Call centers are facilities that handle large numbers of customer telephone requests for a business or organization. A call agent or customer service representative helps assist with the customers’ questions and concerns. While assisting the customers, all calls are recorded to ensure that the customers’ needs and concerns are being met. Customer service representative receive a variety of calls, often from angry customers which can become stressful. However, representatives know if they lose their cool, they are likely to get caught because all calls are recorded and all calls are randomly heard by their supervisors or their quality assurance department.
Moreover, Foucaults’ theory of Panopticonism which includes three functions for prisons and social institutions. The first function “enclose” refers to the space or structure of the room such as the cells lined up a in a circular structure which allows the guards to observe in all angles. In call centers the space is also enclosed which are cubicles where customer service representatives perform their job duties. The cubicles usually have supervisor at the head of the cubicles islands which also allows supervisors to observe. The second function Foucault mentions is “deprive of light (knowledge)” in prisons this is played out by having a permanent tower which guards can observed at any given time from all angles, but does not allow the inmates to view them. In this situation inmates start to act as if they are being watched. In call centers the customer service representatives know that all calls are recorded, but they do not know if the supervisor or an employee from the quality assurance department are listening to calls as they are taking place and /or perhaps randomly picked. Foucault’s third function is “hide” which refers to the power behind the tower is hidden. People will internalize the power, for example since inmates know that at any given time they are being watched they will then start to behave as if they are. Inmates will internalize the power by self-policing which is a form of discipline. In regards to the call centers the customer service representatives will try to perform or answer all the customers’ questions and concerns to the best of their ability as if someone was listening.
In addition to space I want to emphasize how the space in call centers mirrors prisons. In a prison the cell space is very limited as well in the cubicles in a call center. Inmates are not allowed out of their cell (space) with permission of a guard. In the same way inmates aren’t allowed to leave their cells (space) unless informing a guard, a customer service representative needs to inform their supervisors by punching in and out for breaks or by using codes on their telephones to notify the supervisors of their whereabouts. In both settings the space dictates the behavior. As for the time, in prisons inmates work on a restricted schedule as well as in call centers customer service representatives. All movements are monitored in both setting from when they take their lunch to when and how long they have been out their cell or cubicles.
Ultimately, Foucault argument about Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon structure is clearly visible in how it’s used in modern day institutions such as schools, hospitals and in the workplace. His three functions: enclose, deprive of light (knowledge) and hide helps support his argument into today’s surveillance. I have demonstrated how a workplace like a call centers monitors a customer service representative in a similar way that inmates are monitored in prisons. The whole point of the panopticon is to be able to observe the whole space with less observers (guards and supervisors). The power is fully in effect in these institutions when the people self-police without even realizing. This form of discipline only gives the guards and supervisors more control of their space.
Work cited
"Discipline and Punish, Panopticism." Michel Foucault, Info. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.