Happiness, Slavery, and Call Centers (2007)

by: Valred Olsim

“What’s the point if you’re not happy?” I announced when a friend asked me why I quit my call center job. I wonder why I have to work on a stressful environment and pretend to like what I do when, in fact, I don’t want to do anymore of it. Most of my friends are working as call center agents and I could tell from the look of their eyes that they are not happy – they go home tired, weary, stressed and depressed. They wake up and do the same routine; wake up, go to work, make a call or receive a call, endure the rude deafening comments of customers and even the cold sarcasm of their supervisors, log out, go home – broken, unhappy and wondering; how the hell could they face the next day.

The rise of the call center industry has given a social status to call center agents – they are seen as sophisticated, articulate, professional and highly paid working class. Maybe it is really true; maybe it is an avocation of a remunerative description - a high paying job, but, maybe…it is not; you lose time trying to earn money and lose money trying to enjoy the little time that remained. After they get their salary, they go drinking at bars, enjoy expensive food, shop for new clothes, or buy new gadgets not just to relieve themselves of the pressure and depression that they get in the work place, but, to make them forget that they are exploited people – slaves of a bigger and more powerful structure of capitalism, industrialization and globalization.


Everyone wishes for a job that they would enjoy, at the same time, get paid for it; earning millions while just shooting the ball, or getting checks by just smiling or dancing. We fantasize about it in our secret dreams, so pleasurable but yet, so foolish. Most of us wanted a luxurious life, but behind every luxury, are exploited people who don’t have a choice but to do things they don’t want to do in order to live. Behind the lights of malls are security guards, sales ladies and underpaid employees working overtime to make ends meet. Behind the glamorous parties that are thrown are cooks, abused waiters and harassed staffs that only wanted to have food on their plate. Behind the things that we use are mistreated workers, tolerating the harsh working conditions that the industries impose just so that their families could live more comfortably. And, behind all of these abused and exploited people is an ancient powerful social order of masters and slaves - of people who live like gods in mount Olympus and of mortals who only wants a piece of that paradise -- an order that has been maintained by the powerful few by instilling us a culture of consumerism and apathy; “When you want to be happy eat chocolates”, “ When you want to relax, go to this place”, “If you are stressed, drink this”, “ To be in, buy this”. They utilize art, technology and the media to create a chaotic environment of entertainment and fear, such that we will be preoccupied with things that may wake us up with the truth that we are, in fact, slaves.

Maybe, I have thought of it too much. Maybe a certain kind of paranoia from watching a lot of socio – political documentaries and from submerging myself with history books has confused me about it. But, maybe it is true; maybe humans have created a corrupt order that will always define the destiny of history. That, behind us is a great system capable of manipulating our tendencies and us, especially those who don’t have much choice. Or maybe, I wrote this because I cannot find happiness or contentment in what I do, that maybe there is more to life than just making a call. Or maybe, I have yet to learn how to enjoy what I do rather than waste so much time being unhappy about it. But then, maybe if there are other options, why not choose? Like what they always say: “What’s the point when you’re not happy?”