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taremva posted:I went home sick one day. My boss' boss happened to be in a few days later and asked if it hadnt been better if I hadnt stayed home the entire day instead. Workplaces that aren't horrible would rather you took a whole day (or even a couple!) sick rather than coming in to prove to everyone you're sick, spreading your disease and then going home. Although maybe I'm spoiled by the socialist utopia of the uk where paid sick leave is mandatory and the only question is how much your company chooses to pay you over the statutory minimum.
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Apr 15, 2013 07:38
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Fil5000 posted:Workplaces that aren't horrible would rather you took a whole day (or even a couple!) sick rather than coming in to prove to everyone you're sick, spreading your disease and then going home. Although maybe I'm spoiled by the socialist utopia of the uk where paid sick leave is mandatory and the only question is how much your company chooses to pay you over the statutory minimum. I'm in sweden and that was exactly the issue. Given that I got maybe a few days total sick leave in the 3 years I've been here no one would bat an eye if I didnt come in. I was feeling fine when I started the shift though, and staying home meant my colleague had to work solo. Not a major issue during the weekend, but if he's alone he cant go buy food etc.
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Apr 15, 2013 07:51
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Fil5000 posted:Workplaces that aren't horrible would rather you took a whole day (or even a couple!) sick rather than coming in to prove to everyone you're sick, spreading your disease and then going home. Although maybe I'm spoiled by the socialist utopia of the uk where paid sick leave is mandatory and the only question is how much your company chooses to pay you over the statutory minimum. Unfortunately, many of these places are horrible. And since most of them don't give you any sort of sick leave, you're losing money. Considering the wages at a lot of call center, missing a few days' worth of work can mean making rent or not.
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Apr 15, 2013 07:54
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Fil5000 posted:Workplaces that aren't horrible would rather you took a whole day (or even a couple!) sick rather than coming in to prove to everyone you're sick, spreading your disease and then going home. Although maybe I'm spoiled by the socialist utopia of the uk where paid sick leave is mandatory and the only question is how much your company chooses to pay you over the statutory minimum. HA! Call centres are like the worst example of UK labour laws because they basically ignore the piss out of them or weasel round it with 12-24 month "probationary periods". I had a girl working with me at Santander fired because she asked for a day off to get an MRI for a suspected very serious condition (shame it wasn't RBS, they had their own MRI machine), was told "that's not an available day, you have to work it" despite having a doctor's letter explaining they wanted her checked for it, that was the only available appointment for weeks with this specialist and this machine, it needed to be done ASAP etc etc. She obviously did the smart thing and went to the appointment, instantly fired. e: edited out the specific disease and some later speculation on her part. Wootcannon fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Apr 16, 2013 |
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Apr 16, 2013 00:11
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Fil5000 posted:Workplaces that aren't horrible would rather you took a whole day (or even a couple!) sick rather than coming in to prove to everyone you're sick, spreading your disease and then going home. Although maybe I'm spoiled by the socialist utopia of the uk where paid sick leave is mandatory and the only question is how much your company chooses to pay you over the statutory minimum. Generally full-time employees will stay home, but most of the casual staff in my company in Aus are casual labor. These guys come in sick because they don't get paid if they don't show up, so they get everyone sick and then it cascades until everyone is say drooling into the phones. I don;t miss the call center most of the time. Now if I get sick I just work from home.
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Apr 16, 2013 10:33
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Wootcannon posted:HA! Jesus. I guess I've been spoiled then - where I was there was only a six month probation period rather than 12-24. The absence trigger points were either 4 occasions in a rolling 12 months or four calendar weeks, whichever you hit first, with probationers being allowed two occasions or two weeks. Hitting the triggers didn't mean instant diciplinary/dismissal, either, it was all at the discretion of local management. I had one person I managed with a serious degenerative condition that I basically refused to take any action on, on the basis that there was nothing they could do about it whatsoever, so the disciplinary process served no purpose. Can you imagine the conversation I would have had to have had? "You need to get less incurable, hth."
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Apr 16, 2013 10:44
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Fil5000 posted:"You need to get less incurable, hth." In before someone posts a story about how they/their manager has told someone exactly that.
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Apr 16, 2013 11:18
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Called in sick for a second day in a row after going home sick on Friday. I was concerned because they used to count a part day as a full sick day and I thought I'd for sure need a doctor's note (we need one after 3 days). I asked my team lead (who both days has been very approachable and understanding which is not like him at all...pod people...) and he said nope this is my 2nd sick day not 3rd. So I guess as far as rants go this one is pleasantly surprised? I'm still dreading going in and being told "lol fooled you! Doctor's note now!" or somehow being made to feel bad for it but for now I'm not gonna worry about it. ...and I'm gonna do a few job searches/resume revamps between camomile tea comas.
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Apr 16, 2013 12:35
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Does anyone else fire off a signup request for OT and immediately regret it/try to cancel it? Hahaha. They were sending out shift opportunities for memorial day and I said "sure I'll work the 2PM to 10PM" which was the first one listed, I didn't expect to get it, oh well, 6 hours of double time pay, that's good too right? 
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Apr 16, 2013 15:16
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Our center keeps driving down our yearly goal metrics. Originally they tracked you by AHT but then they made a big deal about how they weren't going to use AHT anymore. "Yay!" the masses rejoiced. Then they replaced it with Calls Per Hour. ... Which is basically just using AHT under a different header. (I believe the goal metric is 2.7 CPH which may be easy at some places, but depending on the time of year you may be lucky to pull 1 CPH). Then they swapped the metrics for this year so not only is it 2.7 CPH, your After Call Work has to be under 370 seconds. A few months ago the big drive was to get under 500 seconds of ACW with AHT under 1100. I was burned last year because we were told anything that happened when you were in training would not be held against you on the floor. So of course I get to the floor and suddenly my super long handle times during training were being held against my yearly metrics, and when I complained I was told that was just the way it was and to deal with it. Of course this was also when I learned that classroom training was invalidated in OJT, and OJT was invalidated on the floor -- so you might as well forget everything you learned because none of that is valid once you're out of training. Greeeat. So now my supervisor is on me because my after call is too high. I'm sitting at 520 seconds on average. Okay, sure, I'm working to get it down -- but uh, I'm constantly pulling 100% scores in client reviews, and I saddle myself with extra projects (mostly because when I see something that isn't being acted upon I raise my voice because no one else is/will, then I get the project dumped in my lap to fix), and for the most part my work is thorough and my documentation is detailed. Though now I'm on a Level 1 Action Plan and there's no way I'm going to clear it this month. Not with multiple weather impacts causing long hold times with our partners (who I have to speak with to clear some issues), and issues like this morning where I couldn't fix an issue quickly -- I had to call for approval (left 3 voicemails for 3 different people), ask for TL override, then the support tool wouldn't work right for me or the TL, called our partner to get information for the fix and then the credit card declined, so then had to make more phone calls. Total after call time on that call was well over an hour and a half. This is a field I am so burned out in. I am trying really hard just to keep pushing through it because I want to start going to school in the fall (for IT security) and the tuition reimbursement plan is really good at my company, but between feeling like I'm just hanging over an open pit due to metrics and the fact that I've gone from working overnights for the past 10 years to suddenly working day splits, I'm having an extremely hard time adjusting and living. More than once I've found myself sobbing at my work desk because I just couldn't handle the stress anymore, and I was more or less blank faced just given the EAP line and told "dunno what they can do for you" with a shrug. I've started looking to see if I could find something else even if it was a completely different field so long as I could make around the same amount of money as I make now. I have dreams of just quitting, packing all of my things and driving across the country to find something new but it's so unrealistic. I figured I needed to share this with you guys though, in case you've never seen it (or maybe it was shared before, I cannot remember):   
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Apr 16, 2013 15:22
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I loving wish my call center went by calls per hour or AHT, I'm in the god damned sub basement on those stats. Like 3 full minutes under enterprise wide average. Instead our biggest metric is cross selling multi policy now, and also time spent in "aux", which is retarded if I'm taking twice as many calls as the average frontlines rep, don't begrudge me my loving "brain cool" time spent in aux for 30 seconds.
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Apr 16, 2013 15:33
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Fil5000 posted:Jesus. I guess I've been spoiled then - where I was there was only a six month probation period rather than 12-24. The absence trigger points were either 4 occasions in a rolling 12 months or four calendar weeks, whichever you hit first, with probationers being allowed two occasions or two weeks. Hitting the triggers didn't mean instant diciplinary/dismissal, either, it was all at the discretion of local management. I had one person I managed with a serious degenerative condition that I basically refused to take any action on, on the basis that there was nothing they could do about it whatsoever, so the disciplinary process served no purpose. Can you imagine the conversation I would have had to have had? "You need to get less incurable, hth." Heh. Did this policy just corporate wide about.. Oh.. A year ago? I hate this policy so much, but it's my own drat fault when I hit it. Though when I try to explain the policy people look at me like I'm stupid :p. No wait: Yours is a rolling 12 months, ours is 6 months. God, you people are making my job seem like the lap of luxury. PS: I still hate my customers.
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Apr 16, 2013 15:41
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Fil5000 posted:Jesus. I guess I've been spoiled then - where I was there was only a six month probation period rather than 12-24. The absence trigger points were either 4 occasions in a rolling 12 months or four calendar weeks, whichever you hit first, with probationers being allowed two occasions or two weeks. Hitting the triggers didn't mean instant diciplinary/dismissal, either, it was all at the discretion of local management. I had one person I managed with a serious degenerative condition that I basically refused to take any action on, on the basis that there was nothing they could do about it whatsoever, so the disciplinary process served no purpose. Can you imagine the conversation I would have had to have had? "You need to get less incurable, hth." Ha. Glasgow might be an odd one though - lots of companies base their centres up there because apparently the accents quite nice, and there's 3 unis and a ton of colleges so lots of cheap labour. e: Thinking about it more now, the line manager of the team took a sympathetic approach, she was quite a nice person, unfortunately zombie middle management kicked in. Wootcannon fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Apr 16, 2013 |
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Apr 16, 2013 16:28
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My center is hiring a number of supervisors, totalling about 6 slots. Apparently people think I'm on the track, because other supervisors keep asking me if I've applied, when I'm applying, blah blah. I keep having to find new ways to not say "I can't imagine a worse job than supervising call center agents" 
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Apr 17, 2013 18:59
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you ate my cat posted:My center is hiring a number of supervisors, totalling about 6 slots. Apparently people think I'm on the track, because other supervisors keep asking me if I've applied, when I'm applying, blah blah. I keep having to find new ways to not say "I can't imagine a worse job than supervising call center agents" being a call centre agent is the answer to that.
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Apr 17, 2013 19:11
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I dunno, at least as an agent you actually accomplish a job. A supervisor in my experience literally does nothing at all. I guess the extra pay salves the wounds, but trying to put together an 8 hour day of bullshit every single day seems tough.
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Apr 17, 2013 20:56
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Loving Life Partner posted:I dunno, at least as an agent you actually accomplish a job. A supervisor in my experience literally does nothing at all. I guess the extra pay salves the wounds, but trying to put together an 8 hour day of bullshit every single day seems tough. gently caress that, give me cash and I will gladly be an administrative amoeba for 8 hours a day.
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Apr 18, 2013 03:45
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I really loathe getting a call one minute before my shift is due to end. 
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Apr 18, 2013 07:22
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There are those little things I was glad of in this job. We have an end of shift state to use five minutes before EOS. Now the trouble is getting a call six minutes before the end. Of course, with strategically timed "health breaks" and an eye on the current call volume and available time, you can often arrange to be idle when that time rolls around.
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Apr 18, 2013 08:37
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Benzoyl Peroxide posted:In before someone posts a story about how they/their manager has told someone exactly that. drat, you beat me. I have Poly-Cystic Kidney Disease (Don't wiki it unless you like gross pics) which doesn't really affect me much beyond requiring me to do a few things to manage it so I can stave off the inevitable double kidney transplant. One of those things is drinking massive amounts of water. I had a conversation with my manager when I was diagnosed and she was fine with me using more aux/idle for bathroom breaks, which were getting more and more frequent. I was sitting right by the bathrooms so a quick piss break was maybe 90 seconds of aux time. I went to a new team and had to move seats and get a new manager. When I talked to him about it, he suggested that we could split my two 15 minute breaks into three 10 minute breaks and try to space them out during the day so I could piss on a schedule and not affect my stats. 
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Apr 18, 2013 11:08
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Loving Life Partner posted:I dunno, at least as an agent you actually accomplish a job. A supervisor in my experience literally does nothing at all. I guess the extra pay salves the wounds, but trying to put together an 8 hour day of bullshit every single day seems tough. I'm not even sure if that's the part of it that I can't imagine. Someone in here talked about call center zombies, the 2-3 levels of management in between the directors and the front line who don't have any influence on how stuff is run but don't have any choice but to lurch through each day pretending that all the stupid crap isn't just stupid crap. That is what sounds terrible about it to me.
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Apr 18, 2013 19:03
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Loving Life Partner posted:Does anyone else fire off a signup request for OT and immediately regret it/try to cancel it? Hahaha. Only always. I ended up working 7 straight days after Sandy because the main office (and nearly everyone who works for my team) was in NYC and got obliterfucked. 3 or 4 of those sonofabitch days were 12 hour shifts, too. I always tell myself "never again, the money's not worth it" every time I do that, but then something happens and I pick up another 6 or 8 hours over two days and always regret it straight off. There was the time they accidently scheduled me for 9 days, were all "Nope, schedule's set, but hey, think of the OT!"... then sent me home within an hour on day 9 because I looked like I was about to crack. That was when we were at about half staffing, too, so those were 8 busy loving days and one busy loving hour.
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Apr 18, 2013 19:37
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Loving Life Partner posted:I dunno, at least as an agent you actually accomplish a job. A supervisor in my experience literally does nothing at all. I guess the extra pay salves the wounds, but trying to put together an 8 hour day of bullshit every single day seems tough. Our company has a crazy low ratio of management to phone monkeys. Our supervisors are so busy that its a real loving chore finding one free for a tricky problem/escalation. Of course 90% of what they do is paperwork regarding scheduling, QA, and discipline because we have some serious loving leniency for slackers. I've seen two people fired in 3 years and both were for attendance, which is crazy. Our policy is fairly generous. Ever see a 3 inch thick folder for write ups action plans etc? My supervisor has a drawer full of them.
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Apr 19, 2013 21:25
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Yesterday marked my last day working in a call centre, I finally escaped by getting a promotion to another area of the organisation. I can count on my fingers the times I've been happier than this. For those who have't yet escaped, you have my sympathies. I'll forever know your pain, and I pledge never to be 'that guy' when calling up.
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Apr 20, 2013 18:24
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The best part about leaving is that knowing exchange between you and the security guard downstairs when you leave for the last time.
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Apr 21, 2013 14:42
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jassi007 posted:Our company has a crazy low ratio of management to phone monkeys. Our supervisors are so busy that its a real loving chore finding one free for a tricky problem/escalation. My favorite is when people ask "Can I speak to your supervisor", and don't believe me when I say "No, I don't have one at the moment". My old boss left about 6 weeks ago, and the new one doesn't start til next week. Luckily, I've only had like 3 calls where people wanted one (always because some promo code they found online that expired a year ago and doesn't apply to what they want wouldn't work and I wouldn't give them the discount), since my job is pretty straightforwards.
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Apr 22, 2013 14:58
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Ugly In The Morning posted:My favorite is when people ask "Can I speak to your supervisor", and don't believe me when I say "No, I don't have one at the moment". My old boss left about 6 weeks ago, and the new one doesn't start til next week. Luckily, I've only had like 3 calls where people wanted one (always because some promo code they found online that expired a year ago and doesn't apply to what they want wouldn't work and I wouldn't give them the discount), since my job is pretty straightforwards. I used to like it when they asked to speak to a manager when I was a manager in the call centre. I can guarantee they would have got further speaking to the agent then to me, as I often let agents bend rules to save their calltime stats in the case of pain in the arse customers. If you were a pain in the arse customer and you got to me you'd hit a wall of policy and legal knowledge and I've probably already told the agent to offer you everything I'm prepared to. I know it sounds really petty, but I enjoyed pissing on the parade of people who thought they could just complain to get whatever they wanted no matter how unreasonable they were, and when they'd ask to speak to my manager I'd just flat out refuse and tell them management above me were paid to manage the call centre not to speak to customers. Part of me misses ruining people's lovely plans but I would prefer not to ever go back.
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Apr 22, 2013 22:00
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My call center team won an award for having the best client service for the month of march. So my boss and my bosses boss want to spend some of the extra team outing money we get for this to make our area look more "lively." Admittedly, our group isn't one for massive personal decoration...most of us are 23-33 year old men, along with one 50 year old woman who loves football and tequila more than any of us. In any case, they forced us to watch this for inspiration on ways to liven up our areas. http://www.netpromotersystem.com/videos/trailblazer-video/zappos-trailblazer.aspx Zappo's looks like a nightmare to me. Clutter everywhere, forced zaniness, everyone ringing bells and shaking pom-poms and trying to hide their clinical depression. It's what companies do when they need to fake high morale. The 3 times my job has made me watch the video, I felt like i was gagging on frosting.
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Apr 23, 2013 16:48
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Ugh, that sounds like a nightmare. Safe corporate culture is already terrible, no need to ramp it all up to hell to make it even worse. It's always a mix between safe milquetoast humor and elementary school chic. Observe the current "oh lets make this the fun wall!" at the job site: 
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Apr 23, 2013 17:14
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I have no idea about now, but Zappos use to be a great place to work even in the call centre. Everyone in the company, including the CEO spent two weeks a year working in it. So management really knew what it was like.
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Apr 23, 2013 18:15
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Oh god team boards =/. It really was high-schoolish down to the 'pick your favorite animal you want to be on the team board! Winning team gets an extra 15 min break and a candy bar!'.
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Apr 23, 2013 20:46
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I had a precious call. This guy was furious. Absolutely, completely incensed because he was getting calls from our collectors, but would not give us his phone number that we were calling, and the phone number he was calling in on was private, so we couldn't see what that number was. And yet, he wanted us to remove him from our system. Somehow. So I'm trying to appeal to his sense of reason and trying to convince him that if he would just give us the phone number that we were calling I would get it off of our system. Then, he drops this bombshell on me. 'DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!' 'I believe you said your name was John Doe?' 'NOT my name, DO. YOU. KNOW. WHO. I. AM?' 'I'm... not following, sir.' 'I AM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WYOMING AND I DEMAND THAT YOU REMOVE MY NUMBER!' So he continues on that spiel and repeats how awful we are, and the whole time I am furiously googling. Now, here's the thing. If you're a politician or the family of a politician or are high enough in the Department of Education, you are set. You don't call me, you call my boss' boss and poo poo gets done. So the Attorney General of Wyoming is not going to be talking to me on the phone. But just in case he actually decided to call us and happened to get me, I checked. I got my answer that he was lying his rear end off, but I generally don't like to call people out on their bs unless I have no option. And after hearing him telling me that he was going to get me fired and sued for the third time, the gloves were off. 'Excuse me sir, your name is John Doe, correct? And you are the Attorney General of Wyoming?' 'YES!' 'Hm, that's odd. I see here on the AG's website for Wyoming that the AG's name is Gregory Phillips, and that he's been in that office since 2011. John Doe, would you like to give me your phone number so I can take it off of our list?' He hung up.
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Apr 24, 2013 05:26
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Here's a fun one- if you're eligible for a refund for a 20 day window, and call in 10 years later, you're not getting the loving refund, end of story. I know there's a money-back offer, and it plainly says 20 loving days! 9 more days of this poo poo (8, if you don't count today) and I'm free. gently caress yes.
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Apr 25, 2013 00:35
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Okay, so I read through a good chunk of the thread already, and I figured I'd just ask instead of riding it out. After three weeks of training in our sales/service duality, we hit the call floor, and I am a mental wreck, I can't bring myself to offer our product to customers. Is this something that will get better or should I just cut and run soon?
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Apr 25, 2013 04:15
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Post poste posted:Okay, so I read through a good chunk of the thread already, and I figured I'd just ask instead of riding it out. No it doesn't get better, it only gets worse until you make peace with it or crack, in my experience of 2.5 years now. Actually, you can probably hit the little "?" on my post and see my complete deadening over the that time, cause I posted in here when I started the job, haha. EDIT: I mean there are always worse jobs. You could have no job, which has a sort of an appeal to it, but its short lived. You could be one of those loving poor bastards spinning a sign on a street corner, you could be making french fries at McDonalds for less money and no benefits. Just count your blessings I guess? Loving Life Partner fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Apr 25, 2013 |
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Apr 25, 2013 04:20
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I had way more fun working at McDonald's than I ever did taking calls in a call center. Some people can hack it in a call center environment, others can't. No shame in cutting your losses and saying "hey, this isn't for me" and quitting. I see it happen all the time.
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Apr 25, 2013 05:40
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skipdogg posted:I had way more fun working at McDonald's than I ever did taking calls in a call center. I kind of wish I had done just that instead of sticking it out for over a year at this point.
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Apr 25, 2013 15:43
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Post poste posted:Okay, so I read through a good chunk of the thread already, and I figured I'd just ask instead of riding it out. Either cut and run or learn not to care. Either about customers yelling at you or about managers yelling at you (though I recommend the former as the latter you have to deal with daily). Much like retail, the secret is in realising that the people getting mad at you are not worth getting upset about and will be out of your world in a few minutes, unlikely to return.
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Apr 25, 2013 16:48
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Some people can leave work at work and not give a poo poo, others 'care' too much. I remember having nightmares and waking up in a sweat about the queue. I still work for the company I started in the call center with, I had it much easier than a normal agent though. I probably did normal stuff for less than a year, then bounced around on special project teams for 2 years until I got promoted into IT. Did call center IT for about 5 years and now am doing Global IT for the entire corporation. The company is great once you get out of the call center. Still though, call centers should be a temporary stepping stone on to bigger and better things, please don't make a career out of working in a call center. It's fine for a couple years max while you go to school and take advantage of the flexible hours and any tuition benefits they might have, but please don't become one of those 'lifers' that has been on the phones for 3+ years. The light is just gone from their eyes.... it's sad.
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Apr 25, 2013 17:45
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skipdogg posted:Still though, call centers should be a temporary stepping stone on to bigger and better things, please don't make a career out of working in a call center. It's fine for a couple years max while you go to school and take advantage of the flexible hours and any tuition benefits they might have, but please don't become one of those 'lifers' that has been on the phones for 3+ years. The light is just gone from their eyes.... it's sad. This times 1000, seriously there are people at our call center that have been on the phones for over 5 years as CASUALS, not even converted to full time. Take all the education they offer you, take on special projects, constantly talk to your TL / Manager to see what you can do to get moved up. Call center is like the mail room, you don't join a big company's mailroom to stay there, you use it as a foot in the door to move up from.
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Apr 26, 2013 01:36
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