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?

Oh, come off it. Most jobs you would absolutely not start a time sensitive task one minute before you were about to go to lunch or go home.

I can’t usually speak while I’m actively sneezing 😁 so always found my mute button best. But yes if I had a sneeze coming then I might use the dnd button. However, I just kept myself on mute between calls so I could chat with my neighbor, sneeze, or whatever.

However it is something they track for and team leads in call centers have seen every trick out there. To be an effective method for not catching a call you need to hit the button periodically starting some time before the end of your phone time and that is super obvious.

I would not recommend the OP doing this before breaks and end of shift.

You’re assuming I’ve always worked in places where I had control to choose. You know…like a call center🤷‍♀️

hit post too soon….

You really think it’s that far fetched to have a last minute customer, shipment, urgent task from a boss, phone call, or request from a colleague?

My DP worked on a customer service desk at Marks and Spencers for a few months. Some aspects of her experience echo yours. All that really mattered was how many people you served an hour, not the quality of the service you gave them.

The modern workplace is grim. I'm so glad I'm in my 50s, and not my 20s.

I worked in a call centre before DD came along & actually enjoyed some aspects of the work plus I still see a couple of friends that I made there. Huge bonuses could be earned too for a while although I didn’t do half as well as some of the guys who were much more technically minded so therefore sold loads more than me! I can’t remember it being particularly restricted. Many a time I hung up on a customer because I couldn’t bear listening to them droning on but nobody ever pulled me up on it. Most of the Managers were young & fun.

I worked in a few when younger.

Mostly enjoyed the atmosphere, but while we had kpis it absolutely was not like you described. We could go to the loo, get a coffee for whole team etc. We were all young together and social life was very fun!

Pretty standard, I’ve done 18 years in call centres
some are stricter than others
most monitor breaks, lunches, toilet times etc
some aren’t bothered about how long your calls are
screens and audio recorded

I did this type of work as a student - most of the team were young if you were there a year you were a veteran. We weren't monitored for toilet breaks and you could log off near your break and log out 5 mins before shift end time.. however there were still daft rules we had a question to ask on every call my manager chose a random call to quality check I hadn't asked it so he had to listen to 10 calls to make sure forgetting it was a 1 off 🙄

I've worked in two. Wasn't a fan of the private company one, loved being a 999 call handler (probably because it was always different).

We did have people there who'd deliberately put themselves to the back of the call handling queue whenever they thought they could get away with it, but we all knew and they were like social pariahs 🙈

I agree with you, call centres are soul destroying to work in. I temped for a very long time, usually with the same agencies, and my number one stipulation was no call centres. One day one of them sent me to the council without much info as it was a bit last minute and lo and behold it was the council tax call centre. It was even worse than anticipated - having every single second micro managed, every single toilet break recorded (which I always felt that was really off and a bit discriminatory also). The one and only job I walked out of - I lasted two hours and I've never accepted any job with anything near that level of micromanaging again.

I'm sure some people don't mind or even actively enjoy the call centre environment but I hated it and found it a humiliating way to treat adults.

Oh God, I'm triggered!

Spent a couple of years in call centres. Longest stint was "warm calling" selling over 50s accident plans, which i was pretty good at to start with, as I can "mirror" pretty well and build rapport. However, thanks to the bloody PPI malarkey, we had to switch from advised to non-advised selling.

This meant regardless of the questions asked inevitably by customers, you could only go back to the relevant bit of the script and read it like a goddamm robot. Sales plummeted, KPIs were a nit picking nightmare.

We were issued a list of things we'd be marked down on. Including not being allowed to say "bear with me" in case Scottish customers thought we wanted to have children with them. I am honestly not making this up.

I was once marked down and failed a call for " breathing in an impatient manner" while a customer went to get their bank details to set up a direct debit. I shit you not. When I listened to the call, it was clear I'd exhaled a bit loudly, probably at the sheer relief of actually making a sale at that point.

And don't get me started on the 3 months in car insurance renewals that absolutely broke me. Or the "incentive" days that promised a Moscow Mule to the highest seller.

I'm going to lie down in a dark room now.....

I’ve usually hit mute and can hear someone saying hello, then come off mute as soon as possible and apologise
i usually say “I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to sneeze down your ear!” and people are fine

the worst thing for me is people eating on the phone, especially cereal. I struggle with that massively

I've worked in a call centre as well as doing a corporate role where I was analysing call centre metrics.

It's definitely not the nicest job and employers could improve conditions for workers by increasing hiring of call handlers but the biggest reason they're so anal about timings is so they can ensure consistency - they need to ensure customers are able to reach a call handler during the hours they have told the customer a call handler will be available.

If the online posted timings are 9-5 then I'd be expecting them to have communicated to interviewees at the time of hiring that finish times might be at 5:30 or 6 if handling a tricky case at the end of the day but can be as early as 5pm. If they didn't tell you at the point of hiring then that's poor form, however if they did tell you then unfortunately you did agree to these terms. Maybe plan things with a buffer now that you know 5pm isn't a consistent end time?

FYI I now work in a different industry and still sometimes finish at 7 or later if I have a task that needs completing - I have a clause in my contract that says that I need to work the hours the business requires without overtime, so the fact you're getting overtime payments is a nice perk!

Overall it sounds like you're not happy in this line of work and that maybe it's worth identifying an alternative career that's less pressured and less micromanaged

Yeah that shows up 🤣

This all sounds horrific. I hope I never have to do this sort of work. I’d much rather do pretty much anything else.

Having to finish your call before you take your break and finish your last call before you finish is pretty standard in any customer service role

can you imagine going to Asda and the person on the till stopped 1/2 through scanning your shopping and walk off saying they were on the dinner

I’ve done a few temporary call centre jobs at the same organisation - a certain exam board based up north. People were fine and there was some camaraderie but the monitoring was hugely stressful. Some people love it though and I feel for those that do that will be out of work within the next five years because of AI-driven systems.

Call centres are one of the most stressful jobs, due to the constant monitoring and pressure over KPIs, and difficult customers. Some are different than others my first role was so tough most of us were thinking of quitting but we then got moved to a new department and it was much better.

I genuinely don’t find it too bad. Yes my lunch and breaks are timed but you get used to that
I can go to the toilet and get a drink when I want provided it’s not excessive or if I had a UTI or something I would tell my manager on the day I needed some extra time
the rest of the time it’s just being at your desk answering calls

Oh gosh where to start. Like PP have said miss your break and you had to reapply for a time slot - the contract said 'we'll provide X number of call handlers per 15 minutes', You could miss multiple breaks depending on the calls. And no handover protocol at shift end. Sure they paid you for your time (20p an hour more than NMW) Weekends and overtime were at the flat rate. I didn't want the extra 80p I wanted to go home...
They got fined £1000s nearly every weekend for not enough call takers but despite saying they were desperate still just the flat rate.
Most of the customers calling were fine and grateful for the help but the staff turnover was sky-high. On my last day I hardly recognised anyone in the canteen. Oh and they charged you for your training if you left within 6mths - even though none of it was any use elsewhere.
The place was a dump as well. A friend is an infection prevention specialist and she once did a load of swab tests at one major call centre - the cleaners didn't touch the desks or phones - all tested positive for excrement 💩
At my exit interview I got asked what they could do to get me to stay but being paid better and not being treated like automatons wasn't on offer.

My friend says she thinks timed toilet breaks are completely reasonable for the role. Well of course she'd say that when she isn't doing the role.

It’s totally normal in the media - lunchtime was rare, finished when we finished if a client rang at 6 you just responded.
It was tough but this is what happened.
when I first started in Ad Sales (a job that doesn’t really exist anymore) we had to do 100 phone calls a day or 10 effective sales ones. Constantly monitored and lunch was an exact hour.

To be fair, I've been at supermarket checkouts where the member of staff has seen somebody starting to load a bulging trolley-load on to the conveyor belt and said "Excuse me, we just need to change over" - before another staff member takes over from them. If the person had had two items, they may have just served them.

The problem with phones is that you have no idea whatsoever what the person on the other end may be needing/wanting. It could just as easily be a one-minute job or a full on hour or more. You also have no body language, to be able to judge whether they look pleasant enough or are guaranteed to be a trouble-making nightmare.

I have a full time office job in the week and do call centre work (from home) at the weekend. It's pretty shit to be honest.

The callers are hit and miss, probably 50% okay and 40% rude and 10% abusive/nasty.

The managers generally leave us to it as the call volume is really high and they don't really seem that interested in engaging with the weekend/part time staff. When we do hear from them, they're pretty pedantic and petty.

Like one of the managers will send a message in the teams chat with an update on something and if we haven't "liked" his post within 5 minutes he'll start threatening to report back to our team leaders etc?? Often we're on lengthy or complicated phone calls so don't always immediately see a teams message.

Phone calls are back to back so if you need to pee or whatever you have to update your status to "comfort break". If your comfort break exceeds 2 mins a manager will usually passive aggressively write something in the teams chat about people taking the piss.

If I didn't desperately need the money I'd 100% have quit by now.

I think call centre work is great training for other areas of work. The shit bit is being measured so ferociously but that doesn’t mean much. You take your headset off and don’t think about it again. Kinda stress free. Time goes by fairly quickly in the main. You learn to eat humble pie and become expert at deescalating people. It’s v interesting to see how people talk and operate when they don’t hold you in much regard. Harder if you need more time for toileting issues but you can speak to a manager about that. And you should in the main be able to manage targets and ignore when you can’t as that’s the ebb and flow of it. I don’t think you could do it full time and long term.