|
Back when I was on the phones I had a user call in absolutely convinced that there were Russian spies in a small 2 person submarine capturing his wireless traffic in the pond outside his house. He wanted to know how to turn the wireless signal off on his gateway/router box. He seriously had it covered with pots and pans from his kitchen trying to block the wireless signal. Crazy people are the most fun.
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2010 20:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:19 |
|
|
sbaldrick posted:I don't understand call centres like this. Who cares what the people who work in them wear? We've found that when you don't enforce some sort of dress code, people start taking things to the extreme. In our call centers we have a collared shirt and jeans requirement. We tried no dress code for a while and it got to be really bad. Torn up pajama pants, slippers, dirty shirts, sweats, flip flops, etc. People wouldn't bathe before work, they would literally roll out of bed and show up. There's also correlating studies out there about personal appearance and performance. Like all good things, a few bad apples ruined it for the rest of us. During the summer they relax a little and allow shorts.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2012 23:13
|
|
|
At our call center we have a 90% minimum on the daily post tests, but our training is setup in such a way that if you can't hack the tests, you won't hack working here.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2012 22:46
|
|
|
martyrdumb posted:Congrats, man. My fourth anniversary is in 20 days... I've got all the makings of a lifer. I'm jealous of people who get out because, by the time I get home, I'm too drained to even update my loving resume, much less look for another job. The one time I tried to look for another job, I couldn't find anything with comparable pay to my hourly+differential that wasn't just another call center. The fiery flames of hell don't have a thing on being forced to listen to stupid old people ramble about their car problems and financial woes 40 hours a week. Sometimes you have to take a step down to get where you eventually want to go. I was 22 years old and had been waiting tables since I was 16. I made great money at a steak house but I was finishing up school and needed to get my foot in the door in a computer related industry. I took a pay cut to do phone based tech support for 13 bucks an hour...but after spending some time doing that, eventually made the move into corp IT and now I'm where I wanted to be. It sucks, but sometimes you have to make the hard decisions.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2012 19:29
|
|
|
cuntvalet posted:Has anybody worked Quality Assurance in a call centre before? I couldn't do it. I had these insane impulses to walk over to agents and start bashing them over the head with a nerf bat until I beat the stupid out of them. My personality couldn't deal with it. In fact I never once wanted to get promoted inside of call center ops, I waited and waited until a corporate gig opened up and got the gently caress out of the call center side of things. "Well you see ma'am, Mac wireless cards aren't compatible with your wireless router so you'll need to go buy a new computer to use the internet" all because the agent didn't know how to configure a MAC's wifi.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2012 06:28
|
|
|
WampaLord posted:Speaking of casual, it pisses me off so much that most call centers don't allow casual dress when it doesn't matter in the least bit. We literally never see a customer, do khakis and ties really make people more productive than jeans and shirts? Is it just born out of some "this is how business is done" bullshit mentality? I mentioned this some pages back, but it's worth mentioning again. When we had no dress code people started taking it to an extreme. People showing up in pajama pants and Snoopy slippers and poo poo. People literally rolling their greasy bodies out of bed after an all night WoW bender and coming to work in whatever they managed to pass out in. It got out of control. Our dress code now calls for pants and a collared shirt during the week, and shorts are OK on the weekend. I'm pretty sure the number crunchers can show a correlation between dress and a host of other behaviors like productivity, appropriate workplace actions, and things like that.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 10, 2012 06:07
|
|
|
I worked in a call center for 3 years before finally getting promoted outside of the call center business unit. The company I work for is fantastic, as long as you're not a call center agent. Much of the stress is who we do contract work for, but you can't do much about that. One of our old executives said something along the lines of "Call Centers are the 21st Century Coal Mine" and it's scary how accurate that is. Call centers can be a useful stepping stone but please formulate some kind of end game to get the hell out. I've worked in a couple industries that act as complete vortexes and are very hard to get out of. Food Service and Call Centers are both like that. They're not long term careers, they should be stepping stones on to bigger and better things. I never worked Retail but I imagine it's the same thing there. Odd hours make it difficult to have a life outside of co-workers, job skills don't translate easily to other jobs, etc etc. I started in a call center while I was still in college, the pay was steady and pretty decent, health insurance and tuition reimbursement rocked as well, but I eventually got out. Use the flexible schedule and any kind of tuition reimbursement to your advantage, finish school, and get out. Nothing makes me happier to see call center agents quit for better jobs. Fun anecdote: I quit smoking cold turkey when I finally got off the phones, my stress was practically gone and didn't need them anymore. Cuntvalet, formulate your end game. I'm going to finish my degree and I'm leaving. I'm going to save XXXX dollars then move to a place with more work opportunities. It's a lot easier knowing you're going to a crappy job with a goal in mind.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2012 17:46
|
|
|
Kitchner posted:Forgive me if this seems like a dumb question, but how exactly does a high turnover lead to a reduction in costs? In general you're right. There's a difference in call centers though. Your for profit outsourced call centers like Convergys where they get paid per minute/call, and then your internal call centers like a bank or insurance company. One makes a profit, one is a cost center. The call center I'm involved with gets paid by the minute, the two week training course agents take comes out of our pocket. If your not on the phone talking to a customer you're not making money. It's in our best interest to keep the good agents around as long as possible. It can cost up to 4000 dollars a person to get them in the door and trained to a level where they start making money.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2012 06:54
|
|
|
Take a few step back and really think about some of the folks you interact with on a daily basis, then try to figure out how they function in life. My wife works at a bank, and she seriously questions how some of these people function. Simple concepts of you don't get paid until Friday, you can't spend money you don't have on Tuesday seem foreign to these folks. Throw in the massive number of folks with untreated/undiagnosed mental illnesses and it's pretty scary out there.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 27, 2012 19:37
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2013 05:40
|
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2013 17:45
|
|
|
Not to add to your stress but when we pull a move like this in our call center it's either a last chance written warning, or termination. Either way I would be planning on finding new employment soon. A move like this makes it pretty clear you're on the way out the door one way or another. Stop stressing about it though, there's nothing you can do about it. You have zero control over the situation so stressing out about it is pointless.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2013 21:26
|
|
|
you ate my cat posted:I sure hope not. I'm 5 years in at two different places, and I sure as hell ain't doing this for the rest of my life if I can help it. Do you have an exit strategy? I'm not trying to be a dick here, but I've seen way to many people like you say that, but then do nothing about it. I did call center work for 3 years, but I got the gently caress out, but many of the folks I worked with are still bouncing between call centers and haven't moved forward. The main difference is having a plan and sticking to it. Call centers and the service industry in general are a loving vortex of misery and it's so hard to get out of the lifestyle associated with service industry jobs.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2013 18:51
|
|
|
horchata posted:So in relation to my complaining about my call center job, I decided to ask a few coworkers about quitting, thinking that I should be courteous and submit a two weeks notice. Apparently, my department doesn't even accept notices and if you try to submit one they just tell you to leave on the spot. Is that normal for call centers or is my department just weird? If that's the case then I'm just gonna grab my crap and leave in the morning I guess.... It's pretty normal for us to take notice effective immediately. Depends on how you're leaving though. A person with great scores and good tenure will probably be allowed to work their 2 weeks out, an average to low scoring agent with issues will probably just be thanked for the notice and asked not to come back. Someone with nothing to lose can seriously hurt the business so we try to minimize the risk. If our client monitors a call from an agent leaving the company who doesn't follow guidelines it could cause a ton of issues. Much easier to just have the agent leave than risk it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2013 18:18
|
|
|
Waste of time. Nothing is going to happen with it. My advice, keep your head down, follow the rules, do whats asked of you and find a way out. Not worth painting a target on your back for.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2013 15:36
|
|
|
Fil5000 posted:Hooray for enabling lovely behaviour in the workplace! I wouldn't call it enabling, I'd say I'm being realistic. Call centers are lovely environments. Most call centers, especially outsourced, for profit call centers don't give 2 shits about employees. Show up for work and create billable minutes and stay in metrics you can work here as long as you want. If you become not worth keeping around for whatever reason, there's the door. There's a new class of replacement agents starting every Monday. It's a poo poo business. I once heard the 'contact center' referred to as the 21st century coal mine. Generally 1st party internal support centers are better than 3rd party outsourced. My wife worked at Chase for a while doing credit card support and it was a good professional environment where agents were taken care of. They were actual Chase employees and treated as such. 3rd party for profit centers tend to be a meat grinder. CV has every right to escalate the issue if she wants. Personally I don't think it's worth it. Hell we publicly post how many minutes late folks are as part of their metrics on both a website and a cork board outside the break room so I don't see the big deal with it. It's not like the HR lady came to your cube and started talking about FMLA paperwork to remove a 3rd nipple in front of everyone, and now every calls you triple nipple in the break room and you're experiencing embarrassment and anguish as the result. If she needs the job, my advice is to keep your head down. Remember, there's a reason to fire anyone if you look hard enough, and when someone starts rocking the boat it's a short jump to 'how can we get rid of this person legally'. Let's look at this agents performance, tardy issues, multiple call outs in the last year, below average metrics. We can fire them per the attendance or quality policy, lets go ahead and give a written final warning and watch them like a hawk for the next tiny mistake so we can end their employment. Quality starts listening to every single call looking for a failing score. 1 minute of tardy or being late coming back from break or lunch. Everything gets documented and when HR has enough to show you the door without repercussion you're out on your rear end. I've seen it done many many times.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2013 16:16
|
|
|
Volt is hiring for what looks like Apple contact center positions this weekend in Austin, TX Sales is paying 15/hr Tier 1 Tech Support is paying 14/hr Modern Day Hercules posted:Call centers don't have to be lovely I guess, but it seems like a majority of them are. Who do you work for? The actual company or a 3rd party outsourced firm?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2013 21:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:19 |
|
|
Dude if you get the hell out of Idaho you could be making almost 6 figures (or more) anywhere else. You would have a job in 48 hours in Austin. My company literally cannot find qualified candidates to do what you do. We throw dump trucks of money at people and they get countered to stay at their current job or find an even more ludicrous salary HR won't let us match.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2013 03:08
|
|