Current Events > Anyone else worked in a call center?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I recently got a job at an inbound call center doing sales and I think I'm losing a part of my soul.
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That's the spirit.

yupp, worst job Ive ever had. I was so damn miserable
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Weezy_Tha_Don posted...

yupp, worst job Ive ever had. I was so damn miserable

What kind of calls were they?
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@pojr
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I do, a small one with only three people on the phones at most. It's set up rather stupidly as well.

It was and is supposed to be an internal IT helpdesk line.

In practice, it's also a hotline for the online filing system, which we don't have access to, and thus have to log and make tickets to send to the actual people who handles those (and they don't have a call center set up for them, either). Every so often, we get angry lawyers yelling at us for something that we didn't do and have no control over.

Additionally, due to how the contact page on the main site is set up (very poorly), we also get a bunch of outside callers for stuff like child support, divorce, and jury duty, even though the numbers for those departments are on the site on other pages. ...Or even in whatever letter that they got from said departments (though we've also gotten calls where they say that the number they need to call is busy or immediately hangs up; as if we could do anything about that or their problem).

And all this on top of other IT stuff we have to do sometimes (such as reimaging PCs and other projects).

It's a rather easy job, but it wears on you after a while.

It makes me thankful for those times I'm away from the desk to work on projects, in other buildings, even.
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@Virus731

There is nothing good I can say about working at a call center, other than it's a paycheck but even then the pay isn't very high

The treatment is extremely bad, both from the customers you speak with and management. There is very little positive reinforcement unless you have a good manager that is willing to work with you. Most managers focus on the negative aspects. Why are calls longer than 10 minutes? Why did you go over your break by 1 minute? Managers never actually practice any of the things they preach. Manager tells me to offer on every call. When they take one of my calls, they do NOT offer.

A lot of times in call centers you're stuck doing things you don't want to do. Customer got ripped off? Can't give them a credit because it's against company policy. If you work in a call center, you have to defend your company on so many points you don't agree with. Pretty much you have to sell your soul and you are paid to not have an opinion.

The commission is very confusing with a lot of mathematics and conditions. On paper you could make a lot, but if you fail to sell over 3% or miss more than 3 saturdays, etc you might lose your commission or it gets deducted. All in all you generally don't make much unless you're a selling machine.

Call centers are all about numbers. Your attendance, break and lunch times, survey scores and sales are kept track of by numbers, and your manager will always meet with you if the numbers slip. You had 17 sales in March, why did it go down to 15in April? What can we do to improve it next month? If you go over your break by 1 or 2 minutes, a member of workforce management will come to your desk and ask what you're doing. If you're late too many times, you might lose a percentage or all of your commission pay.

If you want to get promoted, look elsewhere. Your manager will make an empty promise like "we might revisit this in a few months" and then it's never talked about again. Call centers are almost impossible to get promoted at, because usually a buddy of a manager or someone the manager is having sex with will get promoted over you. However, they will use your desire to get promoted against you. Your manager will constantly ask you why you're not selling enough, or why your numbers are low, and how those things need to be high if you want to move up to the next level.

If you do find a way to get promoted, congrats. It actually isn't that bad when you're on the management team, but keep in mind that you're responsible for those under you. So if they screw up, it's your fault. In the call center I was at, I saw 20-year vets of the company get fired because the center was not performing up to the standards.

My advice. If you are in dire need of a job and this is all you have, try to stick with it for 6 months tops until you are on your feet. After that, Get. Out. Of. There.
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Bump. I worked hard on that post and I want someone to read it :p
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@Error1355
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pojr posted...

Bump. I worked hard on that post and I want someone to read it :p

It was quite informative, thank you
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