I just can't take anymore...

[Spawned]

I have finally had it with customer service. I am officially burned out. I think everyone in this world is stupid but me now. Is that arrogant, yes, sorry in advance. However, I am having a true mental breakdown. Since starting this job I have gone from a healthy weight with no medical issues to overweight, diabetic with clinically diagnosed anxiety and depression.

I need to leave my job for my health, for my sanity. I come home every night volatile and miserable. I fear losing my fiance and son, because I have become so intolerable. I take more pills then Courtney Love in the 90's.

I can't afford to leave this job. No other jobs pay close to this, and this barely covers my expenses as is. I don't know what to do, I need help, advice, anything to make me able to live through the following REAL conversations I take 40 hours a week.

Me: Me
SC: You guessed it.

Me: Thanks for calling Big National Bank. My name is Spawned. May I have your name please?

SC: Blah, blah, blah, overdraft fees are ridiculous, I refuse to admit that no matter what not spending more money then I have solves the problem 100% of the time spiel. I am having a real hard time, we just found out my husband has cancer.

Me: Mrs. SC, I am terribly sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosisl. I know exactly how you feel as we just found out my dad has cancer. Let me see what I can do.

- Going over why she overdrew, explaining our policies, and actually going against the bank tool using my power to act and do right by this lady to refund her fees.

SC: What type of cancer does your dad have.

Me: It's a bad one, pancreatic cancer, but we are trying to remain positive and full of hope...

SC (Cutting me Off): Yeah he is as as good as dead. There is no way he can survive that.

Me (almost in tears from this comment): (I am trying not to cry or cuss this lady out so I try to take the focus off me and kind of make her feel as I did right now with-out being mad) What type of cancer does your husband have?

SC: Skin cancer, he got it 10 years ago, he has been in remission for 8 years.

I don't need to go any further then this, I think you get it,

I actually wish I would get in an accident every day I go to work and die, rather than do this job. I am serious.

[jjllbb]

Honestly, I can't even concentrate on the SC. I'm more worried about you. Your comments about your health and depression are alarming and very serious. Please please please talk to someone about it.

[BarbieGirl]

I'm sorry you are going through that with your dad, Hope he has as pain free a situation as possible.

I guess my only real advise is to never share anything personal with SC's we all know they only care about themselves and will just try and shoot you down if your problem is bigger than theirs plus it gives the evil ones (like this one) the knife so they can twist it in your heart.

If you have time learn some meditation techniques and take some time everyday to yourself when you first get home to decompress from the day so that you can at least enjoy your evenings with your family.

[Spawned]

The problem is my company absolutely positively requires me to "make a personal connection with the customer." You actually fail QA's if you don't.

My company actually disallows any defending of yourself, the customer is allowed to say anything they want. We are not allowed to warn abusive customers or disconnect if they are abusive to the extreme.

Daily I am a pin cushion, my intelligence, religion, voice, job, family, car, life, home, everything they can think of is insulted.

When I first started and my son was born, I made a personal connection on that, by the end of the call the customer told me he hoped my son died from SIDS.

I'm not allowed to go to the bathroom unless it is on my scheduled break, and as a diabetic this is difficult.

Our breaks are merely given to abide by the law, There was once I came in at 10:30, had break 1 at 11:30, lunch at 12:15, break 2 at 1:45 and had to work from then until 7 with no breaks.

Last year during that bad blizzard in the NE, every business in the state closed but ours, and we were threatened with disciplinary action if we didn't make it in ON time. We had 19 inches of accumulation in a mere 3 hours.

I hate my life.

[mamawork]

I can't afford to leave this job. No other jobs pay close to this, and this barely covers my expenses as is. I don't know what to do, I need help, advice, anything to make me able to live through the following REAL conversations I take 40 hours a week.

I actually wish I would get in an accident every day I go to work and die, rather than do this job. I am serious.

You can't afford to stay like this. It's time for a positive change. You seem to be in a very unhealthy situation right now. Is there anything that you can do yourself to create a happier life for yourself? Sorry if I sound like an infomercial; I'm just concerned.

You should definitely find someone to talk to who can properly treat depression, and right away.

Take care of yourself and try to enjoy life as much as you can in the meantime.


BTW, your boss can't stop you or discipline you for using the bathroom. As for your company's policies on "customer connections" and not being allowed to stand up for yourself... YOU are the only one who can decide how much abuse you will take. Just out of curiosity, have you received a formal handbook (or notice) with these policies in it?

[BarbieGirl]

In that case I'd say start making up stories to tell your customers. Create fictional family characters, have fun with it and see what kind of weird things you can get them to believe.

Can you get a doctors note that says they are required to let you use the restroom whenever needed?
Isn't it a federal guideline that employers can't deny bathroom breaks??
Start documenting everything that makes it a bad work environment Check local labor laws and if worse comes to worse you'll at least have a good case to get unemployment.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

What Barbie Girl said. Try to leave your father's battles with cancer at home, if possible.

I know that sounds totally managerial and soulless, but you have enough on your plate dealing with it outside of work. If you bring it up to a customer, you have a chance of them turning it around on you, as in your example. You don't need to be listening to some asshat tell you your father's as good as dead, now enough about you and deal with my problem already, dammit. You're coming apart as it is.

If you really have to make this "personal connection" (which sounds about as retarded a company policy can be) with somebody, lie through your teeth. Make up any story you have to, if you can. Is the company really going to verify the veracity of every forced "personal connection" you make with a caller?

As for the other stuff you mentioned--those are why I will not work in a call center unless the alternative is starvation and death, and even then I will think long and hard about it. I kinda think the bathroom thing is illegal--you can't just deny a person the right to use the facilities because it isn't during their scheduled break period. And you have a medical reason for needing to use the facilities.

[Spawned]

I've tried many things.

I am on medication for depression, but it's not working, and my health insurance got canceled by an error with my payroll department and I am fighting to get it back, so everything is out of pocket right now. The doctor knows the medication is barely effecting me and has repeatedly called me for a visit, but I can't afford it right now.

I look at jobs available all the time. I make 17.50/hr, have done the math and need to make at minimum 16.00 to live paycheck to paycheck, not even comfortably. The highest paying job I have been offered in my search is 12/hr.

I worked 2 jobs and went to school for automotive service to get out of this job. No places hire new people when their is a plethora of experienced people desperate to take anything now.

Now it is a question of sacraficing myself and taking care of my family or risking homelessness.

The sad part is, all my complaints have been answered with the stop whining comments and this is life and no one likes their job. I promise most people have no idea what hating a job means.

[Plaidman]

Can you get a doctors note that says they are required to let you use the restroom whenever needed?
Isn't it a federal guideline that employers can't deny bathroom breaks??
Start documenting everything that makes it a bad work environment Check local labor laws and if worse comes to worse you'll at least have a good case to get unemployment.

That, a thousand times that.


And also, yeah. make up your family. Introduce me. Plaidman, AKA Warren. Last name, Piece. (yeah, Sky High Reference... I'm good and evil. (just say the two names together fast).

I'm currently in prison, but about to be released because I like, sent bombs to a middle school. I was proven innocent, but you have your doubts.....

Oh, and your Aunt? She's like, a kungfu expert of High Tail Lin. Totally awesome at it. (Just don't mention the whole, always high tailing out of there... thats the name of the game).

Because as long as your /making a personal connection/ to someone, even if your the one lying, your doing the job.

[Spawned]

I use to work at a call center that would allow me more room to put spin on things like that. However, we are in a very heavy micro-managed situation.

I have avoided making comments about my family since then, but it's the fact that we are not allowed to vent at all.

For call center people, we are on active on a phone call 97.X% of the time now, there is a word for it, but I forget it, but most analysts say anythingt over 80% is burnout levels.

There is also no way to vent. Even if we are caught in the breakrooms complaining about a customer, it is grounds for immediate termination,

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

There is also no way to vent. Even if we are caught in the breakrooms complaining about a customer, it is grounds for immediate termination,

"Micromanaged" does not even begin to describe that. If that policy were in place at the swamp (my workplace), I'd have been fired many times over.

Guess they must want all their employees to be ticking time bombs then. What's the harm if you blow off a little steam on your own time about the asshats who descend on you via phone? It's not like those people can hear or see you.

[Spawned]

All I can tell you, is we are required to tell customers not that the company has made a decision, but that we the associate have made the decision. Their reasoning is that way it looks like we are empowered to help them.

In reality, every decision is made by a computer program in which we just tell them the outcome. But, because of this, people treat us as the policy makers and the person who denied them refunds more than any other call center I have worked in.

I guess their rationalize is, the customer can do no wrong, Even though we penalize them heavily with fees.

[labgirl27]

I 100% agree with jjllbb. I would be more worried about your health status. NOTHING is worth your health and wellbeing, not even a job. I would suggest finding a way to quit and get another job.

As for your managers, they suck. To the extreme. I always felt that when a company doesn't allow its employees to defend themselves from the obviously sucktacular customers you're getting (wishing SIDS on a child? Disgusting.), it's like they're saying out loud, "well we don't really give a damn about you, do we?" Keeping your customers happy at the expense of your employee's wellbeing is a stupid way to go.

Like I said, I would recommend finding a new position, as your symptoms are very troubling Good luck in your situation, and I wish your dad much luck and hope that he gets better.

[HYHYBT]

That's pretty much where I left my job: I was driving home one morning, and badly. (caused by schedule/sleep cycle interference, mostly, though that's just the tip of what was wrong at work .) First I realized that if this kept up I was likely to drive into an overpass support or something. But then what scared me was realizing that it felt like a good idea. And the reasons why were all tied into the way work had been going downhill the last few months; really at least two years, but it had been accelerating rapidly lately. I quit, and looking back it was the right thing to do; even my physical health has improved. But I also don't have anyone else depending on my income; that complicates matters.

I'm *not* offering advice, just a bit of commiseration. And your situation sounds much worse.

[sylvier]

Wow, I don't where to start. First of all, does your call center offer compassionate leave to look after seriously ill family members? If so, take them up on it. You won't be making your full pay, but you'll still be drawing a paycheque and will still be able to stay on the benefits package. After the end of compassionate leave, your family doctor should be able to authorize a further leave of absence, in which case you'll still be paid and keep your benefits. Please look into this, because you have your own health isssues to look after as well. I went through some of this last year and I feel your pain.