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Organization Studies http://oss.sagepub.com ‘Subterranean Worksick Blues’: Humour as Subversion in Two Call Centres
Phil Taylor and Peter Bain Organization Studies 2003; 24; 1487 DOI: 10.1177/0170840603249008 The online version of this article can be found at: http://oss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/24/9/1487

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1487

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‘Subterranean Worksick Blues’: Humour as Subversion in Two Call Centres
Phil Taylor and Peter Bain

Abstract
Phil Taylor University of Stirling, UK Peter Bain University of Strathclyde, UK

This article engages in debates stimulated by previous work published in Organization Studies, and more widely, on the purpose and effects of workers’ humour and joking practices. The authors emphasize the subversive character of humour in the workplace, rejecting perspectives which see humour as inevitably contributing to organizational harmony. Drawing on methodologies, including ethnography, which permitted the authors to penetrate the organizational surface of two call centres, rich evidence of satire and joking practices were uncovered. While long-acknowledged motives were revealed, particularly relief from boredom and routine, workers’ use of humour took novel, call centre specific forms. Overwhelmingly, though, humour contributed to the development of vigorous countercultures in both

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