial objectives.

This brief account of employers’ difficulties and their attempted resolution chal-lenges the tenability of the ‘electronic Panopticon’ perspective. For if supervisorypower has indeed been ‘rendered perfect’ through technology and surveillance then,logically, these problems would not exist. It might also be instructive to pose a simplequestion. If electronic surveillance and monitoring is so dominant, and managerial


control over the workforce so total, why do call centre managers bother to employsuch a welter of communication and involvement techniques?

Employee resistance—‘the best-laid schemes of mice andmen . . .’

There are growing signs of resistance. The more management monitor, the more resistance thereis. 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’ perspectiveis that it neglects both the actuality of, and potential for, employee resistance.Although Fernie states ‘case study visits have provided the opportunity to talk atlength with call centre workers’ providing ‘some very positive feedback’, no referenceis made to any form of employee resistance (1998, 11). Fernie and Metcalf only men-tion resistance when citing two examples quoted elsewhere (Arkin, 1997) but thisleads them to concede that ‘disaffected agents still find ways of avoiding work’ (1997,10). However, the possibility that these individual expressions of worker resistanceare, or may become, widespread – or, more importantly, that they can take a collec-tive form – is not considered. Our research has revealed evidence of both individualand collective forms of employee resistance.

(a) ‘Individual’ forms of resistance

It is not uncommon for workers to give the impression of being engaged on callswhen no interaction is actually taking place. Despite the existence of intense monitor-ing, a number of interviewees also reported being able, albeit to a limited extent, todisengage from the waiting queue of calls. Additionally, employees indicated waysin which they were able to influence both the basis for, and the output of, bonuscalculations by taking various kinds of ‘deviant’ action. Workers are not automatonsand, to varying degrees and in a variety of ways, will seek to combat or circumventwhat they perceive to be unacceptable managerial practice. Where individual,oppositional practices are deeply embedded in particular workplace cultures and aresupported, shared or emulated by other disaffected workers, they adopt a quasi-collective form.

In one financial services centre, part-time workers operated a strategy for prisingimprovements from a reluctant management by threatening to leave when staff short-ages loomed.

I handed in my notice two months ago and they said, ‘Don’t leave’. I knew they were going tosay that, which is why I did it because I wanted a different shift. I wanted a Wednesday and aSaturday shift and I said I was leaving if I didn’t get it, so I got it . . . other people started doingit 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 whichoperators described the limitations of the monitoring equipment was clearly relatednot only to the widespread resentment at its utilisation, but also to a collective desireto defeat its purpose. The following comments from employees reveal a spirit ofopposition, 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)


These emotional labourers develop sophisticated way of wresting back control whentalking 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 away of saying things that puts them in their place. If you choose your words carefully, there’sno 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 ‘renderingperfect’ the monitoring of the electronic Panopticon.

Some of the more outrageous team-building exercises are treated with considerablecynicism and in this television subscriber centre were defeated through collectiveridicule.

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 shiftthe whole office would do a Mexican wave. If the marketing people sold something the teamleaders would stand up and shout ‘sausages’! But they don’t do any of that now because peopletook the piss. (Interview, 24.3.98)

Managerial attempts to use a combination of ‘Stakhanovism’ and peer pressure toincrease output are frequently thwarted by tacit collectivism. In one non-unioncentre, the individual target for sales appointments, although never openly stated,was known to be twelve over a four-hour evening shift. Expressing satisfaction atthe downfall of an employee who had been temporarily successful in securing 25appointments through pressuring customers, the interviewee continued, ‘They try toplay 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 salesperformance in the finance sector had ‘caused internal dissension and has given wayto team-based performance evaluation’ (1996, 1855).

Collective forms of resistance

Our survey demonstrates that more than half of call centres in Scotland had a unionor staff association. Other recent research concludes that ‘unions do matter’ in thesector. The widespread union presence in call centres newly opened by major compa-nies is to some extent due to the transfer of long-established collective bargainingarrangements from other parts of their operations (IDS 1997, 13). Several unions‘inherited’ a significant membership as employees transferred internally to new callcentres and/or some unions were able to utilise their overall strength within anorganisation to gain entry. Conversely, some employers who recognise unions haveendeavoured to exclude them from newly-established centres.

Having won the right to address new employees during induction, some unionshave recruited large numbers of new workers (CWU, FSDSF, 1998). Identified as apromising sector for recruitment, financial services has seen an unusually high levelof inter-union co-operation (FSDSF, 1998). High union densities have been achievedin several centres including Commercial Union and TSB Phonebank (901 per cent).Woolwich Direct (85 per cent) and Eagle Star, Chelmsford (78 per cent). BT agencystaff are also highly unionised. The first dedicated Inland Revenue call centre in EastKilbride 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 SunAlliance with the MSF anticipating recognition (FSDSF, 1998). Proposed legislativerights are focusing union efforts on centres where they have hopes of either automaticrecognition or success in a workplace ballot.

Conditions in many call centres have already prompted significant numbers to seethe relevance of trade unionism, particularly where unions have been responsive toemployee 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 thepractice of individual resistance which we have documented and the existence ofwidespread workforce discontent (Austin Knight, 1997), the potential clearly exists


for these manifestations to be channeled into the more effective forms of trade unionorganisation 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 agreementsor are mounting campaigns. Tea-breaks have been introduced at Eagle Star, Sou-thampton, following union pressure, and are included in the PCS/Inland Revenueagreement for East Kilbride. BIFU is currently campaigning on its policy of linkingreward systems to length of service and has negotiated improved maternity leavefor the predominantly (65 per cent) female staff at First Direct. Successful unioncampaigns, like that conducted by the CWU in securing the reinstatement of 15 Glas-gow members suspended by BT, have been consciously utilised to build membership.

Facility time for workplace union representatives has always been crucial for effec-tive representation and strengthening union organisation. To negotiate facilityarrangements in call centres, as a number of unions have done, is no small achieve-ment, given managerial insistence on employees being continuously engaged on calls.A good example is the agreement between British Telecom and CWU where rep-resentatives are entitled to one day per week facility time for every 100 members.

Where unions have been sufficiently strong they have raised their concerns withemployers over monitoring and surveillance. Following complaints from customerservice advisors over BT’s practices, the CWU successfully negotiated a Code of Prac-tice. (Hazards 53, 1996; BIFU 1997). This agreement, although not eliminating callmonitoring, does impose stringent controls. Information can be gathered only withthe employee’s knowledge and during formal processes such as quality checks andperformance reviews. After counselling, all tapes must be wiped in the employee’spresence and personal identification removed from those retained. Additionally,there must be no monitoring of personal calls. Although concerns remain that man-agers may ignore the terms of the agreement, it is nevertheless regarded by callcentre sector unions as a model, and was used by the PCS during negotiations overconditions in the Inland Revenue’s first, greenfield call centre (PCS, 1998). Theresulting agreement states that monitoring software ‘will not be used to unnecessarilypressurise staff and should not impose an oppressive working environment’. Boththe CWU and BIFU annual conferences have passed motions condemning the grow-ing use of telephone call monitoring by management without employees’ knowledge(Hazards 59, 1997).

BIFU’s analysis attributes occupational voice loss to stress suffered by operatorsinduced by monitoring practices (BIFU, 1997). This confirms evidence from a Com-munication Workers of America survey which found that ‘electronic monitoring asa major stress factor in the workplace’ was linked to feelings of depression and deepanxiety (Hazards 53, 1996). Accordingly, BIFU advises members to insist on theimplementation of the 1992 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulationsunder 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 gainsand negotiated improvements, combined with an expanding bargaining agenda, indi-cates growing union organisation. All this points unmistakably to the conclusion thatthe call centre is indeed ‘contested terrain’. Of great significance is the success, how-ever limited, that unions have achieved in the crucial sphere of challenging manage-ment’s hegemony over an intensive labour process. The CWU’s monitoring agree-ment with BT, the unions’ use of the European health and safety legislation, thenegotiation of tea-breaks and facility time, all represent important steps. Givenemployee dissatisfaction with the extensive mechanisms of surveillance and monitor-ing and recognising the inherently demanding nature of call centre work, the pros-


pects for continued union recruitment and organisational growth must be consideredfavourable. This is not to deny the existence of problems facing unions whether fromhostile employers or from obstacles to developing basic workplace union structures,which arise from complex shift patterns and the constraints imposed on communi-cation and mobility between workers. According to a BIFU official, high turnover ofthe predominantly young and female workforce means that, despite continued ongo-ing recruitment of new employees, membership densities can remain unchanged inoverall terms. However, as the quote from the same official indicates, there is a tan-gible connection between the intensity with which management drives workers andthe resistance it produces. That resistance can manifest itself in disobedience or inindividual solutions like quitting, but equally it can, and does, take a collective formwhich is expressed and structured through trade unionism.

ConclusionIn developing an analysis of the labour process and the employment relationshipour 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 relaxedand co-operative employees, ‘smiling down the phone’ as they communicate withcustomers in reassuring regional accents. Descriptions such as these resonate withHandy’s optimistic anticipation of the benefits which information technology wouldbestow upon office workers, who would be transformed into empowered IT pro-fessionals.

Mass production is disappearing in factories and offices . . . the days of the large employmentorganisation 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 isyoung, female and works in a large, open plan office or fabricated building, whichmay well justify the white-collar factory description. Although probably full-time,she is increasingly likely to be a part-time permanent employee, working complexshift patterns which correspond to the peaks of customer demand. Promotion pros-pects and career advancement are limited so that the attraction of better pay andconditions in another call centre may prove irresistible. In all probability, work con-sists of an uninterrupted and endless sequence of similar conversations with cus-tomers she never meets. She has to concentrate hard on what is being said, jumpfrom page to page on a screen, making sure that the details entered are accurate andthat she has said the right things in a pleasant manner. The conversation ends andas she tidies up the loose ends there is another voice in her headset. The pressure isintense because she knows her work is being measured, her speech monitored, andit 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 ofwhite-collar work. That the labour process is inherently demanding, and frequentlystressful is incontestable, as the volume of evidence from a variety of sources amplytestifies. However, recognition of the existence of extensive mechanisms of surveil-lance, unprecedented in white-collar work, should not mean acceptance of the ‘elec-tronic Panopticon’ perspective. The assertion that ‘the supervisor’s power has beenrendered perfect – via the computer monitoring screen’ is demonstrably false onboth theoretical and empirical grounds. Managers of call centres would certainly besurprised 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 underconstant competitive pressure to extract more value from their employees. From thepoint of view of capital, this is a far from straightforward project. For while callcentre management may increasingly acknowledge the range of problems which


confronts them, this recognition does not bring with it ready-made solutions. Theyface two interconnected and irresolvable dilemmas. Should they prioritise quantitat-ive output or the quality of service? There is a perpetual and dynamic tensionbetween these two objectives. Furthermore, they face the central contradiction ofcontrol and commitment in the management of labour. Far from giving management

‘totalcontrol’, intense surveillance can be counterproductive, costly in terms of workforcemotivation and commitment. However, abandonment of surveillance and monitoringmechanisms can never be an option as these are integral to the operation of thecall centre.

Call centre operators are not passive occupants of some Foucauldian prison. Notonly are they active participants in the productive process, but are capable of individ-ual and collective resistance. The evidence of widespread oppositional behaviourand practices, combined with the rich detail of emerging trade union organisation,confounds the pessimism of those who would seek to resurrect Jeremy Bentham’sPanopticon as an effective metaphor for the call centre.

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‘an assembly line in the head’: work and employee relations in the call centre

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