Board 8 > Anyone else her like working at Call Centers?

(+) Yeah! (+)

IDK why but despite hating talking on the phone usually, I love call center work.

My current job is hybrid work handling auto loans, which is bland as hell but I love the variety of people I talk to, and I'm actually at a really good company so I can actually help them, which is a huge plus.

No, it was miserable and I took a pay cut to switch to a support job that was only chats, no phones.

But I was doing phone support for a real estate scheduling program so I was talking to asshole real estate agents all day. Maybe it would be better in another industry but talking on the phone all day answering the same questions and solving the same problems starts to wear you down.

skullbone posted...

No, it was miserable and I took a pay cut to switch to a support job that was only chats, no phones.

But I was doing phone support for a real estate scheduling program so I was talking to asshole real estate agents all day. Maybe it would be better in another industry but talking on the phone all day answering the same questions and solving the same problems starts to wear you down.

Variety seems to be one of the keys. One of my first call center jobs was for Consumer Cellular(shitty shitty company, do not support them) and it was basically a "one size fits all" kind of job where basic reps did almost everything. Shame they're such garbage x.x

No, I changed to a career where I never have to interact with the general public. My 2 years in a call center were not my favorite.

I had a job that was mostly transactional calls and those weren't too bad. People would call to place orders over the phone and I'd basically just enter their order into our system for them.

But technical support jobs over the phone are the worst. Dealing with angry people all day with varying levels of technical ability. You get a guy screaming at you because his account doesn't work but he doesn't know how to minimize windows on his computer or how to copy and paste. It's much easier dealing with angry people in a chat compared to a call for me.

fuck no

Hi, I worked in call centers for over a decade.

God, get me away from them. Even when I found one that was above and beyond what the others were, it then falls to shit as soon as you find a job with a healthy work balance. I reread my exit interview monthly from my last call center job, and that was the above-and-beyond job among them.

Give me a political candidate who offers call center reform and that is a candidate who will get my donation if not my vote.

No.

I am not cut out for this kind of work. I did phone surveys for a few months and they let me go, saying "We like BCT and think he's brilliant, but this isn't the right job for him. We wish him the best." And I agree. I still don't even know what I was doing wrong!

No

But there can be a certain positive which no one mentioned yet
Of course maybe it's not everywhere and I was just lucky but-

Since this is usually a entry level job and minimum wage, it attracts younger people.
Which are more energetic and friendly and if you are young too, having people at the samd age group of you is great.

So that's interesting as my first job was in a call center and despite not having time to breath, I was able to make so many more friends than I did more than any other job, even when those other jobs had a lot more free time

I tolerated a call center job for 5 years or so. But I persevered, got into producing MI for the same company, then resource planning and now I'm a manager who has a team of analysts.

So whilst call taking wasn't amazing, it was the springboard to where I am now

I have never worked at a call center, but from all the stories I've heard from people who have, it sounds like a miserable existence

I previously took calls for a company that contracted call center employees to other companies, our contract at the time was with Verizon. It was miserable. You had to simultaneously make the customers happy while making sure they didn't want to cancel their service (even if they had a completely legitimate reason to do so) and giving them as few free credits as possible. And no matter what abuse they threw your way you had to take it and couldnt hang up on them.

I currently take calls for the IRS. It's freaking great, especially compared to the Verizon crap I had to put up with. Now I have the freedom to actually do my job correctly and not take BS from callers. I typically staff the line for people who are expecting a refund for their taxes so it's a lot of navigating accounts and figuring out what went wrong to help people get the money they have coming. But ultimately when I provide the correct answer to their question I don't have to take any abuse just because they don't like the answer. "I've already told you that the time frame for your issue is to allow up to 60 days from XX date, I'm sorry it takes this long, but that is currently the correct processing time for (insert issue here). If you are going to continue to yell I can disconnect the call." I still have to be professional, but if someone is going to come at me despite my calm demeanor and ability to de-escalate most situations? Well they are just gonna have to call in again and try to be nicer to the next person.

With all that said, I much prefer days where I'm not scheduled on the phones. They don't come often enough, but when I'm not handling calls I get to help process the mountain of backlogged paperwork. It usually involves dealing with similar issues, but without having to verbally talk to someone so I can just throw on some music and do the job undisturbed.

And since COVID I only have to report to the office 1 day a week and get to telework the other 4.

I worked for a call center once

I quit at lunch on my first day after training

I never worked for a call center, but my department is adjacent to call center work, so I'm pretty familiar. It's bad, but I think it gets too much of a bad rap. The young people thing mentioned earlier is real; I made a lot of friends with call center employees. I think it's also really good for getting you experience with customers; I don't think I can be phased by customers any more.

The worst thing is definitely the unpredictability of the calls. Some calls can just go on and you never know what customer you're going to get when you pick the call up. You also kinda have to know everything so that you can direct them at the right place, which makes training really annoying. Especially since call centers tend to have high turnover, so you constantly need to train.