I feel like Mel Gibson's character, William Wallace, as he cries, "FREEDOM!" at the end of Braveheart. Like Wallace, my "torture" is at and end; unlike Wallace, mine isn't ending with my death, thank all that is holy! I feel validated, released, redeemed...please come with me, down below the orange swirly, and I'll share the reason.
I'm going to start by apologizing to the unemployed/underemployed, for having referred to my former job as "torture." I know how crappy it is to not be working, and I am not trying to belittle the fact that I had the job; I was grateful for the income, such as it was, and the bennies: beats not working, that's for sure. I hope all readers in that unfortunate situation will soon be gainfully employed!
Still: I felt entrapped, dismissed, devalued, stressed, demeaned. I hated the monotony and the rigidity; hated being lied to and asked to lie; hated just walking in the damn door every day. I felt slightly tainted by evil simply being employed by Corporate America.
Have any of you ever worked on the phones in a customer service call center? I've done it before this last place, and moved pretty quickly into customer service training, which I loved and was good at. That call center got outsourced for less expensive foreign labor, and when I got laid off at my last job due to budget cuts, and wound up in another call center, I was hoping to get back into the training realm, where I knew I could function with at least some degree of satisfaction and autonomy, without being totally on a leash (as one is when one is a "phone rep.") Never happened. Got small opportunities here and there to do this team meeting or that refresher session, but never drank the kool-ade to the degree necessary, nor kissed enough higher-up ass, to get into the training department permanently.
Two and a half LONG years later, I finally got offered my DREAM JOB!!! OUTSIDE of Corporate America!!! Putting in my notice at the call center was one of the happiest days of my LIFE, and today, walking out the door for the LAST TIME, was right up there with THE happiest. Starting Friday, I'll be doing work I love, am qualified for, am good at, working with great people, and making decent money, so hey...I'm a happy woman at this point.
I just wanted to let you know why I feel so redeemed, and maybe to help any other call center workers out there by filling you in on the odious life of a lowest-on-the-totem-pole phone rep; please be kind when you call anywhere for help or service! It's a soul-sucking, low-wage, low-status, STRESSFUL job under GOOD circumstances, and when reps are faced with situations such as those below, it can, indeed, be torture of a kind.
I worked for a wireless phone carrier, which shall remain nameless; I'm sure the "biggies" run all pretty much the same way. Call center culture is typically pretty rigid and "stats-driven," and the expectations are very high. One of the stats is typically called "adherence," which means taking your break/lunch/meetings/trainings exactly when scheduled. One cannot, of course, end a call by saying it's break time, gotta go...so if one is on a call with a customer, and "misses" going to break at the scheduled time, one is "out of adherence" to schedule, and it's noted, affects one's review, which in turn affects one's pay. There is the option of skipping part of break, so one can be BACK at the correct time (it's 'ding-ed' on both ends...) but if caught, it's "disciplinary action" time for "manipulating stats." Some centers use "conformance," which means taking no more than your scheduled amount of time for break/lunch/etc., but without the requirement that you leave/return precisely at the scheduled minute.
Another is credits. At this center, it wasn't part of the stats affecting pay, but was watched closely and again, grounds for disciplinary action if goals weren't met. If a customer calls to say that the user of one of the phones on the account has died, and wants to terminate that line of service, the rep can do that and there is no early termination fee even if the line is still under contract. The system does NOT automatically credit that amount, even if the rep uses the correct code for "deceased customer" and then has to manually credit the account; that dollar amount counts against the rep's credit limit. Credits for going over minutes, for exceeding data amounts, reconnection fees...whether company error or user error, credits count against the rep in most cases.
We were lied to on an almost daily basis, and asked to lie to our customers. We were last in line for pertinent information, and customers often knew specifics about products or services before we did. This was ostensibly to "maintain competitive advantage" but seriously...isn't it a competitive advantage to have well-trained, well-informed representatives who don't sound like clueless morons?
If reps set follow-ups to complete a customer request, or do a callback, they are often told that the phones are too busy to allow for time to take care of those requests by the promised date, so those customers either fall through the cracks, or the rep completes those tasks on his/her own time, so as not to negatively impact "hold time" or "wrap time" or "idle time" or any of the other "why the hell are you not on your LEASH??" stats that the phone system tracked automatically. And for every minute scheduled OFF the leash (training, team meetings, etc.) the amount of time given as 'wiggle room' for "adherence/conformance" is decreased. So if one has two training sessions and one team meeting, and has to get off the phones a minute or two prior to the start time of those events, in order to not be late, the number of minutes one has available before one is out of adherence to schedule is FEWER and the risk is greater.
Transfer a call to tech support? DING! Counts against the rep. Transfer a call to a Supervisor? DING! Ditto. Place a customer on hold for more than a minute, without checking back every 60 seconds to ask if the customer is still able to hold? DING! Ditto.
The only time we were "valued" (and I say that VERY loosely) was when we were on the phones, and when we were selling phones/upgrading service/adding lines. Yes, that's a big part of the job, I get it. However, it was also supposedly a big deal to get "good surveys" when customers were asked if they would recommend the company, and how would they rate the rep's performance. The survey is on a 0-10 scale, with 0 being crappy and 10 being tops. Reps get 100% if rated an 8,9 or 10; anything below an 8 is ZERO for the rep, and in fact, gets recorded as NEGATIVE 100%. Survey scores were monitored closely, but we frequently got the mixed message that we had to essentially cut back on good service but still get good scores. And oddly enough, being good at providing great service didn't seem to matter one iota when it came to review time...hmmm, wonder why.
Last thing I'll mention, and THIS makes me almost physically ill. Along with all the kool-ade pushing, there is a disturbing trend at this place to use what sounds like liturgical language when referring to the higher-ups. Instead of "We'll mention that at our next management meeting," we hear crap like, "We'll lift that up to Senior Leadership when we reach out to them at our next encounter." Now maybe it's just me, but "lift that up" sounds a little too close to church for me, and these assholes surely are not gods, nor even demi-gods, regardless of how much power they have amassed. And if I ever hear the phrase "reach out" again, it had better be The Four Tops.
Anyway. I could go on and on. I'm sure as soon as I post this, I'll think of something even more odious that I didn't mention, but whatever. I'm ranting just a bit to get it out of my system, and hope to forget the place as soon as humanly possible.
SO! I start my dream job this coming Friday. Was told it was a unanimous decision by the hiring committee; I was top of the list for all eight, so that is why I feel validated...and never having to go back to the leash is why I feel released...and not feeling tainted by evil is why I feel redeemed!