Job is killing me but is this normal?

[6Nations]

Work 9-5, team of people manning a technical support service. At the moment our team each takes in the region of 40-50 incoming calls per day per person (sometimes highly technical and lengthy calls and if you get stuff wrong it could be really damaging to business).

We also man incoming email enquiries, again sometimes very technically detailed, we are expected to reply to up to 30 of these each a day.

We get 30 minutes lunch, no other breaks except you can jump up to go to loo or make a quick cuppa.

The phones are relentless, calls break your concentration over and over again and by the end of the day I’m ready to burst into tears I feel so stressed and wired.

Is this normal for this type of work? It’s just got worse and worse over the time I’ve worked there as business has expanded but our team hasn’t. Manager just says tough, you should be glad to have a job.

We’ve never considered ourselves to be a call centre before but it’s become like this. Call centre staff though surely just answer the incoming calls not all written enquiries too?

Is this normal and do I need to just get a grip? Not sure how long I can keep this up for!

How many calls a day do you take personally?

Sorry 🙈, thought that was across the whole team.
So I do think that’s a lot, call handlers where I work (financial services) take between 30-40 calls per day, and don’t do any queries in between.

Sorry that you're struggling. I'm not sure if it's normal as I don't know that industry. The break sounds very short I'd expect it to be an hour.

But why not do a job search to see what else is out there. See if the job specs say they expect that much or similar. Apply for a few, what have you got to loose?

That sounds crazy, as though you don't have time to switch your mind from one problem to another.

So, at an average of 45 calls, if you spent 10 mins per call, going instantly from one call to another, and never went to the loo or anything except during your half hour break, you would still have no time at all for the emails? Sounds heavy.

We take 40-50 calls a day EACH. Plus expected to reply to as many emails as possible in between. The constant interruption of the phone is literally torturous, it severely breaks concentration every time. It makes me feel tearful and shaky. Maybe it’s normal and this is how call centres are?

But yes, surely you wouldn’t have emails to deal with too??

Would it be better if your rotated handling the emails?? So on your turn you don't answer calls and plough through emails so you can concentrate without the interruptions?

It sounds like at sometime they will need to face facts and employ more people if they want queries answered promptly.

Have you any metrics to prove how many enquiries there were 12 and 24 months ago versus now to demonstrate how much the workload has increased by?

A better employer might include a proper ten minute morning and afternoon break, but your break time is meeting the legal minimum.

I worked briefly in a call centre a very long time ago and would definitely have been doing 40-50 calls every day, if not more, but I suspect these calls were not as technical as yours. And also I didn’t have to do email as well, primarily because it didn’t exist back then, but even so, I was answering the phone all day and I do not see how I could have possibly answered emails simultaneously.

I agree with PP that maybe the phone answering and email answering should be separated on a rota basis. Could you team up with some colleagues and make a group suggestion to do this?

I’d day normal for a call centre but usually with an hours lunch and without the emails. There would usually be another team dealing with those.

Sorry but yes, this sounds like normal call centre work. I worked in one for many years part time, but couldn't possibly have done it full time.

I had to take about 10 calls an hour and reply to emails if there were no calls. You should have an opportunity to be "not ready" while you wrap up the previous call befor taking the next one though?

Again, the breaks are legal but pretty stingy.

I would plan on finding a new job when you can....

I work in a call centre and that is normal, we take incoming calls and do emails in between, would typically do more calls and emails but it's usually quick enquiries

@RandomMess

Would it be better if your rotated handling the emails?? So on your turn you don't answer calls and plough through emails so you can concentrate without the interruptions?

It sounds like at sometime they will need to face facts and employ more people if they want queries answered promptly.

Have you any metrics to prove how many enquiries there were 12 and 24 months ago versus now to demonstrate how much the workload has increased by?

This sounds like a really good idea.

It sounds about right for a call centre. In the business I work in we did this for a time but it was punishing and the amount of calls led to perverse behaviours such as 'accidentally' ending calls, putting customers on mute until they gave up etc.
We also had some admin to do which, as you say, is irritating to be interrupted by more calls.
Sounds as if there isnt a properly thought out process for this business. Could you suggest getting a focus group set up to work out how best to make things better for the business while also improving conditions for the staff.
You also need more breaks . Typically 15 minutes paid break for each 3 1/2 hours worked with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break .

We’ve suggested all sorts of solutions like rotating days on and off the phones / emails but they don’t want to know. I think it will take one of us cracking and going sick with stress for things to be taken seriously.

It sounds like call centre work but from what you say that isn't what it's supposed to be. Coming from an IT support background myself I'd say that is a high workload and the pace expected makes it very likely that mistakes were made. Why not make some speculative job applications and get your CV out there and see if anything comes of it?