What is it like to work in a call centre?

System

I have worked in different call centres. Each with a different culture. The best one was my role where I wasn't on the phones all the time as could eat, drink anything, play Yahoo pool and on weekends, play music. No monitoring on loo breaks

The other extreme was awful. Only water and mints when on phones. A colleague got a telling off for having lime Tic Tacs. Plus we were the only dept to work 3x 9 hours and 1x 8.5 hours shifts. The others did 5x 7.5 hours. They did not increase our breaks or loo/getting more water allowance. As in that extra 1.5 hours, we spoke to an extra 12-18 customers. More talking means throat needs lubricating, meaning more water, which means more trips to you know where. No union there.