Invisible Work: Gendered Examples from Three Finnish Call Centres
Tuija Koivunen *
University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: This article examines invisible work tasks in the work organizations of call centres. The aim is to analyze what kinds of invisible work tasks there are and, moreover, to find out how these arrangements are divided according to employees’ gender and position in the work organization.
Study Design: The empirical evidence is based on ethnographic research in three call centre organizations in Finland. The semi-structured interviews were the main research technique in the field. Researchers have only seldom focused on invisible work tasks as the starting point of analysis, even though this could give otherwise unattainable insights into the ways in which work at large is organized, especially in relation to gender.
Conclusion: The analysis indicates that the invisible work tasks in call centres mostly follow the same gendered pattern as the formal work tasks.
Keywords: Invisible work, informal work, gender, call centres, ethnographic approach.