Tuija Koivunen
Department of Women’s Studies, University of Tampere, Finland
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Published in: Inter: A European Cultural Studies : Conference in Sweden 11-13 June 2007
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 57:34, p. 317-327
Published: 2007-11-27
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
The aim of the paper is to examine the ways in which the employees’ body and especially embodied use of voice is utilised as a resource in interactive service work in call centres. The focus of the analysis; based on interviews with call centre employees and team leaders; is on employees’ embodied experiences at work. Simultaneously; the focus of analysis is on the cultural meanings given to bodies; which are intertwined with the expressed experiences. The everyday work in call centres is based on speaking on the phone and therefore the employees’ bodily appearance is concentrated on their voice. The embodied use of voice is the employees’ central resource and occupational skill and; furthermore; the embodied use of voice is included in the service work quite indistinguishably. From the employers’ point of view; various kinds of embodied voices are needed to represent the different services and products and in this respect the employees’ age and gender are intertwined with the distribution of work tasks.
