Cold Calling the Revolution

Hip-hop front man of The Coup, former telemarketer, labor organizer, and Occupy Oakland activist Boots Riley recently released his directorial debut, Sorry to Bother You—a dark comedy that's light on surrealism and heavy with critique of corporate oppression. When Cassius Green (say it out loud) lands a job at a call center, he quickly learns he can advance up the corporate ladder and leave his drab life behind. But what is he selling—human power, fire power—and at what cost?

Paired with a razor-sharp article in Viewpoint by Jamie Woodcock (former undercover telemarketer and Labor History Best Book winner for Working the Phones), this session will discuss the shift towards a post-industrial service economy, exploitation and alienation, and methods of resistance for the modern worker facing the destruction of a unionized workforce.

Readings and Viewings

• Sorry to Bother You (trailer)
• Smile Down the Phone: An Attempt at a Workers' Inquiry in a Call Center by Jamie Woodcock (Viewpoint Magazine)

Additional Resources

• A Call Center Coup: Ex-Teamster Boots Riley Tackles Telemarketing and its Discontents (Hollywood Progressive)
• Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres by Jamie Woodcock (Pluto Press)
• Boots Riley on How His Hit Movie “Sorry to Bother You” Slams Capitalism & Offers Solutions (Democracy Now!)

Discussion Questions

1. What does the “white voice” say about whiteness and its intersection with class relations? How do gender, sex and sexuality play into the class and race dynamics on display?
2. Do you find yourself relating to the workers up and down the hierarchy of the call center/Worry Free? What parallels do you see or foresee in these different job roles across your workplace? How does the promise of becoming a power caller resonate with your experiences?
3. Taylorism has been described as the “scientific system of sweating” more labor from workers. What methods does management use in the Woodcock article to sweat more labor from its call center workers, and how did they resist that? What about your own workplace?
4. What is the purpose of micromanaging human interactions in the call center? Where does this happen elsewhere in the tech industry? What are the side-effects, if any?
5. Do you think the knowledge gained from Woodcock's call center inquiry is still relevant?