Interested in call centre jobs?

RichTeaBiscuits

...they are operating modern day sweat shops.

According to this, call centre jobs are considered to be a telephonic battery farm with repetitive work like factories from generations ago.

"Bonuses were largely related to 'average handling time' of your calls. So I began to ring my mobile for 1 second at a time to bring my average down. I would leave customers on hold whilst I went to the loo as I would lose my bonus if I logged off."

So now you know what your customer service rep is up to when you are held long on the phone e.g. 20 mins :rotfl:

Pound

I think call centre work is the worst kind of job; customers take their frustration out on you, management constantly pressure you to perform well in quality and efficiency, every tiny thing is monitored, if you spend too long in the toilet your manager sees it on a report and it's low paid.

Can anyone think of a less desirable job?

If you're thinking of work involving working with very nasty waste, consider how much they get paid.

Lokolo_2

Pound wrote: »

I think call centre work is the worst kind of job; customers take their frustration out on you, management constantly pressure you to perform well in quality and efficiency, every tiny thing is monitored, if you spend too long in the toilet your manager sees it on a report and it's low paid.

Can anyone think of a less desirable job?

If you're thinking of work involving working with very nasty waste, consider how much they get paid.

Retail is pretty much the same if you are just shopfloor staff, customers treat you like sh*te and Management pressure you just as much too. Just that instead of the verbal abuse that call centre staff get, in retail you even get physically attacked sometimes. That's for pretty much minimum wage.

Superheavy

As someone working in one of these wonderful "battery farms", I'm torn as to whether to stand up for them or to slate them. I think there are pros and cons really.

Pros
With such a high turnover of staff, experienced staff are quite desirable, so if you have been there a while there are some benefits. There is a career path....progressing from the bottom rung is criteria based, so if you are good at it, you can move forward up the pay scale. I work in a bank call centre, and there are career advisor things for exchanges into different depts etc. I'm on quite a settled team with people I do quite like, so the banter is good, and there is a fair bit of team ethos. Whilst it is bonus driven, bonuses are quite good. Pay is much better than many other jobs I've done. Casual dress is allowed, and the coffee is free.

Cons
Everything is so target obsessed, and even in "non-selling" departments, you're pushed towards encouraging certain products to customers. Everything is monitored. If I have the runs, then I'm likely to get a note the following day suggesting my "comfort breaks" time is quite high. There is a lot of moaning, everyone seems to have an axe to grind against someone else, and whenever there's a promotion going there's always talk of nepotism. People seem to think that as you're at the end of a phone, and not face-to-face, then yelling, swearing and insulting you is fine.

Overall, there are ups and downs, but there are plenty of worse things I could do.

diable

Superheavy wrote: »

As someone working in one of these wonderful "battery farms", I'm torn as to whether to stand up for them or to slate them. I think there are pros and cons really.

Pros
With such a high turnover of staff, experienced staff are quite desirable, so if you have been there a while there are some benefits. There is a career path....progressing from the bottom rung is criteria based, so if you are good at it, you can move forward up the pay scale. I work in a bank call centre, and there are career advisor things for exchanges into different depts etc. I'm on quite a settled team with people I do quite like, so the banter is good, and there is a fair bit of team ethos. Whilst it is bonus driven, bonuses are quite good. Pay is much better than many other jobs I've done. Casual dress is allowed, and the coffee is free.

Cons
Everything is so target obsessed, and even in "non-selling" departments, you're pushed towards encouraging certain products to customers. Everything is monitored. If I have the runs, then I'm likely to get a note the following day suggesting my "comfort breaks" time is quite high. There is a lot of moaning, everyone seems to have an axe to grind against someone else, and whenever there's a promotion going there's always talk of nepotism. People seem to think that as you're at the end of a phone, and not face-to-face, then yelling, swearing and insulting you is fine.

Overall, there are ups and downs, but there are plenty of worse things I could do.

Are you in Bangalore or Cardiff?

Superheavy

Banga-Swansea

Kilty_2

I used to work for a large mobile network operator in their contact centre - yes it was target based etc however I never felt under any kind of pressure, maybe because I was good at my job.

Actually didn't mind the work most of the time. I imagine a lot of others have it a lot worse though.

Superheavy

I agree. With a hefty chunk of overtime thrown in last year, along with some decent bonuses and 15k basic salary I made similar to a friend who has started teaching last year, so I'm not complaining too much. Just wish I didn't have that sinking feeling going to work. Then again, I think I'd have that whatever job I did.