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Tennis Ball posted:Free at last. I am done with my call center. You're so...so lucky...
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Dec 21, 2012 22:59
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 23:18 |
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Am I the only one here who does not dread my job?
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Dec 21, 2012 23:08
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taremva posted:Am I the only one here who does not dread my job? I like mine because it pays me a living wage and is t that hard once you get the hang of it. But by god you'd think the world was really ending with the way my clients have been today, gently caress. 
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Dec 21, 2012 23:10
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My manager asked me how I felt on my first day of work. I smiled and said "Great." She asked me how I felt today. I suddenly, unexpectedly, began crying uncontrollably. We were at a meeting. The meeting was about how I got a 7 out of 10 on my "caring" survey score from a customer, and it's disappointing my managers because I've been getting 10/10 for every single other score all month.
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Dec 22, 2012 03:33
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If your managers are expressing disappointment at a random outlier like that that isn't even bad, then I dunno what to tell you, run for the hills.
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Dec 22, 2012 05:16
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Loving Life Partner posted:If your managers are expressing disappointment at a random outlier like that that isn't even bad, then I dunno what to tell you, run for the hills. Nah, I was a supervisor in a callcenter. They want to work out what caused the dip as it might be something serious in your home life that you are having issues dealing with and they can give you time to work through. We had a guy that started coming in late, just a couple of minutes to start, then up to 15 minutes, until it got to 30 minutes one day. I took the guy into a room and started the chat, turned out that his father had died, and as a result he was having to work a second job to earn enough to keep paying the bills and look after his younger brother and 2 sisters. I was able to work with the roster and get the poor bugger enough hours that he could afford drop the second job. As they told us in training, If you don't ask you wont know. If you broke down though, I would seriously have a look and see if you can afford to take a break from work as it sounds like you aren't coping very well. do a quick google on cognitive dissidence and see if you recognise any of the effects. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
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Dec 22, 2012 11:26
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If managers started investigating every statistical outlier like that, especially a metric that can be extremely fickle and more likely to measure the customer's mood than the customer service provided, they'd forever be on stupid wild-goose chases. Also, if 7/10 is deemed to require immediate intervention, why even bother grading it out of ten? Just make it a one or a zero.
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Dec 22, 2012 12:08
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taremva posted:Am I the only one here who does not dread my job? I like mine because our call center doesn't focus on bullshit stats and the managers are all pretty chill. Plus we're allowed to wear basically whatever we want, which to me is a huge plus compared to other call centers I've worked at that require business attire. Also since I'm in tech support now instead of sales positions like my last jobs, people are usually more friendly because they need help with something, though you do get the occasional rear end in a top hat every now and then. I am worried about burnout hitting me at some point down the road though.
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Dec 22, 2012 15:39
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Omgbees posted:Nah, I was a supervisor in a callcenter. Yeah.......no.
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Dec 22, 2012 17:04
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"Umm....my friends all pay half as much as me for full coverage.....I need you to fix that on my policy." Sure, right away! Because insurance is a set rate for everyone, there aren't risk variables like type of cars, commute, location, drivers, driving records, coverage limits. credit, etc. Let me fix this policy for you right away, 20 year old navy customer who bought a brand new vehicle he can't afford.
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Dec 22, 2012 20:23
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God I hate the flippant comparison. They're the most worthless things you can possibly say to me, you may as well literally just go 'wah wuh wah wah wah wah wuh wuh wuh' like the teacher from Charlie Brown, that is as useful as saying "my neighbor has 3 Dodge Viper's with amazing coverage and only pays $50 a month!" or whatever.
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Dec 22, 2012 21:22
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Not my call center. When they forced everyone in our program to go to a full-time schedule, they actually asked people in college if they had paid for their courses yet, and if not to reconsider and go full time. Yeah, we used to be asked by upper management to "recommend" that uni students drop classes to go full time. that is where I drew the line, education shouldn't be compromised because we need more trolls for the phones.
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Dec 23, 2012 01:53
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Loving Life Partner posted:God I hate the flippant comparison. They're the most worthless things you can possibly say to me, you may as well literally just go 'wah wuh wah wah wah wah wuh wuh wuh' like the teacher from Charlie Brown, that is as useful as saying "my neighbor has 3 Dodge Viper's with amazing coverage and only pays $50 a month!" or whatever. Uh huh. Switch to his company then. My favorites, back when i was in insurance, was dealing with the agents/clients that were mad over the replacement cost estimates for their house. The company i was with would not insure for anything under what we determined to be replacement cost, PERIOD, NO EXCEPTIONS! "The economy is so bad right now, i could get it done for 1/2 that!" That's not going to be the case the next time a hurricane or tornado rips through your area and damages a couple hundred homes. "My house wouldn't sell for that much!!!" Sales and replacement cost have NOTHING to do with each other!!!! It may cost only 300k to replace a house that would sell for 800k in San Fran. It also may take 150k to rebuild a house that might sell for 100k in Armpit, Alabama. Sucks, but it's how the world works. I loved it when i could win them over...it just rarely happened. My current call center bites so much less. No AHT to worry about (just make sure you spend, over an entire quarter, 80% of your time talking to a client or ready to do so), no retarded and petty Catholic School style point system for every loving thing imaginable, actual time off the phones to do other things, plenty of opportunities for advancement and other departments to move to that are FAR less phone based. It's still a call center, and not what i want to do forever, but it's way less toxic and stressful.
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Dec 23, 2012 19:45
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Eh, I didn't mind my call center when I left. I mean, it was poo poo but I was working from home, so I took calls in my underwear and played games on my other PC. And got paid for it. So, not too lovely. When you're IN the call center, it's peak poo poo.
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Dec 24, 2012 01:48
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For some reason I feel like working from home would make me hate my home. Is that a valid concern? like all my PC goof off time would be tainted by the time I'm wearing that headset and talking to idiots.
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Dec 24, 2012 07:29
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Loving Life Partner posted:For some reason I feel like working from home would make me hate my home. Is that a valid concern? like all my PC goof off time would be tainted by the time I'm wearing that headset and talking to idiots. I don't do call centre stuff, but I do work from home find it very easy to seperate work time from not work time. As soon as you hit quitting time, just hurl that headset away and don't think of it until you're back on the job.
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Dec 24, 2012 08:32
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Loving Life Partner posted:For some reason I feel like working from home would make me hate my home. Is that a valid concern? like all my PC goof off time would be tainted by the time I'm wearing that headset and talking to idiots. I think it's a valid concern. You'd ad least need a separate room/office so you can easily mentally dissociate work from non-work, and I also get the impression those who don't really mind working calls from home also don't really mind working in call-centers, so if you're bitching in here on the regular it's probably a terrible idea. Having said that, ask me at 6am if I'd prefer to work from home and I'd probably have installed a headset onto my headboard before you could finish the question.
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Dec 24, 2012 17:09
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Why the gently caress is it so busy today? I work for a bank on a credit card. Hardly any stores are calling in. Its all people calling in to update billing info and yelling about the automated service.
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Dec 24, 2012 23:48
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I got called this morning and told I could come in 2 hours late, and then they sent me home 2 hours after that. Best Christmas ever.Loving Life Partner posted:For some reason I feel like working from home would make me hate my home. Is that a valid concern? like all my PC goof off time would be tainted by the time I'm wearing that headset and talking to idiots. I worked from home at a previous job for about 6 months, and the only room I could do it in was my bedroom. I also worked split shifts, 9:30-1:30 and 6-10. It was the worst thing. By turning my bedroom into my job, I never left work. Plus the weird hours meant I woke up, worked, took an extended break, worked, and went back to sleep. At one point I had to wander around the neighborhood looking for my car because I was so depressed that I hadn't left the house in 3 weeks. If you have a family, and want to see them more, and can lock it all away in a spare room, it probably wouldn't be bad. Don't do what I did.
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Dec 24, 2012 23:53
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Today was awesome. Normally I take about 40 calls a day, today I took 13. Was put into "huddle" three times, and then sent home early. God bless Christmas eve day tech support.
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Dec 25, 2012 03:34
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We had to stick it out for a full 8 hours, but I took 16 calls on a day where I usually take closer to 50. Almost got 'Enemy at the Gates' finished at my desk 
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Dec 25, 2012 04:35
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Boomer The Cannon posted:We had to stick it out for a full 8 hours, but I took 16 calls on a day where I usually take closer to 50. We were watching 12 Disasters of Christmas and Babe as well as a Deadliest Warrior marathon during work today.
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Dec 25, 2012 04:53
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cuntvalet posted:Today was awesome. Normally I take about 40 calls a day, today I took 13. I remember working Christmas eve and being happy that the queue was basically non-existent. And then Christmas came...  . So...many...horrible...people...calling...in...about...their...teevees. 
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Dec 25, 2012 05:26
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I am fully expecting Wednesday to be completely slow, so of course it will be randomly busy as all hell. Still, only a 3 day week, at least! This is the first time I've actually gotten paid time off at a job, which is a sad thing to be saying at this point in my life.
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Dec 25, 2012 07:42
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I normally take about 40-50 calls in an 8 hour shift. Yesterday, I took 9. And 4 of those were instant transfers to someone else.
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Dec 25, 2012 11:08
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When I worked graveyard shift (in Australia) I noticed Americans take holidays really seriously. We'd sometimes come in for a normal day of work for us but it would be, say, 4th July and we would just have absolute silence for 6 or 7 hours. Meanwhile, working daytime Christmas support would be a constant drip of calls. Not banked up or anything, but enough to keep you on the phone all drat day. I appreciate the idea of a 24 hour society, after working graves so long I relied on it, but I wish there was a bit more common sense on public holidays and whether you absolutely positively must have your brand new business email setup right now and not in a couple of days when the holiday is over.
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Dec 25, 2012 13:20
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Decided to spread a little Christmas spirit today; I took over for a co-workers shift. He was working a 12 hour, I had today off. Since I'm celebrating Christmas this weekend, I decided to take over today so he could spend Christmas with his wife and three children. Bored? gently caress no. I have Something Awful and an MP3 collection to sort.
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Dec 25, 2012 18:35
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I miss getting both Christmas and Boxing Day off paid, though.
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Dec 25, 2012 21:43
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Praying to the call centre Gods that tomorrow will be dead as hell and I'll get VTO'ed again. Please, please, please!
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Dec 26, 2012 00:56
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Loving Life Partner posted:For some reason I feel like working from home would make me hate my home. Is that a valid concern? like all my PC goof off time would be tainted by the time I'm wearing that headset and talking to idiots. I've been doing it for six months. It wasnt bad until my schedule got weird and i stopped leaving the house as much. Then even less. Then barely at all. I'm getting my groove back slowly, but make sure you have a lot of poo poo to do to keep active. My mistake was starting it right as i moved.
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Dec 26, 2012 05:01
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In my free time I like to browse DSL reports and laugh at the idiots and occasionally proffer help. Then I ran across this guy. How the gently caress do these people get out of these hospitals?
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Dec 27, 2012 19:07
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Take a few step back and really think about some of the folks you interact with on a daily basis, then try to figure out how they function in life. My wife works at a bank, and she seriously questions how some of these people function. Simple concepts of you don't get paid until Friday, you can't spend money you don't have on Tuesday seem foreign to these folks. Throw in the massive number of folks with untreated/undiagnosed mental illnesses and it's pretty scary out there.
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Dec 27, 2012 19:37
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The worst part is he is CONSTANTLY posting there about new speeds and crap and they're all fake. He photo shops the speeds. It just makes me wonder what this accomplishes or why. I've talked to plenty of people with disabilities, and none of them go on random forums to fake internet speeds.
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Dec 27, 2012 19:47
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skipdogg posted:Take a few step back and really think about some of the folks you interact with on a daily basis, then try to figure out how they function in life. My wife works at a bank, and she seriously questions how some of these people function. Simple concepts of you don't get paid until Friday, you can't spend money you don't have on Tuesday seem foreign to these folks. Throw in the massive number of folks with untreated/undiagnosed mental illnesses and it's pretty scary out there. I deal with nurses in my call center, and the fact that this assortment of chucklefucks and dipshits who can't follow basic instructions, give their social security number halfway through a call unprompted (we never, ever, need SSNs and there's no reason to think we would) work in goddamn hospitals during life-and-death situations scares the bejeezus out of me.
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Dec 27, 2012 20:20
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I would just like to say that I respect all of you Goons who have lasted years in a call center. I got a job working for a bank in a call center back in September and last 2 months, 1 month of which was just training. At first I thought I could deal with the lovely customers and micro-managing because of the $14 dollars an hour that I was being started off with and the great health benefits, but after listening to the same bullshit stories and being cussed out constantly and having to make "referrals" on every call I said gently caress it and left. I think I could have lasted longer if I didn't feel like I was chained to my cubicle for 8 hours and being pressured to trick the elderly or non-native speakers into going over to sales to sign up for additional accounts that they obviously didn't need or to open up lines of credit. I did end up landing a better job after 2 weeks of quitting, so there's still hope out there. But gently caress working in a call center.
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Dec 28, 2012 11:22
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Ugly In The Morning posted:I've been doing it for six months. It wasnt bad until my schedule got weird and i stopped leaving the house as much. Then even less. Then barely at all. I'm getting my groove back slowly, but make sure you have a lot of poo poo to do to keep active. My mistake was starting it right as i moved. Yeah the issues I had with wfh was that if I didn't set out a space in my house as an office and did ALL of my work in there and nothing else. Then work bled into my personal life.
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Dec 28, 2012 12:10
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So...I was hoping Christmas holidays (aka being off Christmas day) would lighten my mood for awhile. After that two weeks of hating everything about this place I had about a week where I felt...neutral to okay. Well, nope. I'm back to feeling tired and apathetic every time I so much think of work. Now I'm a bit conflicted. Because I had Christmas day off they scheduled me to work one of the days of my weekend. Which Id understand if I didn't get stat pay for Christmas. But I did. So I'm not out anything. I got double time and a half for boxing day too. As for the morale thing, its not like I've had lovely customers. I just...maybe my attitude about this is all wrong. But it certainly didn't help that I got into work today and somebody had completely trashed my desk and threw my stuff all over the place. So I'm really considering calling in sick tomorrow so I don't have to endure a one day weekend. Seems sensible, but I already feel guilty about it. My best friend wants me to go stay at her place in the country tonight and just destress, which I'd love to do...but yeah. 
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Dec 28, 2012 15:41
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New caller archetype hate embedded today: The "FUNNY" caller. The HIGH-LARRY-US caller. He's got a quick joke for every question you ask him and you better strap in your funny bone because this guy is the Dave Coulier of customers! "How would you like to make that payment today sir?" "How about an I.O.U.!" "Heh. Heh eh eh. Card or check?" "Yeah, the number is I. O. and a U.!" "Sir I really want to die right now if you keep this up..."
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Dec 28, 2012 19:40
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Because of this thread, every time I call my insurance or credit card company, I ask if they would like me to tell their manager how awesome they are. The credit card agents consistently refuse and just ask me to answer the survey, but the insurance people are usually surprised and happy.
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Dec 29, 2012 00:23
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 23:18 |
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A Subtle Dagger posted:I would just like to say that I respect all of you Goons who have lasted years in a call center. I got a job working for a bank in a call center back in September and last 2 months, 1 month of which was just training. At first I thought I could deal with the lovely customers and micro-managing because of the $14 dollars an hour that I was being started off with and the great health benefits, but after listening to the same bullshit stories and being cussed out constantly and having to make "referrals" on every call I said gently caress it and left. I think that one point you made has a lot to do with the ability to withstand these types of jobs. I don't have a sales quota to meet. I just fix stuff to the best of my ability. As long as I'm taking a reasonable number of calls in a reasonable time and meet some qa scores I'm ok. We have upsale programs where we can sell or offer some things and get a small commission, but we do not have to. I like the system, I'll offer something in a very low/no pressure way "oh hey you could get faster internets" but if I don't want to, I don't have to.
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Dec 30, 2012 17:06
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