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Do
call centres deserve their reputation as dark satanic
mills? As they proliferate in Brighton, Matt Chittock
investigates life at the end of the line.
 Mark
sits back in his chair and adjusts his headset. In a second
he will log into the box in front of him and take his
first call of the day. "Hello, you're through to
Mark, how can I help you?" He will repeat this phrase
to different customers over 100 times today. Around him,
arranged in teams, 200 people are also plugged into their
own shiny boxes. A digital wallboard constantly flashes
up the number of customers waiting, and how many operatives
are available. If Mark meets his quota of calls his team
will be in the running to win some book vouchers. Mark
is 22, a recent graduate and this is his first job after
University. Welcome to the modern day call centre.
Call
centres sit backstage in Britain's shiny new 24-hour work
culture, the part you hear but don't normally see. From
banks to utilities to communication companies to the council,
the need to provide 24-hour service means the explosion
in call centres is one of the growth markets of the 21st
century. Companies are keen to publicise the fact that
you can check your balance down the pub, or change your
gas provider from the comfort of your duvet.
But
what is life like for the person on the other end of the
line? In 1999 a report by the Communication Workers Union
famously described some call centres as sweatshops. Three
years later almost one in fifty employees in the UK work
in a call centre. After a period of silent growth, call
centres are back in the public eye. The recent BBC2 documentary
The Secret Life of the Office is based in a regional call
centre. It reveals a hothouse where over stretched management
cajole staff to reach targets they consider impossible.
Staff visibly wince as managers attempt to compensate
for the unsociable hours and difficult job by buying them
beer as an incentive. Staff turnover is high and the staff
demotivated. Is this typical, or an over keen documentary
maker's exaggeration?
A
job seeker looking for employment in Brighton and Hove
will see many of the jobs available feature call centre
work. The names pop up regularly: American Express, Lloyds
TSB, Nat West and other major financial institutions all
have call centres (or the preferred term 'contact centres')
around this city. These are backed up by a number of utility
and communication firms such as Seeboard, Telegen and
ntl.
But
any new arrival to Brighton will also come across the
phrase 'Brighton wages, London prices', a local adage
that has almost become a cliché. Salaries in London
are often weighted toward the higher cost of living there.
In Brighton, that's not the case however, as house prices
and beer prices soar, wages in Brighton are left behind.
So what, on average, do call centre operatives like Mark
earn? The TUC claims that salaries in call centres reach
only about 60% of average UK earnings. Their research
shows that across the south east call-handlers earn about
£13,600. Locally this is much lower, call centre
operatives that I spoke to earning from £10,000
to around £14,000 (after two and a half years in
the job).
Call
centres run by financial institutions such as Lloyds TSB
and Nat West calculate their wages by comparing them to
other businesses in the area. That way they can justify
salaries are competitive by claiming that they are no
lower (and indeed occasionally higher) than other Brighton
employers.
The
council acknowledges that attracting call centres is one
route to higher employment and urban regeneration. "After
the collapse of industrial work, we need to build up an
economy based on other sectors," said a spokesperson.
"We are always working with employers to build a
healthy economy." The council doesn't believe that
call centre work is becoming the only job in the city,
pointing to the tourism and burgeoning new media sectors
as possible alternatives. It is true that these kinds
of jobs do abound in Brighton, however new media is a
very niche, highly skilled area, and tourism is seasonal.
For better or for worse, it is the call centre jobs that
dominate the local jobs pages week in and week out.
Elsewhere
in the country the proliferation of call centres means
that employers have had to raise standards to attract
employees. Brighton & Hove is different since it attracts
a large transient population of students and travellers
who are eager for a job in the short term and are not
worried about long term benefits. This feeds into the
high turnover rates. Publicly call centres say that turnover
is between 20 - 30%. Operatives claim it is much higher
in some places, citing examples of employees leaving every
week.
Because
of the need for 24/7 service, call centres can offer a
variety of shifts. This culture of flexibility does benefit
some people. Steven is a full-time student studying Art
History at Sussex University. "It suits me that I
can work weird hours and weekends as it fits around my
social life and my studies. Also I get sick pay and holiday,
which is more than some of my working mates get."
When asked about the salary he said: "Well, it's
better than working in McDonalds, but it's not going to
be my career, is it?"
Steven's
kind of thinking fuels motivation in local call centres.
No one that I spoke to considered call centre work as
a career, just a stopgap to something more fulfilling
and financially rewarding. Yet by the end of this year
it is estimated that more than 274,000 people in the UK
will work in this environment. To cut costs employers
are streamlining traditional businesses such as finance
and retail. Where once you might have gone out and bought
goods from a shop, now you are just as likely to order
over the telephone. Employers are discovering it is far
cheaper to have an office full of call handlers situated
where wages are lower than paying rent on expensive buildings
all over the UK.
Shona
is an effervescent 30-year-old mum with two children.
She used to work as a cashier for a national bank, but
has now relocated and works as a call handler for the
same bank in a Brighton contact centre. She is philosophical
about the move: "The kind of work I once did no longer
exists. Cashiers all have targets for selling and a lot
of pressure was put on each branch to achieve these targets.
At least taking customer queries on the phone I don't
have to sell anything." As working patterns in the
UK change, it might be that your chosen career, especially
if it is in the finance industry might mean working in
a call centre whether you planned to or not.
So
what of the image as call-centre as sweatshop? In 2001
the TUC set up a hotline for call centre employees to
log complaints. The complaints ranged from employees having
to pay for their own headsets, to being monitored on how
long they spent on toilet breaks. Fortunately in Brighton
none of the call centres workers I spoke to have been
disciplined for spending too long in the toilet, but there
are certainly other issues.
Peter
is a worker at the SEEBOARD call centre that deals with
billing and service enquiries. He claims that there are
a lot of positive features about his working environment.
"We are free to move around, you're not locked on
to the phone all day, and you can take screen breaks freely.
Targets are set by the management, but as an incentive
you receive bonuses for achieving them." The downside
for Peter was the lack of staff interaction: "There
is no group atmosphere, people come in and do their stint
without interacting with other staff." Despite there
being a good mix of ages and backgrounds he says morale
is low. He puts this down to the repetitious nature of
the job itself, having to take call after call of similar
enquiries. He also notes that despite the salary being
comparable to other Brighton workplaces he finds the wages
difficult to live on as the cost of living in the city
spirals upwards - a common complaint.
While
companies seem to have improved working conditions, it
is the repetitive nature of working on the phone, the
low level of responsibility along with low pay which makes
it unsatisfactory. Local companies have tried to liven
up the job by instigating 'theme days' where staff wear
fancy dress and by offering incentives such as shopping
vouchers to teams who reach their productivity targets.
American Express even gives its employees the use of a
subsidised bar and gym.
Telegen
is a prime model of the growth of the call centre. The
Brighton call centre started with just 12 staff, but now
is up to 400 and rising. They are even looking at either
increasing the capacity of their offices or taking on
a second site to accommodate new employees. Their company
was awarded both the Dynamic Business Award and Company
of the Year at the 2001 Sussex Business Awards.
Kelly
Loxley is a call centre manager at Telegen. She believes
that their call centre is different. "Because we
are a relatively new company, we have seen the mistakes
made in the industry and been able to learn from them."
Loxley believes Telegen are superior because they promote
from within, allowing the career advancement that makes
a job rewarding. She is also keen to foster a 'community'
environment. "Everybody knows each other, and a lot
of socialising goes on outside the workplace."
Inkfish
is another relatively new call centre to Brighton with
a positive outlook towards its employees. Managing director
Andrew Pearce is aware of the problems in the call centre
arena, admitting to having seen "the good, the bad
and the downright ugly" while working in the industry.
He believes that because employees are treated with respect
and their ideas listened to and valued, Inkfish can boast
"increased employee satisfaction, increased retention
and an enjoyable atmosphere" in its call centres.
Mark
is now taking a coffee break, getting a cappuccino from
one of the company provided drinks machines. "Generally
I don't mind the work, it just annoys me when you get
an abusive customer who gives you a hard time. They want
you to move the world for them, but you're only actually
allowed to do very little except apologise." He takes
a sip from his coffee. "I would move on but there's
so little well-paid work around Brighton, and this is
the best I've done so far."
For
better or for worse the call centre culture is here to
stay. Modern day workhouses? That analogy seems to be
fading, but underneath the glib incentives and the fluffy
corporate bonhomie you can't help thinking that there
is still room for improvement. I'm just off to the toilet,
I won't be long!
Some
names have been changed.
copyright New Insight 2002
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