Alienating call centre labour process

Alienation of the workforce defines the Marxist understanding of capitalist production system. It is this inherent estrangement from their geographical locations, accents, feelings, clients and ‘truth’ that makes call centre operators alienated from the labour process.

Braverman’s (1974) workers could be estranged from the product, labour process and society but still have the control of their own feelings. In the call centre industry, the

18 All three team leaders were interviewed in July-August 2010 in their different workstations within Proton

operator is estranged from the clients and service in itself as she has to portray a certain kind of emotion beneficial to the organisation. Even if the operator ‘hates’ her job, she has to show different emotions towards the clients as she is rewarded with recognition for

‘good customer service’ during the interaction with the customer.

Call centres are usually situated on the outskirts of the city, as clients do not need to walk in.

This requires call centre operators to have their own transport due to the shift work in the evening and the non-availability of public transport. Even as a researcher, I found this difficult and I had to travel with metered taxis on a daily basis to visit the call centre in Proton House. This was interpreted differently by the union representative who introduced me in the initial phase of the call centre visits. “These people get paid lots of money … you see most of them have got cars” (SAMWU Official 1¹⁹, 11 August 2010). Operators perceived the geographical distance as a mechanism to control their movements.

… I’m sure they don’t want us to be in the city because when you are here (Proton House) you are forced to work you can’t just leave to go to the shop when on break.

(FGD 1, 03 August 2011)

Managers explained the geographical distance as part of cost saving and space requirements. This reasoning was countered by the rerouting of calls from the Proton House to other call centres scattered around the city, which makes connections poor. Interacting on the phone, clients can only speak to call centre operators not see them. Operators felt that they needed to understand the state of mind of the callers when talking to them. Most of them felt that their language mattered and they had to communicate with mostly clients from the suburbs. An acceptable level and accent in English seemed important.

… you have to speak English in a certain way here … and also this funny way of speaking English can get you promotions … We had a guy here who used ‘big words’

19 SAMWU Officials were all interviewed in SAMWU Head Office at 84 Frederick Street (CBD). The mixture between those from the region (Gauteng) and branch (Johannesburg) comes from the housing of these two offices within this building though on different floors. On the third floor I interviewed the branch officials while on the second floor regional officials were interviewed. Given the few numbers of officials I have not separated the branch and region within the pseudonyms provided for their anonymity. Official number 1 was

interviewed twice in August 2010 and July 2011; by 2013 he had moved to join the Waste Removal COJ utility called Pikitup.

when speaking English but knew nothing about the job, but he was promoted to supervisory role before the rest of us. (Former CCA 2²⁰, 09 August 2010)

Emotional management has been highlighted by all the studies of the call centre labour process as the major source of alienation for the workers. One has to restrain emotions as customers become racist and sometimes personal in their insults. These insults and frustrations from the customer are embedded in the perceptions of the local government inefficiency. This means community members who contact the municipality are sometimes justified to be angry, which is understood by the workers. The fact that workers are not empowered with the information to assist the customer forms a source of estrangement to the organisation itself. All the workers felt that they lied when at work, because they did not have answers to the questions from the customers. The disempowering environment makes the labour process alienating as they have to be totally ‘out of character’ to create a different reality to the client. The lies to meet the expectations created by the political leadership among the customers are part of the cause of stress among the workers.

6.3 Conclusion

The labour process in the public sector call centre proves to be different from the ‘normal’

call centres in the private sector. The labour process is affected not only by the managers but also the politicians’ presence in the local government. The customer culture and its

‘myth’ of sovereignty are tested in the interaction where the frontline worker controls and disciplines the customer because of limited choice possessed by the customer. This

‘dependent customer’ proves to be irritated and infuriated by powerlessness in the face of frustrated call centre worker.

The nature of work is divided between the back office and front office which share the content of work through technological software. The detailed division of labour at the bottom of public sector labour process proves to be ‘deskilling’ despite the lack of ‘total’

control over the workforce. The workforce possesses space to resist as individuals and as a collective (Chapter 8 deals with resistance). Despite the minimal requirements of qualifications in the recruitment process, these call centre workers mostly have worked in this industry outside government.

Control is facilitated through technical and physical mechanisms with managers and supervisors agreeing that there is a need to combine the two. Managerial control of the call centre is justified through statistical arguments as the abandonment rate measures productivity of the call centre. However this is countered by the poor technological system matched by the disintegrated nature of the labour process between different entities working with the call centre. In the absence of standardisation, workers tend to rely on their own experience of the call centre environment to help the customers, as the lack of information and poor communication in the municipality proves to be disempowering. This leads to workers feeling alienated from themselves as they create a façade though lies during the interaction with customers.

In this chapter I attempted to describe the nature of work and employment relations mediated by the technological software within the local government call centre. In the next chapter I focus less on work and more on subjective experiences and well-being of workers.

This covers the issues of stress, sick leave, commitment and morale within the Joburg Connect. These subjective experiences both shape and are shaped by the work practices within the local government call centre.

Picture 6-2: Inside Harrison Street Call Centre, COJ CBD

Chapter 7

The (Dis)Connecting Working Conditions: Worker Well-being and the Experience of Work in the Call Centre

7.1 Introduction

This chapter is based on the subjective experiences of the call centre workers in the Johannesburg Municipality. It seeks to provide a voice to the frontline to be heard so as to provide a holistic picture of the service delivery difficulties experienced by customers.

Different issues pertaining to the well-being of the call centre operators come to the fore to explain the poor performance and despair evident in these state workers.

Call centre workers’ experiences have concentrated on the issues of control and its effects, targets and performance based salaries, night shifts, low pay and low security. In a nutshell, through poor working conditions and the stressful nature of the job, call centre work is one of the precarious service jobs. Despite the similarities between the private and public sector call centres, the major difference is around detailed study of the public sector labour process and its experience for those who are customers, service providers and community members.

In addition to the stressful and repetitive nature of the job, call centre operators in Joburg Connect are carrying the burden of inefficient bureaucracy. It is in their interaction with this customer that the frontline worker realised that major stress does not come from the customer. The expectations and lack of communication to the customer makes the frontline staff suffer as the politicians sometimes override managers to create a false reality for customers. Poor state bureaucracy, accompanied by shortage of staff, high volume of calls, high turnover and absenteeism all contribute towards frustrating working conditions.