https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780418811970 Sociological Research Online 1–19 © The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1360780418811970 journals.sagepub.com/home/sro Female Emotional Labour in Turkish Call Centres: Smiling Voices Despite Low Job Satisfaction Nilüfer Narlı Bahçeşehir University, Turkey Ayşegül Akdemir Istanbul Gedik University, Turkey Abstract This article discusses Turkish women workers’ experiences in Turkey’s growing call centre sector, focusing on the emotional labour they perform in relation to job satisfaction and gendered work patterns within the Turkish labour market. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative data generated from six Turkish cities. Our findings demonstrate that pecuniary emotional labour is a large requirement of women employees in the call centre business, and that performing such labour under time constraints harms their well-being. Low material rewards and lack of support in their relations with customers make it even more difficult to deal with the stress of emotional labour and lowers job satisfaction. Employees’ capacity to resist the negative aspects of work are largely limited by the conditions in Turkey such as high rates of unemployment, extensive employee circulation and lack of job security. Keywords call centres, emotional labour, gender Introduction This article discusses the experiences of women workers in Turkish call centres that provide various customer care services. It focuses on the emotional labour performed by women call centre workers across six locations in Turkey, the determinants of job satis- faction and gender-specific issues within the Turkish labour market context. Using both a survey and qualitative interviews, this study 1 investigates women in call centre work, Corresponding author: Ayşegül Akdemir, Istanbul Gedik University, Cumhuriyet Mahallesi, İlkbahar Sk. No: 1, 34876 Kartal, Istanbul, Turkey. Email: aysegul.akdemir@gedik.edu.tr 811970SRO 0 0 10.1177/1360780418811970Sociological Research OnlineNarlı and Akdemir research-article 2018 Article