My call center woes

[COMINATCHA]

Hello everyone

I know I don't post alot, or read other posts, but i'm trying my best

For those who don't know, I now work in a call center for a phone company, doing directory assistance. People call me for phone numbers for businesses and residences, and if it is listed in the system, I will give them the number.

A little back story for any newbies - I was previously working in a nighclub as a dancer - Although I had fun, I eventually decided that was too tacky and bad for my wellbeing, and went to work in a hospital. I thought it would be more respectable. That was okay for a while, but I did a stupid thing and just randomly applied for another job - this call center one. *bangs head against wall*
I DON'T LIKE IT!

Firstly, they are really strict with time. You have to be at work EXACTLY at the right time. Right down to the exact second - you have to be logged in to your computer. If you log in 20 seconds late, or even 20 seconds EARLY you get money taken out of your pay as punishment. Yes I know, how stupid is that??!! I'm not saying i want to come in to work late and have them be okay with it, but honestly, who thought that being a little early would be so bad?

The people who call up for phone numbers can be nice and polite, and I often make conversation with alot of them. I've gotten into trouble for that though, cause the faster we take calls the more money the company makes. But the people I chat to always comment about how im the only friendly sounding operator they've had, and that's its a nice change. So I refuse to be a robot, i just dont have it in me not to be polite and friendly. If they don't like it, they can replace me with someone who has a personality of a brick.

The bad part is when I can't find a number that someone asks for. Most people will accept that and say thankyou and hang up. But then there are the shitheads who insist on insulting me and swearing at me to find the number. I've been told im stupid and worthless and that i'm just lying to them - that the number is there but I refuse to give it to them. As if. Why would I do that??

It once got to the point where I started crying, and I had to log off the computer and ask to go home. The lady who made me cry (after i'd had a string of other abusive people) started swearing at me when I asked her how she was spelling the name of the town she was in (we take calls from all over Australia - I don't know every single town and how to spell it.) I couldn't handle it, so yea, I went home. I felt like such a sook, but I was just really upset.

I'm a naturally sensitive person. Alot of people I work with talk about how its funny that people swear, and how they just shrug it off.
I can't do that. I take it personally. It's just how I am.

*sigh*

[TNT]

Don't let them turn you in a robot.

Honestly... I've worked in a lot of call centers and usually it's about the diddliest work available. Too many companies feel that having inhuman robots answering the phones leads to efficiency which leads to higher profits. The people who are born inhuman, or managed to adapt, do well and get promoted... and they can't figure out why everybody isn't like them. And they can't figure out why anybody would start to cry, or run away in frustration, or develop a stress-related disorder.

That said, I actually rather like the job I have now. It helps a lot that we've tossed all the canned scripts and most of the pointless metrics. These days, calls are measured by the "totality of the experience." Namely, at the end of the call, how does the customer feel:

1. I like doing business with that company.
2. The job got done and that's what counts.
3. I hate having to call that f*****g company.

And so, if it takes an hour to help an 80 year old guy set up a simple email account, the time doesn't matter. If, at the end, the caller says, "It's good to know I can call in and you'll be friendly and patient, and not laugh at me," the call is scored as "excellent."

It also helps that we're told from day one, "you pretty much have to listen to the customers complain about the company... but we'll never pay you enough to take personal abuse."

Every job is going to have sucky customers and sucky moments... as a friend of mine says, "if work was fun, they wouldn't pay you to do it." But some places are just downright irritating in the way they treat their employees.

Sorry for the rant... call centers can piss me off sometimes (most of the time).

[Imogene]

You get penalized for clocking in early?

I'd be losing my entire check in the first week... I'm routinely an hour early to my shifts.

[Amethyst Hunter]

Call centers are nothing short of pure hell. RUN, don't walk, away from this job and towards another one asap! Believe me, your sanity will thank you greatly for it.

I worked in a call center six or seven years ago and lasted no more than a week there. By the second day I was literally in tears from this one nasty caller when management basically threw me to the wolves after intense crammed-training (what I call it when they throw shit at you like crazy and expect you to remember/learn it all in a day). You know it's a bad job when you KNOW your pay will be docked/you will be penalized in some way for being late, and you just don't give a damn because you don't want to go there AT ALL.

[dispatch]

COMINATCHA, I'm guessing you work for a "communications" company with "line groups", that or your company just sucks, at least how it works here in the US is that there's call centers who hire anyone off the street, pay them crap, and this is who the big companies outsource to, they're strict on handle time, sales, and basically want to squeeze every penny out of you that they can (the last one of these outfits wanted me to have the problem solved and the call over in 4 minutes, most of my customers weren't even done with their opening volley of profanity by then)

find other, more service-oriented work with a company with a reputation for taking care of it's employees and customers, my job still has it's SCs, but I loved what I did, hence why I came back when I was done gallavanting, and was quickly moved to my current job, which is even cooler

there's also the posibility that you weren't meant to wear the collar (my nickname for the headset) in which case I hope you can find your niche elsewhere, but for your own sake, get out of that place you're at now!

[COMINATCHA]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm going to look for another job, I thought i'd just try and stick it out for a little while so it wouldn't look bad on the resume, but I just found out that they don't offer references, so that's not really an issue now hey.

My original thought was that I wanted to get away from retail-related jobs in the christmas period, cause thats the only other kind of job im really qualified to do. I duno, in a bizzare way, that might not have been so bad compared to this.

They pay you a bonus at the end of each month, just if you come to work every day. I guess they have to entice people to stop calling in sick somehow, haha. I feel like such a tool for applying to work there. Today wasn't so bad cause the guy working next to me was passing me 'get to know each other' type notes so the time went a bit faster.

I forgot to add another big thing that annoys me - prank calls. Now there's nothing wrong with a good prank call, but today for instance, i got a kid asking for the name 'uranus' then hanging up. I mean c'mon, if your guna prank call me, make it half-way decent! lol. Oh and the aboriginal kids who call up and say the few swear words they know then hanging up. Grrrrrrr!