‘Get paid, get out’: online resistance to call centre labour in Canada

This qualitative content analysis of 503 anonymous online reviews of 52 Canadian call centres posted on RateMyEmployer.ca explores how forms of resistance, alienation and emotional labour are expressed outside of the workplace. Our study finds that digital publics are producing emotive insurgencies...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New technology, work, and employment work, and employment, 2019-03, Vol.34 (1), p.1-17
Main Authors: Johnston, Matthew S., Johnston, Genevieve, Sanscartier, Matthew D., Ramsay, Mark
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Call centers
call centres
Content analysis
denunciation
digital publics
Economic factors
Emotional labor
emotional labour
Employment
Exploitation
Labor force
online research
qualitative content analysis
Resistance
Tactics
Warnings
Working conditions
Workplaces
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Summary:This qualitative content analysis of 503 anonymous online reviews of 52 Canadian call centres posted on RateMyEmployer.ca explores how forms of resistance, alienation and emotional labour are expressed outside of the workplace. Our study finds that digital publics are producing emotive insurgencies and networks of support within marginalised communities that undermine employers’ attempts at deadening the workforce. The reviews exemplify worker awareness of exploitation as some connect these issues to broader socio‐economic factors that are beyond their control. While many offer tactics to challenge and destabilise their working conditions and culture as well as heartfelt and sarcastic warnings of what one might expect if they pursue call centre employment, others use the online space as a means of venting frustrations, eliciting empathies and expressing sentiments of hope(lessness).
ISSN:0268-1072
1468-005X
DOI:10.1111/ntwe.12125