Talking shop––contact centres and dimensions of ‘social exclusion’

This paper looks at recent changes in call centres and finds that software designers, HR experts and trainers are, in their narrative, appropriating the voices of those who actually do the work. At worst call centre operatives remain invisible, monitored, ‘cross-selling’, speeded up, outsourced and relocated to all sorts of ‘far-flung’ places, their own homes included. There may be a warning for all of us in these narratives, as the customer’s tale is also being told on our behalf. Apparently, every time we contact a company, we like them to record our details so that they can try to sell us new products, and we like a ‘standard product’ so that we hear the same words every time. As autonomy over the pace and content of calls is controlled through training methods and by technology, operators and customers alike become part of the same rationalizing process.