Mental load of call center agents

The paper reports an exploratory study aimed to check the profile of mental load of call center agents. The analyses were carried out in two call cent ers. The first was a special unit belonging to an electronics company. The second was an external center providing teleservices. The working activitie s and the work conditions in these two call centers were analyzed by means of a screening procedure for detecting mental work load. This procedure con sists of three parts: (1) an item list of situation features assessed by ex perts, (2) a questionnaire related to the same situation features assessed by workers, and (3) a questionnaire of subjective strain assessed by worker s. Additionally, the ergonomic design of the work places was evaluated. The results of expert judgments indicate that the decision latitude within the work of the call center agents is restricted, the agents have ta make o nly partial and repeating activities and they cannot use sufficiently their professional competence. In general, the agents judged their mental load on the same level or a high er level as experts. In contradiction to this, all call center agents judge d their own strain as insignificant.