While the ideology of professionalism is criticized by scholars as a tool of managerial control, the contestable and situated nature of its meaning can weaken this mechanism. Drawing on interviews with Indian call centre employees, the present study reveals how professionalism is understood by employees as an ideal that is binding on managers as much as on workers. Respondents draw on it to articulate grievances against managerial abuse, corruption, sycophancy and negligence, and to express their preference for so-called ‘western’ management practices to protect their rights and dignity in the workplace. This evidences a form of professionalism ‘from below’, fostering mobilization potential which unions seem to tap into. Yet this article also considers ways in which professionalism may serve as an obstacle to later stages of mobilization and to organizational commitment generally.