This article deals with call center workers' subjectivity. It investigates how labor conditions and organization, content of the tasks and activity, as well as interpersonal relationships, add to the pleasure and suffering feelings experienced at work. A private pension fund call center was chosen for this empirical study. In order to learn about the task and understand its determinants, we searched for theoretical and methodological support in ergonomics and in labor psychodynamics. Twenty- six (26) indicators of possible sources of pleasure or suffering at work were found. The association of such indicators to their respective feelings varies from subject to subject, for each work-related situation. The indicators were grouped into 4 categories according to the issues under study. According to the way subjects relate to a situation at work they describe it either as being pleasant or unpleasant. Therefore, it is fundamental that the categories related to the study of pleasure and suffering are seen as being dynamic, for they inter-relate, creating a multi-determined panorama.
call center; answering phone calls; pleasure and suffering; work subjectivity; ergonomics; work psychodynamics
