leaflet on the sense and nonsense of work

text in german    testo in italiano
Here is the main article of the third leaflet (March 2001).
You can find two other contributions to the leaflet on working in a bank (inbound) and in arranging appointments (outbound) under
- always-at-your-service-bank-story
- secretary-duel

Callgirls and Callboys: What a madness?!

Work, work, work - governments, bosses and unions agree that only work makes life sweet and sensible. Blessed are those who have work. But as soon as we assemble metal pieces at the workbench, give patients healthy injections in hospital or handle customers while sweating under headsets, the enjoyment quickly finds an end. We get confronted with contradictions which the bosses desperately try to hide.

In call centers
bosses tell us how well everything is organised and that they will teach us everything we need for the job: how we need to talk, how the computer works, etc. At first we are glad to be allowed to learn everything with coffee and cookies. But later - under the headset - we realise that we have not learned anything really: we have to improvise a lot, get additional information, adjust to new situations, etc. in order to avoid being left looking the fool and to make sure that the customers get what they want.

Constantly we get told what a responsible and interesting job we would do. It would demand our creativity. But on the job we realise quickly that we are in control of very few things and that the work is monotonous. Teamleaders take care that we perform the repetitive work steps correctly.

Around all that the bosses make a big fuss about quality. The customer is king, our aim is the best possible customer service, we need the total customer experience - every day we hear such things. For this purpose they tell us exactly what work steps we have to perform, they make test calls and put whole squads of trainers onto us. All in order to increase "quality". On the job we see something else happening: because not enough workers were hired the callers have to listen to the endless queue-music. When they get through they are transferred into the next queue because we, the workers, are only allowed (or able) to perform certain things, not others. We should work our butts off and take (or make) as much calls as possible. Therefore the "quality" suffers because everything is done in a hurry.

For these contradictions are obvious and frustrating the bosses make a big hype about how great their company is. They want us to keep on working hard (and not "internally dissociate ourselves from the company or job"). They tell us about our luck to be able to work in their team and what important goods are produced there (bank loans, computer printers, baby clothing). They also give out certificates, bonuses and T-shirts - and one can become "agent of the month". We are now part of one family, we sit in the same boat. Or: We all pull the same rope - but the question here is: who has got it round the neck!?
After having wallpapered the loo with all the certificates and after having well-invested the 3.50 deutschmark bonus on the stock-market, we realise that behind all that hype the normal work is continuing.
We need to look at the interests behind work in order to understand why these contradictions and absurd situations are developping.

Money-addicted bosses...
First of all bosses want to turn money into more money. In order to do that they need to make us work for them. They invest wherever they get most, for instance in Call Centers. If that does not work out as expected, they switch sectors and invest somewhere else - maybe in the production of waffles or weapons?
So the bosses, therefore, have no special interest in work. But money does not multiply by itself. So they have to - whether they like it or not - get involved in the work process. They need to get two things straight that create conflicts every day:
(1) The production has to yield "PROFIT": Few and badly paid workers should produce as much as possible after short training, with cheap material and machinery. The investments should stay small, the work intensive and the profits high. In call centers that means, that we, the workers, get only short trainings, are divided into shifts, should hold the calls short, sell a lot and make as many calls an hour as possible...
(2) The contradictions develop because at the same time the "QUALITY" should be right: the bosses take care that we produce something that they can sell, for instance a car, that really runs, or a help desk, that actually gives the callers good advice. The car or the advice on the phone have to have a value for the "customers" (function, look nice, be practical, give help...). Therefore, the bosses have to make sure do not do a sloppy job...

...meet uninterested workers
Although the bosses like to present it the other way, it depends on us, the workers, whether the company is running despite this contradiction: we are asked to take care that the work is done quickly and profitable - and that it produces "quality" at the same time. Everything depends on us, but we do not have a special interest in the work either. Every job is more or less the same. Ok, some give us a better income or the conditions are not as bad, there are really shitty jobs and bearable ones. But all in all we only go out working because we need to. We need the money for a living. We do not have any interest in the thing itself. Hanging on the telephone for hours, yearning for the next break, answering stupid questions, not knowing anything, but having to give advice to people, struggling with the watchdogs... who cannot imagine anything better? We need to get used to the fact, that we have to work a large part of our lifetime, and we want to see a sense therein. So we try to do the work somehow right because otherwise it would be even more stressful, for instance because the calls would be even more nerve-racking. But all that has limits.

What quality?
The bosses try everything to make us handle the stress that is connected to work under these contradictive conditions. We should satisfy as many callers as possible, despite cheap trainings, missing information, bad products, etc.. They put pressure on us, hypocritically using"quality" as an excuse:
- If they would openly admit that they just want to increase their profits, we would not work half as well. So they lure us with the "quality" of the product or the great company which deserves our good work.
- If they would openly admit that they want to control us so we work faster, we would resist quicker. So they justify the control with the holy "quality".
- If they would openly admit that they really have no clue how the work is done and organised, then we would ask ourselves what we really need bosses for. So they hide behind huge quality management- programs and ask us for "suggestions for improvement". That way they want to learn form us. But they use their newly won knowledge rather not for improving "quality", but in order to give us even more work to do and to "rationalise" production.

Noone cares about sense
The contradiction between the interest in profits on one hand and the production of useful goods on the other leads to all the daily absurdities on company level. And it characterises the whole society:
- We have accumulated knowledge and wealth but both does not get used for the needs of all: most people on earth still live in poverty - as workers or as "unemployed" whose labour just cannot be utilised for piling up more money.
- Whenever productivity is raised by using machinery - that means: the same can be produced in shorter working time - we still do not work less. The usage of machinery is supposed to increase profits, not shorten the working hours for all: wherever bosses "rationalise" and fire people, those workers who stay in the company have to work more intensely and do overtime, the fired ones need to look for other jobs.
Behind all this stays the contradiction that we, the workers, produce all the wealth, but we do not decide, how we work and what happens with the wealth. When talking about "employment" nobody cares about the sense of the work or whether we really need a product or service. The decisive question is whether wealth can be accumulated in the form of money through our work. That also applies for call centers. We, the workers, have not decided that just in Europe millions work in call centers.
But luckily we do something really sensible there: We take care that things, which are produced by workers, are being sold to other workers while the money ends up in the hands of the bosses. Or we inform thousands of workers on the phone about the deficit on their accounts so they know that they have to carry on working for their debts. Or we sit in an order-taking department at night while people call who cannot go to the shops during daytime because they have to work then...

Nobody helps!
If we are sick of it all and had enough of these absurd situations, the great company and the cool boss, the taking-the-piss of customers and quality-tests, overtime and just the ordinary madness at work, what shall we do?
We will not find a solution by trying to make work more "human". The bosses - supported by the unions - want to sell us the work as sensible and bearable by introducing teamwork, colored screwdrivers and flat computerscreens. All these attempts have the purpose to make us put all our creativity and productivity into working. They do not change the situation where bosses and companies' balance sheets decide where money is invested and what gets produced. As long as the central aim is to make money into more money we will just on and on reproduce the contradictions between work stress, "quality", senselessness, etc.
No union, no party and other organisation will abolish these contradictions for us. There is no finished plan for a "different" society - but there are thousand good reasons to utilise the existing productive possiblities for (instead of against) us. If we want a life where we produce for our needs, without exploitation, work stress and watchdogs, we need to take that into our own hands.
The first step - a "touch of the new" - can develop in situations where we challenge the daily work stress together. Where we use our creativity for actions against the work stress - instead of using it in order to save the chaotic organisation from collapsing. Where we use our co-operation as our power against the bosses - instead of working together side by side without noticing each other. Only this way we can overcome the gossip and mutual harassment at work. Only this way we can develope new relations and self-confidence that we need for the upcoming conflicts with the bosses.

For risks and side-effects try it out, send us ideas - or wait for the next hotlines!

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We work in call centers and elsewhere and produce a series of leaflets. That way we want to support and bring forward the discussion among workers. We need to stand up together against work stress and the contraint to work. We can only do that by self-organizing and by finding ways - together with other workers - to react against management measures and to push through our own interests. Our strength lies in the fact that we can quickly agree with other workers on - for instance - refusing overtime, ignoring boss's orders or reducing the call-rythm. Without the boss being prepared and without the mediation or control of works councils (german: Betriebsrat) or unions. If we develope that strength and use it, that can be a step towards the overcoming of wage slavery altogether.
All leaflets are published - together with more information and contributions - on the website:
www.free.de/prol-position
Take part in the discussion and send us your ideas, critique and reports:
Emails: hotlines@free.de
Letters: hotlines c/o Fabrik, Grabenstrasse 20, 47057 Duisburg


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