Browsing by Author "Veeriah, Kerina"

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    Balancing acts: rationalisation and care in the management of mental health call centre counsellors in South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Veeriah, Kerina; Van Wyk, Ilana; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the last 30 years, the international rise and proliferation of call centres have had an enormous impact on global work and labour relations. In the literature on the call centre industry, scholars have repeatedly characterised call centre workers as stressed, exploited, and above all, as subject to extraordinary electronic surveillance and control. As call centres moved into the provision of physical and mental healthcare, a number of scholars have noted that “telecare” workers were not only subject to the wider industry’s relentless rationalisation but were also particularly vulnerable to mental health issues due to the nature of their work. This study explores these issues at a mental health awareness telecare centre that I have called Mental health Awareness for South Africa [MhASA]. I focus on the ways in which the centre’s management, all permanent workers, approached and attempted to accommodate the conflicting goal of rationalised management practices with the need to care for their vulnerable volunteer counsellors. Towards this end, I interviewed six members of MhASA’s telecare centre, five of whom were permanent staff members while one was a senior volunteer counsellor.