Sitting on the phone for ten to twelve hours a day sounds like a dream come true job for some people, but not when you have to deal with angry customers, while you have to stay calm, and fake an accent all through out, because they have to believe you are American, and not somewhere in South East Asia .
I am throwing it back to the time i had the worst job ever as a customer service representative a.k.a call center Agent.
Before i go further with this, i'd first of all like to applaud call center agents. These people deserve mighty accolades. I don't know how most of them manage to work in opposite time zones, dealing with angry westerners while keeping their sanity. You are the real MVPs .
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If you don't already know,the Philippines is one of the top business process outsourcing havens. call centers provide employment to millions of Filipinos. For some , the pay is good , way better than their learned professions and area of expertise can pay here in the Philippines. For example, Nurses here don't get the pay they deserve compared to the amount of work they do, so some of them end up ditching the nursing career for a better paying job that will be able to sustain their needs and that of their families. some people have even gone on ahead to say that the best job you can get here is being a call center agent. Hence the common joke that call centers are a career suicide. While others are doing it temporarily as they quest to advance themselves else where.
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Well, as for me, the company i worked for was not paying good at all. in fact , more than half lesser the amount advertised online. That made the stressful work very difficult to do. There was no motivation at all.
I worked for an American based company in New Jersey, and because of that, we here in the Philippines have to work anti-clockwise. With a 12 hour time difference (The Philippines being ahead) ,Our regular shift would start at 9pm to 6am, which is 9am to 6pm in New Jersey . We would go to work at night but greet each other good morning, and yes binging on coffee was the order of the day, everyday. There were times when I couldn’t focus on my customer’s concerns because I was too damn sleepy, and of course i got penalized for that. But that was not even the issue here. The REAL issues are the effects this had on my mental health and well being.
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Its different when you are doing something because you love too , and when you are doing something because you have too.
The account i was working for was a 3rd party flower delivery company and 90% of the calls were complaints of missed deliveries, poor product quality and all sorts of complaints. i must tell you dealing with angry Americans was not an easy thing to do, especially when its not directly your fault but then had to be humble and "fix" things because that is what we were supposed to do. You cant even blame the customer because they are right in their context to be angry for not receiving the service they paid for , and of course they don't know that they are calling the Philippines and yelling, screaming at agents who have no direct control of what the shitty company is doing.
Going back home in the morning, when the rest of the people are waking up and starting their day was not easy, getting stuck in traffic and having to deal with energetic humans who have had a good night rest while you are operating on 10% energy, but the most difficult thing for me was being able to get the well needed rest when the rest of the work is awake. I Live near a very active Elementary school, the noise from the kids on their break and lunch time could wake someone in coma. worse of was the weekends, when they had sports activities. i could hear the sound of their speakers and microphone vibrating beneath my bed.
Mandatory over time: On top of working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, there were days that we had to go on mandatory overtime with no extra pay. Yes there are days we would work up to 16 hours, with only compensation being a $1.50 meal from jolibee. On these days, you would also be penalized if you come to work late or are absent.
No Holidays offs: Labor day, Christmas,, New year or even the local and national holiday were non significant for this ex job of mine. Imagine rest of the world are together with their families while celebrating Christmas while you are busy faking an accent. YES i Know other professions like People in the medical field don't get to spend special moments with their families always, but at least they are saving and serving humanity.
lack of social life. who would have a social life, working at night everyday , sleeping during the day , sometimes no sleep because you are an adult and there are responsibilities that have to be done during the day. At some point in life, i realized i used to be soo angry at almost everybody and everything and i did not realize why. i missed out on a lot of things and at the end of the day, i was not living life, at all. oh and by the way, it came to my understanding that the reason i was always grumpy and moody is because i lacked enough sleep and rest.
Lack of Job security. prior to getting employed in this company, there were many things that were promised, most of which included a contract after 2 months of training and evaluation. Little did we know that at that time, they were doing a mass hiring in preparation of an oncoming high season , Mothers day, it was an online flower delivery company. so yeah it makes perfect sense why they were doing mass hiring towards mothers day.
the season came and passed, much to my "surprise" More than half of the newly hired members were cut off, on the spot without prior notice or second chances for very lame reasons and some unknown. after a few weeks, more people were sucked, again without notice. after this, a lot of people started seeking jobs else where as everybody was not sure to last another day. the tension at the place of work was so intense that it affected productivity of the employees.
No room for growth. I am a lover of knowledge, new ideas, new things, techniques and skills. i love being out there, i love being hands on, i love mind orgasms , new challenges and you know.. all around excitement, and i can tell you for a fact, the few months i stayed at this job was the same thing, everyday was the same , same routine, same script to follow , monotonous and no opportunities for advancement. . let me make this clear, i don't mean that you will not stand a chance of being promoted while working in a call center, in fact i think sometimes promotions in this industry happen faster than usual, as long as you master the craft of the job you are supposed to do and be extremely good at it. My argument however is that, a nurse for instance has a wide of varieties and opportunities to advance her self in various aspects within the field, and this applies to many other careers . For someone who is easily bored with life or constantly seeks excitement within their career, a call center job is definitely not for you. I think this also causes Lack of pride associated with the position .
These are merely my point of views in regards to call center jobs, basing on my personal experience. I felt tied down, stressed , depressed and the outcomes of the job in relation to what i was going through were at the end of the day not worth it. i was not Living at all, and the moment i realized this, is when i decided to fire my Boss. Looking back at it now, it was the best decision ever. Of course i needed that extra financial boost, but not at the expense of my health. You wont believe my mood swings instantly changed, to the better. i was happier.
There are many people who will argue otherwise when it comes to their bread winning job as call center agents. i feel that our experiences, goals and endurance to the issues i stated above are different , therefore we will definitely not see from same point of view.
These are just my 2 cents. Do you also work as a call center agent, what are your thoughts?
I guess it's different work conditions depending on where you are in the world, but all places still have in common that it's a horrible field of work.
I once tried to work in a call center in Denmark and that was probably the shortest career of my life, it lasted all of one day, then I was done with that.
My best regards and happy thoughts to everyone working call center, whether you love it or hate it :)
ONE DAY? Omg, u have cracked me up! whaaattt? and here i was thinking the 4 months i lasted on this one was bad.. hahaha . u broke the record man.
the working environment is toxic. . and yes, i send them happy thoughts too.
Hahahaha. I tend to agree with the title @purpletanzanite. I have been to three different call center companies, plus studying full load. I find it tragic too. But the compensation is greater than most of the jobs in the Phils and it has provided a lot of opportunities to Filipinos.
call centre job and full time student? wow.. ur effort beats the record, that is hard.. May God crown all your efforts.
I really agree to most of this! The companies I've been through never forced one to overtime though. I quit my last job because I wasn't growing at all and it was a routine. I barely saw my friends and I've always felt tired and dreaded going to work. But of course, I believe some company value their employees more, they are just so hard to find nowadays.
Ooohh, now i know why u were MIA for couple months here. Its really hard to balance work and life with some of these companies ey . i pray you find something worth while soon.
Hugs.
I worked as a call center agent for 4 years or so. That's in 5 different companies but 2 years was the longest I stayed in one. I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. It's all about finding the right employer and account. I find that working for ones that deal with businesses and financial investments could be the easiest ones in terms of dealing with irate people. Sometimes the place you support also matter. I really like dealing with Canada and Australia. Really nice people. Even if they're frustrated with the service they won't come at you, and in instances the raise their voices or uttered profanity they'd apologize in the end. Also, I never pretended to be located elsewhere and pretend I sound something else, we usually proudly say we're Filipinos and in Manila. Most would say I have a French-Canadian accent or sound American, the downside is they always thought I was a lady! Haha.
I hope you find the right place and career! God bless!
now thats a dream call center job... companies like that must be hard to find. we were totally forbidden to mention that we are located in the Philippines, because they branded themselves as a local flower shop in every state and every city, all over the US, so whenever a customer called, they'd think they are calling a local florist.
haha, meaning you have a sweet voice, use it to ur advantage, turn the down side to upside, hehehe. God bless too po.
Lol
You are really right.
Especially when you have a nagging suppervisor.
Even the working environment is not healthy.
A lot of ladies I know as call center agents are having hormonal imbalance due to the unhealthy nature of call center especially night shifts
at all, at all, and i agree with you, stress in women can cause hormonal imbalances, i totally agree with u mehn. They are really trying. i wish those that endure it all, the best of luck.
I was in this industry for 14 years. Although now, I am working from home, it is still in line with customer service for US.
I would disagree with your thoughts only because i was lucky the companies I worked for weren't as bad as you described them to be. I was only with 3 companies. My tenure was secured. All three had us working on Philippine holidays but we would have free meals and freebies. The last one with whom I stayed the longest would be off for business during US holidays. Thus, giving me and my family a time every year to go on vacations - usually during Thanksgiving. We weren't forced to go on OT, they pushed for more work life balance. We were also provided laptops so in the events we can't be at the office physically, we have the option to work from home.
It is a hard job. Some fly by night companies make it even harder. But, you gotta do anything and everything to make a living.
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