2021 年 2021 巻 50 号 p. 44-63
This article explores the growth of the call center industry in the Philippines and its effect on Filipino employees by critically comparing two recent books. Unlike those of the US and India, call centers in the Philippines have been relatively under-studied. More than one million Filipino employees have worked as call center agents, not only in Manila, but also in major regional cities such as Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, and Dumaguete. Their contribution to the Philippine economy has been decisive. Two recent books, A Nation on the Line: Call Centers as Postcolonial Predicaments in the Philippines (2018) by Jan. M. Padios and Lives on the Line: How the Philippines Became the World’s Call Center Capital (2019) by Jeffery J. Sallaz are welcome additions for understanding the Philippines’ call center industry and the lives of call center employees.
This article examines two major issues: the characteristics of call center work (low turnover rate and feminized jobs) and the effects on call center employees. Call centers in the Philippines have relatively low turnover rates and Filipino employees have rather affective attachments to their work. For university graduates, women, and/or single mothers in a precarious financial state, call center work is a profitable option because of its attractive salary. Considering this, the promise of escape from vulnerable conditions serves to lower turnover rate. The low rate represents neither a sense of satisfaction nor absence of worker resistance. Call center work in the Philippines is gendered. As emotional and affective labor, women are ideally suited because of their social skills and empathetic capacity. This resonates with other common professions among Filipino women, such as nursing and domestic work, both at home and/or overseas. This feminized labor process oftentimes clashes with normative practices, including Filipino masculinity. For this reason, heterosexual Filipino men are discouraged from working in call centers.
These works indicate that call centers in the Philippines should not be considered electronic prisons, as has often been asserted; rather, as exceptions, they could be important focus of academic inquiry on the growth of service work in the Philippines. Examining the responses of employees to issues such as unionization is a subject requiring attention in the future.
