Call centre unfairness
This should really be a proper rant but I haven’t got time.
Call centres are really unfair. Now, everyone has lots of reasons why they don’t like call centres: the staff are incompetent, you have to wait on hold for hours and hours, they don’t have the information you need, calling twice gives you two different answers—fill in your own reasons. The reason I hate them, however, is that it insulates the company from criticism. You see, the people working in the call centres are just ordinary Joes like you and me. (Well, like me. You may not be ordinary.) They’re doing a pretty thankless job for pitifully low wages and with (as I understand it) appalling working conditions. So, when the company you’ve rung decides to implement some kind of evil corporate death-to-our-customers policy, the call centre people get to be the ones to tell the callers, like me. But it’s just not fair to get really angry with these call centre people—it’s not their fault, there’s nothing they can do to fix it, and their job is hard enough without me getting irate on the phone. So the company can do what they want and I can’t even shout at them. I can ask to speak to a supervisor, but I always worry that that supervisor will then mark down the person I’m talking to as someone who can’t handle customers and probably have them flogged or something. So I just fume until I start bleeding out of my ears but don’t complain to the company about it. And that’s probably just the way they like it. There’s none so blind as them as won’t listen, as Del Boy once said.
Amen to that, brother. Ebuyer being a case in point. Their “business” policy seems to allow them to sell stock they’ve already sold, thus some poor sod ends up without the stuff they’ve already paid for, and (I think) therefore own. i.e. They’re selling my property. There must be some law against this?
54 minutes later
Oh yeah, and you cant shout at anyone about it! (Sorry, lost the thread there for a moment through all this red mist).
55 minutes later
Having worked in 2 separate call-centres (both indirectly working for BT, admittedly), I’ve got a slightly different, although very similar perspective on them. Yes, it’s thankless, underpaid work, and 9 times out of 10, if you go to a supervisor about something, they’ll tell you that they’re busy, so get someone else to deal with it.
It should also be said, that IME, the staff are incompetant because they’ve not actually been trained to do their job - tech support people being trained with sales info, for example - We didn’t need to know this!
So, yes, call centres are crap, but I’d be willing to bet that those who have to work in them hate them more than you do. Poor Bastards…
2 days later
Hell, yeah, working in call centers sucks donkey dick. Everyone is yelling at you about something all the time. It’s a very stressful environment and the turnover is outrageous because almost no one can handle the stress. I have decided after this experience that I will never work in customer service ever again.
107 weeks later
Don’t worry about getting someone in trouble. I am a “supervisor” at a call center for a major corporation. I say “supervisor” because I’m really not one. I am a person that you will talk to that will “act” like a supervisor, but I’m basically a “yes” man that will bend over backwards to make you happy if you don’t like the regular service. If “yes” becomes impossible, then sorry Charlie.
No, they don’t get marked down. Let me tell you something: Do you think calling in every month and having a bad experience is bad? Well, let me give you some perspective from my end. Multiply that number times 1,000. Do you think we like to see customer’s getting the shaft by the company? Believe me, we don’t, and it really disgusts US. That is what I have to deal with. Most of the people I talk to, if I resolve there issue within two minutes, they’re still not satisfied because they didn’t get the satisfaction of denigrating someone enough and make them feel like a nobody.
Let me tell you I will take McDonald’s over that if it paid right, because McDonald’s is a piece of cake, and I do get paid well for doing call center work. Honestly, though, the wage is not enough for the bullcrap I deal with every day. A lot of jobs are being created in call centers, so in a way that is good.
Remember, when you call customer service, please be nice to the rep and thank them. I guarantee they are having a bad day.
Also remember, don’t make a customer service rep mad. Some of them are empowered to close your account, or send you a bill addressed to “@$$#0l3″
111 weeks later
yea im sitting at work as I type this message… 4 years in a call center and I can say it sucks ass.
116 weeks later
Yes, I also work in a call center- or not in a typical call center, but a large company internal one.
The people are mostly okay and deal with you with respect, but some middle-management guys are eager to find the smallest error on Helpdesks procedures to complain and “escalate the issue for learning experience”.
I sincerely hate my work. I hate the Quality ass-surance (I have univeristy degree on computing and I my performance is rated by 55-year old woman who knows very little about computers- and yes, I am looking for a new job at the moment as I got “lured” into this one).
The whole call center scheme is ludicirous: you have little training on the technical side (we have many computer illeterates working in “technically complicated” call center / or the fancy name they gave to it). You’ve got people who don’t know jacks butt about any of the systems, they just follow the instructions on the screen. It’s a mind-dumbing, no brainer job.
I hate taking calls and I hate it that when you work in a call center you are a script moron. A paid monkey to do the stuff, to represent the company because they do not want to and take complains for money, fix issues that cannot be fixed over the phone and “write tickets”. You are “the help desk guy”- and when you become “very experienced call center agent”, that means your career is down the drain.
You got scheduled workday with scheduled breaks, you should not stay on the phone more than certain time and you should resolve certain types of problems. You don’t have to think as there is script for everything. (Use the script, Luke!) As I’ve visited the companys other help desk in other part of the world, they were equally bad. I saw sloppy people sitting on their chairs, pecking at keyboard. You really cannot be serious technician with a call queue and a headset..
As soon as I got a new job, I get out of this one and I never do anything with the phone again.
But now I know that the people who take your calls are not responsible. It’s the company who makes a big buck by getting untrained people to search the “knowledge base” for the same solutions over and over again. Do not go there.
117 weeks later
Express your feelings about high-tech sweatshops with http://www.ihatecallcenters.com
123 weeks later
Call center work is not for everyone. It is very demanding on your body and your mind. You need to be more than a “people person”, you also need to be smart about how you handle the calls or you won’t meet your performance goals.
125 weeks later
Working in a call center is absolute hell. You are virtually chained to your desk by a call queue and a headset. I’ve worked two call centers, the first I left because I hated it. The company (hint : its a phone company that works with an internet company for DSL) works you to death and the turnover rate is amazing. They hired 40 of us .. trained us .. and a year later there was 3 people left.
Training is constantly in process because of the high turnover rate. And management thinks this is a good business model ?? wtf??
So I find another job that I like thats not a call center. Finally a normal job, but 9 months go by .. and it turns into .. a call center!! What a stroke of luck eh? After this job I swear to god, no call centers. I will hang up the phone on any recruiter that offers me one. trust me people its that bad.
David
125 weeks later
working for some of the large call centres is worse than working in a chicken factory - take from me i’ve been there and got the badge. But with the internet anybody can open there own call centres then you are not constantly clocked - you decide how much you time you want to put in and earn. I work for now work for myself so the call centre experience although wounding to my soul was useful . I strongly recommend to anyone working in a call centre to go it alone , but do it in steps - keep the day job until you’ve hacked it.
126 weeks later
yeah, i work at a outbound call center asking people to donate for charities. yeah, i have the WORST job out of anyone i bet. I’ve worked at call center’s and have been promoted high up at diff ones, but this center is the worst…i’ve working like. 7 shifts and i dread going in and probebly will quit before the time i have set down lol. but it’s true, if you do get a call or are calling someone, try and make them smile…they are always having a crappy day…i hate being pestered at home with one call, but i hate calling 500 people a day and asking for the money way more.
130 weeks later
i just wanted to say i read this articule to see if i could get some imformation to see what it would be like to work in a call center as i’m about to apply. I think it’s very unfair that you are judging people by your passed experience. I haven’t even got a job there and already i feel i will get stick straight away because of someone elses mistakes. Everybody has to start somewhere yes we all get pissed of when we don’t get the correct advice but did you never make a mistake or have to atlease do a little training? or are you a smart arse? The world would be a happier place if people like some of you on here jost stopped winging about the little things in life and give people a chance. They’ve proberly had a hard day at work had an aurgument with a friend partner or family member and feel just as shity as you! there’s no point in bringing everyone down especially if all there trying to do is earn a living to keep there families going. Any way thanks for reading! i hope you think before you wing next time.XXX
131 weeks later
My sentiments exactly. I work in a call centre (mostly inbound) in Australia, which has a high erm…multi-racial population, and I HATE it when customers assume they are calling to India or Bangladesh. Doesn’t matter what accent you’ve got. They can just simply assume you are Irish/canadian, on working holiday visa in India (AS IF, cos if I was going to India, I can betcha, I’d be touring around TAJ MAHAL, rather than working in a f*******call centre). The pay is shit, and the people are stupid (customers AND employees). Most of the employees are stupid illiterate old dickheads and morons who can’t read basic English and yet they abuse us. My supervisor got abused recently too. I agree about the part that someone has written about supervisors who usually refuse to take calls and someone else has to “sound like supervisor” when in fact he’s a senior agent who knows NOTHING.
I have two degrees, and due to the difficulties in fresh grads or pple with little work experience, i have to get stuck in a stinking stupid job like this, leaving me NO TIME to take a bloody sip of water, having to deal with idiots whom I wish to skin alive….and mann….CALL CENTRE IS LIVING HELL.
If customers love you, employees and co workers hate you and make life hard. If employess and co workers love u, customers hate u. In both ways, u get fired anyway. The only reason y i have not been given the boot is becausethere’s no new person willing to do this shit job
132 weeks later
After reading leanne’s message dated 25th July i just wanted to say. Leanne we are only warning you what a call centre is like. Give it a week and you will only feel the same as the rest of us. I hate my job so much that i went home sick about 6 weeks ago and went straight to the doctor for a sick note. How dare these customers speak to us like a peice of crap. If they were to speak to me like that to my face, i would kick sh** out of them. I work for a massive electricity company and hate it so much. I am 20 and feel like im 45. But hey ive just put my notice in yesterday so im getting out of call centres for good. **** THIS IS A WARNING TO ANYONE THINKING ABOUT GOING TO WORK IN A CALL CENTRE - DO NOT, YOU BECOME A ROBOT AND YOU START TO GO MENTAL AND I MEAN THAT !!!!! - STACK SHELVES OR SUMMIT BUT DONT GO TO A CALL CENTRE - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ****
133 weeks later
I work in a call center. You have to get a thirty percent save rate ( That means, I have to talk the customer into staying with the company, offer them software , offer them extra storage with their email, and the list goes one)It is very difficult to “save” a customers account when you get the wrong calls. I’l explain , fraud accounts, already cancelled accounts, called the wrong company, claims they cancelled the account months ago, called the wrong dept, hung up on you, the customer wants tech support, and on and on it goes. I have to take a “not save ” on all of the above calls. That makes it “difficult as hell” to get the thirty percent save rate!
I have a three minute bathroom break. ( funny , we timed it , its takes two minutes to walk to the bathroom)
I have to be logged on to the phone 90 percent of the time. My breaks, lunch , and bathroom breaks are all added into the 90 percent. If im half a minute late the supervisor’s run to log you off the phone. ( which , goes against your 90 percent you need)
If I call in sick they take my bonus ( I have worked at my job for over a year. I have called in sick twice ) I lost a three hundred dollar bonus because I spent the night at the out door ) Isnt that awful?
The quality coachs monitor the hell out of your calls eight times a day. they come over to your pod and demean you in front of everyone, scream. on and on it goes. ( i once got wrote up because the script said” I BE HAPPY TO HELP YOU WITH THAT , i SAID ” i D BE GLAD TO HELP YOU WITH THAT. wROTE UP! NO EXCUSES ALLOWED!
iF i CALL IN SICK ON A WEEKEND. i have to work my next weekend off. No exception to this rule.
Anyways, I can understand where you guys are coming from. call centers are just modern day sweatshops!!!
135 weeks later
So glad I found this site. Have silently seethed throughout 12 painful years of call-center work. This industry has inspired me to write my PhD thesis on mine and other people’s experiences of the living hell that is automated work. I am also in the process of subverting imagery of call-centers through Photoshop but my image-bank is running low and am on the hunt for good quality photgraphs of office enviroments.
For anybody interested in corresponding about call-center related issues, or would like to read or contribute to some of the research I’m doing - please email me at simon_currell@hotmail.com
135 weeks later
For you people thinking of working in a call center, you will go in chipper and happy, and come out of it a stressed out, angry, moody person who gets sick all the time from the stress.
My previous call center job was for that phone company we all know, and it was living hell. I worked on the line that people call when their phone is broken. Everyone was screaming and angry and everyone wanted their phone fixed right then and there. We could not leave our desks, everything we did was monitored, if we tsyaed on a call too long we got in trouble, if we didn’t stay on the call long enough we got in trouble. they even made us listen to our own phone calls twice a week. It is modern day slavery.
It was hell, it made me physically ill from the stress. I couldn’t even talk to family or friends when i went home at night on the phone. because I hated the phone. I still do. I never answer the phone anymore. I have the ringer turned off (I hate rings) and all calls go straight to voicemail. I check my voicemail and return the calls that need to be returned.
Call center work should be the last straw for employment, or if you intend on trying to advance quickly in the company and get the hell off that phone.
people just don’t know how to act when they call a help desk or call center, and some people call for no apparent reason
135 weeks later
Searching the web for call center employee discussions brings up pretty much nothing. Although there’s a million sites w/complaints against call centers and their employees. Some of these comments hit the nail right on the head. I’m trying to get together a site for people who work in call centers to discussion working conditions and the infantile customers we speak with. If you’d like to take a look it’s @ http://kustomerservice.net. I can honestly say I’ve never really had trouble talking to someone working in a call center because I myself work in one and try to be nice and give them some respect. And working in a call center my helpfulness deminishes the more the caller acts like a screaming 2 year old.
141 weeks later
Hey all,
Been working in callcentres for the the 7 years. I really enjoy it to be honest its great fun, there is a great atmosphere on the team.
Its about the only job I know I can come to work completely hungover and/or stoned and perform.
I have worked for 3 major corps in callcentres and they are all the same. Same target, same processes and same customer service.
I do suppose I should explain my secret to why I enjoy callcentre work so much…. I dont talk to any customers ever! I’m completely non customer facing in my role in the callcentre. By god it took me a while to get to this job and i’m not leavin it for love nor money… (well maybe more money)
If you take calls in a callcentre yes life isn’t peachy but you can still have some job satisfaction and you guaranteed to have fun in the callcentre cos you meet some very funny characters.
All the best
141 weeks later
I worked in a Call Centre in Australia earlier in 2006, during my final year at University. I was an inbound CSR, taking take-away and delivery orders for a multinational pizza company. As a rule, there were not any of the completely unfair management/procedures that people have talked about here.
Management were mostly supportive and most fellow employees were very friendly and helpful. I was generally treated quite well. So, why did I resign after a relatively short time? Mostly because, given that the target talk time for each call was 80 seconds, and allowing for longer calls, I probably would have taken about 70 calls in a 3 hour shift. Rarely would I get a call that was interesting, challenging or even difficult. Mostly, I was repeating the same ‘conversation’ over and over and over - that’s where it fell down. I have also worked in retail, and in that environment I enjoy customer service and sales - if there’s no queue, no one is going to stop you having a friendly conversation with a customer for a few minutes.
146 weeks later
[...] Great idea? Well, yes and no. Stuart previously ranted about call centres, since he feels they are unfair and insulate the company from criticism. People you eventually get to speak to might be useless (usually because they’re not well trained), but at the end of the day it is the company that has annoyed you and not the poor soul being paid next-to-nothing to deal with your complaints. I tend to agree with him. This is why although on the surface of things the new “redirect me when I get really annoyed” system will be great for the customer, I think it will actually end up changing the whole arena for the worse. [...]
147 weeks later
Hey all,
I currently work in a call center and I must say it sucks ass! I live in Canada and these places are sprawling up allover the place like the plague did hundreds of years ago. I remember my Dad always talking about when you finished school you took a trade and that was it, you worked, got a house, got a car and then retired and so on….
But now its rediculous, the small town I live in its impossible to even get a job in the local steel plant. Most of the people fresh out of school are forced to get a job at one of the 5 local call centers. If you ask me, that’s the sign of an economy thats failed.
Now as for working conditions, the scheduled breaks, the call monitoring, the scripts, that’s all so true. The shifts are terrible, who wants to work nights putting up with crap. I’m a nice outgoing guy but since I’ve started this job 5 months ago, I find myself becoming depressed, angry, stressed, ill and some days I just feel like going postal.
If this is the best job I can get… then F&#$ this, I’m joining the army.
155 weeks later
I have worked in a call center now for about 2 years. Usually on Monday.. I can tolerate my shift. The rest of the week I just want to climb through the phone and choke the stupid f#%king customer to death! I can handle when a customer is dumb… But when they are ignorant, or rude it’s just the worst. I feel that this job is crushing my soul. I am an outdoorsy kind of person, I can’t find another job that isn’t at a call center(believe me,.. I try.. Job Bank every morning) . This crummy city has 5 call centers, all hiring …all the time. Why? Cause they are very poorly run,..managed by a bunch of “carnies”, and imbiciles. I swear to god. And it’s really not their fault, they are just managing the way they have been managed. Just dropped in the position…
When your headset feels like a chain that is permanently attached to your desk and everything you do…. is monitored, ie. Breaks, Lunches, Training. Anytime you to leave your “cubi-cell” you are required to enter a code into the phone. (So management knows where you are or why you are not taking calls) I am troubleshooting computer issues (Every windows Operating System, and 100’s of laptops/desktops, monitors.. etc) This company I work for; basically is a buffer between the REAL company, and the customer. We get the people yelling and screaming, and just overall pissed off at the companies policies that we are here to uphold (and most are just riot-envoking policies, that wrench your heart to have to put a person through this kind of turmoil for a shotty product).
I feel really bad for some of the customers that call here. They are put through the “ringer”.. and feel like they have been scammed.
I know that when the day comes that I leave this job.. It will take a some time to get “unstressed” and feel ~normal~ again.
But anyways… haha.. If you are in desparate need of a job and are interested in computers, or you can at least take something with you in the form of a “Skill” when and if you ever leave a call center then yeah. But don’t stay too long… a job like this can SAP your motivation, make you feel worthless, depressed, mood swingy, and have an overall dislike for Americans… it’s true.
169 weeks later
call centre work is right up there (or down there) with working in a factory or some branch or retail store. because i didn’t finish my hotshot bachelor of commerce degree and MBA due to personal issues and stuff i resorted to working at a retail sports store.
for someone who got over 95 in my hsc (australia) this was the last place i thought i’d end up.
eventually i gave that up whilst studying part-time at college and got a job at a large australian bank. although excited at first at seeing a pay of more than 550 a week i ended up going mad. after 5 or so months i moved to an outbound area, the pay was slightly better (750 a week including a saturday though) and we pretty much did so many dodgy things it was hilarious. i ended up firing myself. took annual leave and never came back.
do i give a flying #$%^ about 750 a week and have so much stress? i already hav had issues with depression beginning in my teens and this was one of the reasons why i ddnt finish uni (that song by cher - if i could turn back time is ringing loudly) and this made me miserable.
there comes a point where i can tolerate customer’ shit. i mean when working in retail we flipped the notion of “customer is always right” on its head and taught many people manners (they’ll never learn). if a customer was to talk like a prick we’d be blunt but yeah it was a nightmare. then there was the targets. i had no trouble in exceeding them (when i could be bothered) and they were pretty high, but spare a thought for those who just can’t make the monthly quota of accounts and referrals.
PEOPLE HAVE COMMITTED SUICIDE DUE TO THIS STRESS
the monitoring was insane. 20 mins of timed rest breaks and 45 mins lunch (ive was counselled for coming 5 mins late a few times). then there was the call handling time and monitoring every month to add to all of that, I was working under a bunch of mother*&^&*^ with no intellectual ability (hello thats y they’re working at this joint for 5+ years and r team leaders and seniors) and the management were ona power trip…as if they figured the call centre (1500 odd employees) was the entire bank! aside from all the nonsense customer service crap, for a bank that employs 8000 staff, branches and all frontline areas comprise a large % of total staff but the real work is elsewhere.
we had senior team leaders (they were just managers of the t/l’s) walking around the jail (call centre) like prison wardens and thinking they were the ceo or one of the directors of the damn place!!
anyway there are certain roles i will never be doing ever again in my life: working in retail, working in call centres, working in a branch type area, or working in a factory (thankfully ive never worked in one….WE R HUMAN BEINGS NOT MACHINES! I VALUE MYSELF MUCH HIGHER THAN THIS SHIT THANKU VERY MUCH). i do feel for everyone working in a branch factory call centre or any ridiculous retail human robotic job.
God give me the strength to nail my degree so i can avoid ever stepping foot in these hellish places and work in a corporate environment with my own office and some #$%^&* freedom to use my abilities and skills without worrying how long im sitting in the toilet for or if i am 1 minute late from my lunch break.
faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark
excuse my spell errors by the way
my advice would be to work there max 1 yr and try and move on up in the company to a more rewarding and less stressful area. other wise study and steer clear of these places.
u wont believe how good ti feels to hear a genuine thankyou from a customer amidst all the others throwing grenades at you.
1 more thing, when discussing pay:
my mate is an actuary (very smart maths ppl) and he said the only reason a senior team leader at a call ctr gets paid 60-70+ is coz no one will bloody do the job so they have to make it somewhat lucrative. the ABS says the average wage in australia is 1072 a week before tax. no where near enough to service a mortgage and its about how much someone working in a call ctr will get if they maybe work a weekend day.
i’d rather be on that sort of pay and be an accountant or engineer in a nice cbd office. u do meet some nice people to work with but also some total ass#$%E as well.we should develop monkeys to do the customer service for us.
people who work in these places for excessive amts of times become unhealthy and go mental…
lifes too short man
thx for letting me vent and for reading
peace and love :)
174 weeks later
Just like to point out that its just as bad working in the stupid places as it is ringing up. companies clearly don’t have an idea of how badly managed these call centres are as no one who works there knows what they are and are not allowed to do. buisnesses see it as its easy money for them to make is people ring up the over priced TROUBLE-SHOOTING helplines.
174 weeks later
Call center work is as bad as any other type of work, but unlike a lot of jobs you need to keep your cool while callers go off the deep end. Not worth it for the money.
182 weeks later
I’ve worked in a call centre full time for a year now and it really has been the worst year of my life. I’m only 19 and I feel like a complete loser… fortunately I’m leaving very soon. I hope that more people sign this web-page and that we can deter others from working in the hell that is a call centre.
184 weeks later
I work for a government call centre and apart from everything else that shits me that everyone’s already covered is the fact that you’re constantly given the impression that you are failing at your job. We are given a set of pointless,irrelevant and usually contradictory stats to meet. For example I got a warning that my hold times were too high although I was taking in excess of the required amount of calls and my call times were below average. 28 days left and I’m outta there
184 weeks later
I work in a call center too. EVERYTHING said already in here is dead-on accurate. EVERYTHING!!! I went into it all happy, chipper, and all gung-ho ready to do good and help the customer. 2 years later… I’m always stressed out, moody, depressed, angry, and always feeling tired from all the stress - and often times physically ill from it!
Call center work really does suck donkey balls! You sure as hell don’t get any respect for what you do, no matter how hard you work or how far you bend over backwards. You can never do a good enough job. And you get talked to in a manner that would have gotten one’s ass kicked royally if they were to talk like that to someone in person. But of course, it’s the phone. Just like the computer: Everyone’s Superman when hiding behind it.
I have a college degree (and by God I went through a LOT of pain and suffering to get it). And it didn’t even help, because I work in a call center. This was the LAST place I figured I’d end up, since the reason I went to college in the first place was because of all the “doors” everyone said it would open up for me. I dread going to work every day, and always leave work feeling like I’ve had a s**tty day. That isn’t right! NOBODY should ever be that miserable every day of their lives.
I’m looking for another job, but for some reason can’t seem to find one that I’m qualified for that isn’t a call center (and believe you me, I search far and wide!). As soon as I do, I’m off the phones, and will NEVER go back to them ever again! Life is too short for this crap.
Anyhoo, thank God for this site. I hope more people read this, and I hope that like that other guy said, this keeps people from being suckered into the endless nightmare that is the Call Center.
185 weeks later
After having worked in two different call centers over the past year and a half I can honestly say that it is one of the most horrible, soul sucking jobs you can have. I spent nine years in the Army until I had to get out due to recurrent back problems. During my time I was a squad leader of up to 10 men, was accountable for several million dollars worth of equipment, and had daily responsibilities that often time were of a life and death manner. I also have a Bachelor of Business Administration that I worked my ass off for on nights and weekends.
Despite all of this the ONLY job I have been able to get in civilian life is in a call center. When I say ONLY, I really mean it. You better believe that I have tried The really depressing thing is that it took me six months to find my first job in a call center, and when I discovered how horrible of a job it was (after about 2 months) it took me about nine months to find the one I am at now. Now you must be asking, why did you leave one shitty job only to go to another job where you are doing the same thing? Simple. I was told that at my new job that the first month would consist of classroom training. That was all I needed to hear. It didn’t matter that the commute is longer, or that the pay is a little less. The only thing that mattered was that I actually got to work for a little while without being tethered to the damn phone in my cell. Well, as just about anyone who has ever worked in a call center knows, what you are told in the interview is either complete crap or extremely misleading. I was on the phone within a week and a half (they called it part of the “training rotation”).
Someone earlier here nailed it when they said that call centers are nothing more than American sweat shops. The stories about every single second of every day being relentlessly monitored are true, as are the stories of being chewed out for being a minute or two late coming back from breaks or being in the bathroom 30 seconds longer than what the automaton shift manager deems ‘acceptable’. Right now though I am seriously considering selling my newly purchased townhouse, leaving the city I am in - Charlotte, NC - since it appears as if it is the call center capital of the east coast, and going to another city to find something, anything, that won’t make me feel hopeless and depressed with the direction my civilian work life is going. I honestly can’t think of anything else to do.
192 weeks later
I work in a call center also. I have been there for a few years and find that lately my equipment or phone line just doesn’t seem to be working properly. They (supervisors - three of them) had a box with all the headphones and boxes tangled and mangled and told me to try one of those. They were all the old pieces of equipment that they stashed. I have gone to my assigned supervisor and she told me to wait and talk to the other supervisor, who basically never helped me at all. The third supervisor told me to write to the manager. One supervisor told me to ask the IT person and he never helped me. I sent an email to the HR person who never replied and so I am stuck moving to a different desk and trying to figure out what the problem is on my own. At the second desk the line is still distant but better than my own desk. It could be the phone line (which is what I suspect on my desk) and then also my headphones are so old and the box they connect with may not be good any longer. The customers complain that I fade in and out so I think this has to be a phone line, because no matter how loud I turn it up on certain phone calls I am having an unusual problem. I never had this much difficulty before and it started last week. No help.
When you walk in it is so busy they just want you to jump on and take those calls. You better make sure you make your percentage of upsells too! I finally was so frustrated - I was talking louder than I should of telling my coworker and my supervisor came over and said “The other person that sits at that desk isn’t having any problems.” So I guess it must be my problem. I have always been one of their top performers and been on time and have an excellent record, but that still doesn’t seem to matter. It has to be me and I am making it all up. So much for garnering any respect working in a call center. No chance for advancement and just the same old sweat shop mentality there. I expect to get fired after my show of frustration. It is either shut up or get in trouble.
192 weeks later
and to Frank who just posted before me..
I was also in the military.
I know it is hard to find a decent job anymore no matter who you are. You are so right about them monitoring your time off the phone. The supervisors sit on their fat butts and watch the screens. They aren’t the ones taking call after call. They know the frustration the workers go through but they are all company people and will not stand by the worker. Call center people are a dime a dozen and they can just fire us and get a new person. They never care. I have seen many good people leave, when they should have tried to make them stay. They don’t care. You will always be a percentage or a number and the next person they hire they will pay them even less - so it is to their advantage to have a high turnover. I don’t live too far from you. Hang in and good luck to you Frank
192 weeks later
I work in a call center. You are abso-fucking-luely correct about the job. We get paid next to nothing, are constantly told that we’ll be fired, and have customers assume we weild godly powers and can fix all their problems with a wave of our magic wands. Moreover, we are pretty much paid *NOT* to help the customer. As we have 5 minutes per call and that isn’t enough time to actually fix their complaints.
Not only that but getting trained is a big joke. The majority of our calls are billing issues. The problem is that you don’t get trained to deal with those calls. You have to learn the system on the job. Mind, you can’t spend more than five minutes!
Today (Thanksgiving in the US) I have to go to work or risk loosing my job. My badge has gone AWOL so I have to get there even earlier so I can buy a brand new badge. I can’t even be assured that someone will be there to make a new bandage today. If they aren’t working I’ll get two points and be sent packing back home. I don’t even know what to do.
Working here makes Wal-Mart look like a piece of heaven.
200 weeks later
i agree with all statements and comments along the lines of call centers being absolute hell i think mike rowe from dirty jobs needs to sit in our desks and take a call
hired 2-07-05 ~ still working in hell
208 weeks later
I too am prior military, have been in charge of millions of dollars worth of assets, led a tactical electronics division and was in charge of 30 other people. I often was called to make tough decisions in dangerous situations, filled in for senior officers on missions they conveniently were absent from, and had an exemplary military career, that is until I broke my back gettin the job done and received a medical discharge. Back on the civilian scene I can’t seem to find a job that pays a damn, except customer service and CALL CENTER TECH SUPPORT for meager BS pennies on the dollar in this failed service economy of ours. I am sick to death of dealing with Bitchy customers who don’t know what real misery is and these cowardly corporate execs that pit you against them. These companies LIe to you about “opportunity for advancement” and “perfomance pay” to get you in the door, then suck your soul from you with their unrealistic and contradictory call quotas while quietly removing any benefits promised, implementing crappy policies and treating you like a gaddammned child. What an F’ing joke. I make less now, with more experience and education, than I did bussing tables at arestaurant when I was 15. I have looked for other jobs but all there seem to be is call center jobs and retail around here for the same shitty 3rd world wage. I’ll be done with my degree soon and am uneasy about my job prospects with a degree which is now a “requirement for entry level work’. What happened to us? I’d like to think I can work my way out of poverty but greedy corporations and abhorrent backwards social policies coupled with a corrupt government bureacracy have killed the american dream, while weve sold our souls to China and the Saud’s for a little instant gratification, Bob dylan was right ” go to school for twenty odd years and youre working the day shift.” Were all slaves here! I used to be able to get by with humble construction work before the military but the sudden increase in illegal workers at slave wages put me out of that line of work too. Now all I have left is demeaning pussified customer cock service! Maybe I can work for a prison or psych ward where all the free spirits end up in this country now.
230 weeks later
whatever
236 weeks later