Avoid working in the call centre.
Pros
Pay was good at the time, but I was a student then and was happy to be making $15/hour, even if it was at a call centre. I liked a lot of the people I worked with at the time.
Cons
- Call centre was completely over- and micro-managed. There is about one manager to every 10-15 people. We were treated like delinquent children, even though we were all adults and their hiring process is pretty involved. For example, they once organized a "fun day" which involved hiring a magician who did card tricks in the lunch room (you were allowed to see him only on your breaks), and a guy who made balloon animals for everyone. Yes, this actually happened. Did they think we were all 8 years old? I guess so. - Most people were hired as "casual" which means you didn't get any benefits and very little paid vacation, but still worked pretty much full-time hours. People had to apply for the full-time positions that came up from time to time - for exactly the same job we were already doing. - Managers were sometimes hired externally and usually had no idea how we did our jobs. But they would micromanage anyway. - Management doesn't care if you're actually helping customers - your performance is based on your sales numbers and "key performance indicator" metrics such as: - average work time (based on some calculations with your other metrics) - not busy time (this is when you're not taking calls, so lower is better) - committment to schedule (your two 15 min breaks and 30 min lunch are scheduled for you) - average call time (optimally 6 minutes or under) - attempt to bridge the conversation to a sale - attempt to gather extra/missing customer info (presumably for marketing) - When we were hired, we were told how easily we would be able to move around the company if being in a call centre wasn't our thing and we were just getting our foot in the door. 2 years later, me and several others who had university degrees were still in the call centre, and it wasn't for lack of trying. We applied to other positions, filled out all kinds of "development forms", etc. You were to indicate what your short/long term goals were, and the managers were supposed to help you get there. But really, the only place you can go in the call centre is somewhere else in the call centre. I got the impression that the managers don't really want to let you go if you're half decent at the job, because their bonuses (which were much better than ours - see next point) were based on our sales. - Before I started working there, the bonuses were great. If you met your quotas, you could expect up to $2000 a quarter. I was never interested in selling (I'd rather try to solve people's phone problems), but after a few months they cut the bonuses down a lot. Instead of $2000, people were getting $300. What's the point of trying? - Also, managers have a budget for team building. But I found out that they get some percentage of whatever they don't spend at the end of each quarter/year. Hmm. - The whole idea of having a sales AND customer service department all in one doesn't make sense, especially when the attitude is sell sell sell! The idea that customers are calling in because they have an issue to resolve doesn't even hit the radar in that department. - They implemented a process where if the customer wanted to talk to a manager, you'd have to fill out an "escalation form", which may or may not be approved. If approved, the manager would call the customer back sometime within the next *48* hours! How would you enjoy telling an infuriated customer that a manager may or may not call them back within 2 days? - By the time I left, they no longer allowed people to have the flexibility to not work certain days/times. This basically killed the population of student employees. Rememebr, the people who work in that call centre (and call centres in general, I tend to think) are generally either students or lifers, so I don't understand that decision. Phew. I could go on and on. I'm so glad I don't work there anymore.
