Telephone call centres : gold mines or sweat shops ?

• Jean-Baptiste STUCHLIK
  Consultant, Geste
  PhD in management, École polytechnique
  
• Emmanuel MIGNOT
  Chairman and managing director, Télétech International
  
• Martine ZUBER
  In charge of telecommunications, Fédération Communication et Culture, CFDT (French Trade Union Federation for Communication and Culture)
  

Summary

The telephone is enjoying a new lease of life. The boom in the call centres sector shows that it can still be a gold mine for whoever wants to launch a new business. However, if one looks more closely at the organisation of these centres and their work conditions, doubts arise : are these gold mines not actually sweat shops in disguise ? In order to discuss this topical subject, Jean-Baptiste Stuchlik, a consultant at Geste and former researcher at the Research Management Centre (CRG) of the École polytechnique, goes behind the scenes and shows that all that glisters is not gold. Martine Zuber of the CFDT presents a survey which was recently carried out among call centre operators. The initial conclusions show that these are not necessarily the sweat shops they are imagined to be. Finally, Emmanuel Mignot transfers the responsibility for the work conditions in the sector onto the clients, who want to avoid paying too high a price ! A lively discussion then follows.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

A report from the CFDT was discussed during this session (in french).

• The entire article was written by Corentin CURCHOD.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it for free in French (PDF help) or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference IN191101).

The entire article appears in French in the Journal de l'École de Paris du management N° 35.