Working in a Call Center

Before I start rambling, let me just make it clear that this is just my own experience, and I know not all call centers are the same.

Starting Off

So whenever you start working in a call center, the trainer assigned to the group of new hires you're in tends to be kind of upbeat. But even that level of "joy" is probably at the minimum required. This person tends to be that guy people sort of have their distance from, probably because the guy's lucky enough to not be on the phones anymore. Not gonna lie though, I'd jump on that shit too, if that promotion opportunity ever comes around again. Having a pay that's bumped back up to what it used to be would be nice, but we can get into that later.

The problem with training is that you only learn the most basic of the essentials, and the rest is pretty much up to the supervisors and the other agents to explain to you. For at least the first few weeks, you're getting calls that make you ask, "Why the fuck didn't anyone tell me about this shit during training?" I can understand that there's only so much time available for training, but at the same time, you should still be knowledgeable to the point where you're competent enough to not have to ask your supervisor what to do every time you deal with a customer when it's time to start going on the phones. Just saying, that'd be nice.

You're also going to notice that during the training period, people are immediately quitting. That might seem a little intimidating and off-putting, because it is, but that's not the end of the turnover. If you're working at a point where the office is decently filled, with enough time, the amount of staff gradually dwindles down from half of an office to something like a fifth. Not only do a lot of people quit, but sometimes people get fired over stupid shit.

Discipline

Like any office job, call centers have their fair share of gossip, and depending on the one you work at, there might be a shit list. Here's how my workplace's shit list works: do you kiss ass? No? Congratulations, you're on the shit list, so supervisors find whatever excuses imaginable to get you into more trouble. For example, my workplace does charity events every now and then, and they've tried getting me into shit for apparently being disruptive for bringing bags of supplies for a Mother's Day charity when in reality, I made no noise and stayed away from the cubicles. Just went in and out, that's it.

Of course, if you're breaking privacy-related procedures or things like that, termination's understandable, but there's someone who was promoted to a supervisor, then demoted back to an agent and soon fired.

It wasn't even a matter of being pulled into a separate office and being told, "Look, we have to let you go because you can't tell customers you're going to go to and fire-bomb their houses." What happened was that she had the tendency of addressing legitimate issues in the office, like drastic policy changes happening all the time, and after being demoted, she just got a call outside of work telling her not to come back.

Talk about fucking shady. Honestly, I'm surprised I don't have much of a paper trail after working there for well over a couple years.

On top of that, the policing gets pretty stupid at times. Sure, using certain language can be important when it comes to business. It's necessary to make the customer feel comfortable with the service overall, but the language policing is needlessly anal. One example is the preferred term going back and forth between "coupon" and "credit." I honestly can't think of a reason why things like that are even necessary.

Call centers also log your time down to the second. Like if you use more than five minutes a day in the bathroom, there's potential for being written up for that. It really doesn't help if you have digestive problems. Obviously, workplaces need to be productive, but you can't always just shit faster. Apparently, concentration camps also had the five-minute rule (but made it pretty humiliating), so maybe some business owners were inspired.

Drastic Changes

I understand that businesses change over time because the market evolves. With change, you have to adjust how you do things in the workplace, but there's a point where it goes too far. Big changes are probably to be expected when a business is first starting, but if a business is still making big changes every couple weeks without having its shit together after being around for years, this is bound to create problems.

Not only will customers notice, but there's a point where employees can't fucking keep up, which is another reason for people to leave.

Plus, there was a bit of a wage change. You know how in most businesses, your wages can only go up?

There was once an overnight crew, meaning that if you were willing to stay until two in the morning, you got another two dollars an hour. It isn't necessarily much, but it makes a difference.

Out of nowhere, we all get huddled up one day, and told that overnight's going away. It's not such a radical change to where you can't pay rent anymore, but stability is a good thing.

Customers

For the most part, customers are generally nice people. They understand good manners, don't want to be on the phone too long, and realize you're just doing your job and have policies to follow. But that isn't always the case.

There are some people who really don't understand that customer service reps can only do so much, and it's not just because of the policies. The software's blatantly designed to where we can do a couple things, and that's about it. So when we give the options as to what we can do, it means we can't do anything else. We wish we could do more, but we can't. Why? Security reasons. We don't always even know what those reasons are.

Even reps working for big names like Google have very little power. The most they can do is confirm a certain amount of info, refund shit, and that's really it. And no, asking for a manager, getting more pissy, etc, etc, doesn't change the answer. God, how I wish I could be that direct over the phone.

I know that the customers portion of a ramble about a job is normally much longer, but that really sums up most of their nonsense: them not understanding that agents have limits.

You've also got the dickheads who interrupt every sentence, and the reps wish with every fiber in their beings that they could say to stop. Plus, there's the kind of callers who repeat themselves a lot, and ask a question the agent just answered two fucking seconds ago, as if they just want the call to last longer out of sheer loneliness. At least, I'd like to think this is the reason, instead of depressing stupidity.

By the way, as a side note: the pleasantness agents give over the phone? That's all fake. Imagine a slightly irritated face giving a kind of happy-sounding tone of voice. That's me. We honestly don't give a flying fuck. We just want to get our paychecks and leave.

But overall, call centers typically range anywhere from complete shit to just okay. I hope everyone's having a Merry Christmas.