To be pissed off at my colleagues?

[icequeenxox]

Call centre related so if anyone who's worked in one has some insight that would be a big plus. Luckily I've never actually encountered this situation before and have generally worked with wonderful, fair people.

I work in a well known call centre that does work for various companies. My role is inbound customer service. The way our system works is that advisors queue for a call with equal priority (person that's been in ready the longest gets a call, then person 2 and so on so forth...)

Over the last few weeks I've noticed that during quiet spells myself and my colleagues haven't been getting calls in this order and have noticed that they are switching code to move to the back of the queue so they don't get a call and the one they should have got goes to another advisor. Recently, this has ended with me doing more than double the work of my team while they sit and have a catch up.

I'm trying to stay focus on my own work but it's starting to really get to me, am I being unreasonable here?

You are not being unreasonable. As a buffer, pull your colleagues over it, give 4 days notice to them before you go to your superiors. Just do it and don't be anyone's fool.

I've worked as a supervisor in call centres - usually there are metrics and reports on these things so it's possible your superiors are already aware?

I am senior operations and run a unit, in a very similar call centre.

We would class it as call avoidance. Which we trear very seriouslu. Unless the team manager is sat watching everyones call state constantly its difficult to catch. Team managers have lots of work to other than look at call states.

I would however expect them to notice that one team member is doing vastly more calls than anyone else. Especially if that persons aht is not particularly low. I would also expect my operations managers to spot it too.

I assumee your team stats are sent to you all regularly. I would raise it with yout manager by asking them why you get do many calls compared to your colleagues.

Call avoiders piss me off. They make life harder for other people.

I second Onynx, there'll be a report highlighting it to someone.

Perhaps you could raise it to say, I was slammed by calls today - not sure why it was so busy, it may prompt someone to explore without you being the one to point it out.

I've also worked as a callroom supervisor, and agree this kind of behaviour is going to be difficult to spot. Whether it gets noticed depends on the software as obviously they have found a way to reset their waiting time so if the supervisor just looks at headline stats they may not spot it - they will just see the CFC (cheeky-fucker-colleagues) having a normal average wait time.

How important is your job to your current career plan? although as callroom supervisor I would want you to follow the plan outlined in enceladus's reply, because getting them to stop without having the unpleasantness of being "officially" caught would seem best, I am sure that they would make your life hell afterwards if you follow it.

If you intend to stay there in your current job for a while you should either report them anonymously or keep shtum. If you have a chance to be promoted or to leave then you can report it without the anonymity.

I only work there part time alongside my teaching course so unfortunately I'll be in the same role for the next 4 years. I've not got any plans to leave anytime soon as it's a struggle to find a part time job that's better at the moment (as bad as it can be it has its perks!)

I will definitely look at options to raise it. We do have systems that track this but I don't know the ins and outs. My team seem to think that because they are only changing for a matter of seconds it's untraceable.

Your colleagues are geniuses- wow that amazing how theyre sticking it to the man

Or theyll be fired soon because management can see exactly what theyre doing- its called call avoidance and can be instant dismissal

Can you say something in your next 121/review?
Not as direct as "those cheeky fuckers have been skipping to the back of the queue etc"
but something a bit more subtle like about amount of calls you have been handling recently.

I'm sure the team leader has a way of checking the stats to prove who has been doing this.
Tread carefully OP especially if the team leader is " best mates" with anyone on the team.

My team seem to think that because they are only changing for a matter of seconds it's untraceable.

Its not impossible to trace. Its just something that you would have to notice, to go looking. We would never go looking for call avoidance unless we were suspicuous it was happening.

I no longer work in a cal centre but have a colleague who can be a proper pisstaking cf. she is trying to take advantage this week. I raise is a general ‘oh does cf have x status tomorrow, I think that that wasn’t allowed!’ My boss heard and said ‘no she can’t that’s not on i’ll Sort it out. You need to raise as a general ‘why is this happening!’

Have a word with your manager, they can check the stats and will see that you've taken x no of calls more than your colleague, and the no of codes they've used throughout the day. It's not fair and it can be stopped. You just have to point it out.

Some call centre systems allow for operators to remain as the lowest priority operator in order to do non call related duties.

I worked in a call centre of approx 15 staff. I had additional duties that meant I needed to be available to go on the phone, but only when all 14 colleagues were taking calls. After my call I'd go back to position 15 in the league. However if another colleague became available then they would then be ahead of me in the priority and I wouldn't get another call until all 14 colleagues were on calls again. On a quiet day it could be an hour between calls.