Call Centre jobs are grim

[Youdidnotfindme]

I know many jobs have their downsides but there is something in this role that makes it quite soul-destroying.
We are managed to the exact minute. For example, if our lunch is scheduled for 12, we cannot go offline until 12. So if the phone rings at 11:59 and lasts 30 minutes, you'll go on your lunch late.
You still get the full amount of time but it's impossible to make plans because of it.
Same at the end of the day. We don't get TOIL but get paid for any overtime luckily, but again if your call goes over then you have to finish when it does and it's hard if you've got an appointment for anything.

There are various queues depending on activity and you get told off if you're in the wrong queue for even a minute.
Every month, a report is sent to you showing how every minute of your day was accounted for and if you met your targets.

In training we were told not to worry about KPIs but now I know that wasn't true. Apparently I'm doing well so I could win a bonus of up to £400 for the entire year, which will be taxed so hardly life-changing.

The customers are fine, but the above is depressing. Zero flexibility and feel like you're being watched like a naughty child. Hence why I'm looking for a new job!
Hate being watched like a hawk. You're supposed to do a certain number of calls a day too, so you feel like you're rushing customers through in order to meet the stats.
Does this sound normal in a job?

Yes, I can imagine it's soul destroying and not something I could do. Too regimented.

That’s like saying you work in a bar but you don’t like serving drinks.

it sounds very normal for a call centre.

You can either accept that's how it is and roll with it. Or not! If you have a good immediate manager and team it can make all of the difference. It's not for everyone, but can be a stepping stone into another role. Great for building problem solving and communication skills.

They're just more bothered about KPIs than anything. I actually enjoy helping the customers and 95% are nice. Im lucky it's not cold calling or anything, it's the micromanagement.
Hoping I'll be out soon!

Well tbh it's my first ever call centre role so not quite fair to say, as I wasn't totally sure what to expect.

My manager is good but obviously he wants to make himself look good too for his own boss. So if we meet our KPIs it makes him look better, that's his main concern. I've never bought the false concern for wellbeing from managers.

My DH did a stint (well actually about 5 years) in call centres starting with sales and moving to customer service. Yes, it was the exact same experience. I’d plan to meet him after for dinner and could be hanging around for however long with no idea when he’d be out. No phones on floor so no updates possible either. Absolutely zero flexibility.

I feel for you, OP. I wouldn’t do it unless I was desperate for work.

Yup totally normal.

Also the late breaks and leaving time is totally normal in most jobs. It’s pretty rare that someone can just up and leave when a task isn’t finished. Can you imagine being the customer who gets connected at 11;59 only to hear…whelp that’s my lunch click

I've come from the Civil Service where you actually could finish on time.

Call centre work is awful. I think I'd rather do almost anything else - plus just sitting at a desk all day must be so dull. Is there any opportunity for progression in your company, OP?

It's not right, it's just that people accept it and put up with it.

Wow, 5 years! I'm struggling after 4 months 😂

It’s an effective, efficient way of dealing with a high volume of customers, so in that sense it does work or they’d use a different model. It not suiting you is fair enough, there are other jobs that don’t need that level of resource management.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a job that I could leave if there was something that was time sensitive that needed doing. Have worked everything from retail to call centers, to warehouse and to professional.

I would consider customers on your line to be time sensitive.

Yeah, I get that it's just not for me, constantly daily meetings to tell us we should be hitting xyz targets, why were we off queue for 35 seconds, etc. Etc.
Hopefully find something that suits me more b

Well what are the options if you need work that needs on the job training but not necessarily qualifications?

Have worked in a few as a manager and there is a lot of pressure if anyone isn’t performing. I quit because I refused to get one of my team in trouble for going for a drink of water in a hot day, because there were calls in the queue.

Trouble is, outsourced call centres have KPIs set by the client so they are absolutely rigorous about everyone having to meet their own.

When I used to work in a call centre I'd flick myself onto do not disturb for a second and it would put me to the back of the queue. If it was getting near home time I'd do it every so often so I wouldn't get a last minute call and miss my bus.
This was a long time ago so I'm not sure if it would work these days.

That's a good tip, I'll have a look!

Do not do this. It is call avoidance and it is monitored for in most call centres. Getting caught may lead to your dismissal.

I don't think I could do this job, just because of being stuck in the same chair all the time and not being able to get up when you want. It just sounds overly restrictive.

I work with someone who came from a call centre, one of the worst things for her was not being able to go to the toilet whenever you needed to.
She said people crying was a daily occurrence due to hideous customers as.well. She's very happy she could leave, I hope you can too!

I can so relate to all this I worked in one

Sounds very typical and also soul destroying. I've recently left a call centre role and it was the aspects you've mentioned that are the soul destroying bits. The customers (or patients in my case, it was 111) and their sometimes distressing and frightening situations were the 'easy' but. The hard bit was being micromanaged, to the millisecond and having every second scrutinized and every word scrutinized as well. Doing badly in kpis felt terrible, and I failed call audits for reasons I didn't agree with but I felt like a cog in a huge machine that I am very relieved to have escaped from! My colleague was disciplined one day for logging off one minute early. She had been very distressed and was crying but that seemed to be irrelevant. The frustrating thing is there were so many great and good people trying really hard there, but their individuality and personalities were gradually being squashed, or that's how I felt. Do you have an exit plan?

It sounds awful. I did do stuff like that back in the day for a bit.
My mate does outbound calling and supervising outbound callers who work from home. It's a research company do it's really boring, asking people tedious surveys about various government schemes. I used to work there doing admin.
But they don't harass you really badly for anything. It seems quite chilled. So maybe something like that might be better than inbound callers?
And if you're working from home it's less grim than the actual environment of tiny booths in a sweaty dilapidated building.

People would be more productive if employers didn't treat them like this. Most people are not skivers.
When I worked in a call centre you could click offline for a toilet break, but if you took longer than six minutes there and back your screen would turn red. Then a clock showing how long you'd been away would flash over and over.
Disgusting.