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Work & Equality Research

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The dramatic growth of the call centre ‘industry’ across Europe over the last few years has been the subject of considerable public debate. The number of people employed in call centres in Europe has grown rapidly over the last ten years. Datamonitor has estimated that more than 1 per cent of the European working population are employed in call centres (Datamonitor 1998). It is also estimated that approximately seventy per cent of all call centre agents in the UK are female (IDS 1997; Mitial 1998). There are, however, significant differences in terms of gender breakdown between sectors, for example, financial services call centres employ a greater proportion of women than do call centres in the IT sector (Belt et al. 1999). The research on which this paper is based was concerned with the question of whether call centres are offering women new opportunities for skill development and career progression.

At present, two very different images of call centre employment exist in popular consciousness. On the one hand, consultants and employers have presented a very positive image of call centres as new ‘high-tech’ working environments in which favourable working conditions and highly skilled, ‘knowledge-intensive’ and ‘flexible’ work are the norm. This image has been reinforced by local economic development agencies, many of whom have been keen to attract footloose call centre employers to invest in their regions in order to create new employment opportunities. However, on the other hand, a good deal of criticism has also been directed at these new working environments. Much of this criticism is concerned with the distinctive technologies and management systems used in call centres. Call centres have been referred to as ‘customer service factories’, as ‘the sweatshops of the twenty-first century’ and as ‘dark satanic mills’. In addition, call centre employers have been condemned for providing mainly low-skilled, ‘dead-end’ jobs, and for their high rates of employee turnover.

Research carried out in three European countries (Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK) during 1998 and 1999 examined in detail women’s work experiences and career trajectories in call centres. This research project was conducted under the auspices of the European Commission’s Information Society Project Office, and was carried out by researchers in the UK and the Netherlands. We studied call centre organisations in the financial services and the computer services, as well as ‘outsourced’ or ‘third party’ call centre providers. These sectors were chosen in order to emphasise the diversity of the call centre industry. The research was concerned with the question of whether call centre jobs are highly skilled and knowledge-intensive as promoters of the industry have been keen to assert, or whether a more familiar pattern is unfolding in which women are being drawn in large numbers into a ‘de-skilled’ and de-valued area of work. It examined women’s experiences of work, the skills they used, the training they received and the career paths they took within call centres.

The research found that the nature of call centre working depends very much on the sector in which the call centre operates. In general, working in financial services call centres required least by way of prior knowledge or training in financial products, while working in computer services call centres was highly knowledgeable work. But there is a gender dimension to these sectors, with financial services call centres staffed predominantly by women and computer services call centres staffed predominantly by men.

Work processes in most call centres are indeed highly repetitive and heavily monitored, and the organisation of work does share many similarities with assembly line work: it is ‘driven’ by rhythms well beyond the employees’ control, and so is highly intense, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the employee to leave her station or to take unscheduled breaks, and it requires concentration but is not stimulating, so it is exhausting for the employee. Indeed, this similarity between repetitive manual work and repetitive mental labour was recognised by many call centre employees. Further, despite the fact that call centre employees spend all day seated in front of computer screens, surrounded by an array of the latest ICTs, the vast majority of call centre agents (except those working in ‘technical’ roles, most of whom were male) felt that their work required only very ‘basic’ IT skills in entering and retrieving information from databases according to highly systematised routines. Yet employees were very keen to stress that that call centre work was not unskilled, but involved a particular combination of skills and competencies centring on the possession of ‘communications skills’ and ‘professionalism’. Despite this, there was a belief amongst some agents that telephone work, like many female-dominated occupations, was both undervalued and misunderstood within parent organisations and by wider society.

Working hours in call centres are variable, and this too has both positive and negative implications for employees. On the one hand, the shift and roster systems that are commonly deployed often suit women with children who prefer to be at home while their partners are at work and to work ‘non-standard’ hours. In addition, some call centre employers are very accommodating of their employees’ working time needs, though this is of course a discretionary matter. On the other hand, many call centre employers change working rosters with very little notice, which women with children, and indeed men with domestic responsibilities, or people with non-work commitments of any kind, find extremely problematic.

Career opportunities and career progression in call centres are also mixed. Call centre employers often locate in suburban areas in order to recruit married women who they assume will take a largely instrumental approach to their employment, and will demand little by way of development prospects. It is true that women are well represented in supervisory and management positions in call centres compared to other industries. Further, the women we interviewed were on the whole ambitious to move up the career hierarchy, and felt that there was equality of opportunity for women and men in their workplaces, comparing call centres favourably in this regard with other working environments. However, career progression for most women halts at supervisory level due to a combination of factors. These include the general lack of management opportunities available, the absence of management training for supervisors and team leaders, and the geographical and organisational separation of call centres from other parts of the parent organisation. In addition women with family responsibilities felt that it would be extremely difficult for them to move into management due to the problems involved in combining a managerial career with domestic commitments.

Although we focused on women’s employment in the particular setting of call centres, our conclusions should be placed in the wider context of debates about women’s position in the labour market in the information age. There is considerable evidence that old forms of gender segregation and inequality persist in the information economy, with female-dominated occupations still ‘downgraded’, regarded as low in status and vulnerable to automation, and new high-status jobs requiring technical know-how overwhelmingly occupied by men. However, this is not inevitable, and there is some evidence that gender relations in the workplace are shifting slowly. The question for this conference is whether the calls centres of today will be the shipyards of tomorrow, and if so, what are the future prospects of the legions of women who fill them.

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