Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But then what will frumpy, middle aged, bitter about life, never applied themselves people do without a call center to fall back on?
There's two types of people at call centers:
Students who are working as they get through college and then, when they get their degree, search out employment in their field and, when landing such employment, leave the call center. Those people are in call centers MAX three years. (Which is torture enough but knowing that you're getting the hell out soon keeps ya going.)
The ones I mentioned above. Where will those people go? Wal Mart greeters? No thank you! They are some nasty, NASTY people! Leave 'em in call centers. We only have to deal with them once in a blue moon.
You sound like a bitter frumpy person yourself. You go work in the call center, there is nowhere else for you
I did customer service, all inbound. It was fine, sometimes it would get super busy and then sometime you'd have like an hour with zero calls. It was my first formal job out of school and frankly it wasn't bad.
However, I also had a HORROR call center outbound sales/telemarketer nightmare job . That taught me that there are jobs I simply WILL NOT do no matter what. I would rather be homeless and die than work in such a vile degrading environment.
Behold the "Night of the Living Thread." It's been 2 years - no one that worked at a call center when this thread originated still works at the same place, I'd bet on it.
Call Centers are like fast food---a survival job, something to pay the bills.
My DD and DS, both teens in high school, currently work in fast food. If anything, its a real incentive to get a professional degree! They see co-workers as old as me working there That isn't a future to look forward to!
I have worked in call centers, both brick & Mortar and now I have some at-home jobs. Believe me, I prefer the at-home gigs! Its hard to understand unless you have been on the other end of the phone, but it really can jangle your nerves. the absolute worst is the people who can barely speak English and call up babbling some mish-mash that I'm supposed to make sense of. Call center agents are timed on calls, also, we are frowned upon if we "escalate" calls by transferring to a supervisor. That's saying you can't do your job, they have to do it for you, enough transfers and you're transferred, out the door!
I've learned to dance around such, pretend I'm transferring and hang up, come right out and say I can't understand, do you have someone who can translate for you? Or, please call back in the morning, afternoon, whatever, a supervisor will be available then....how true, one is also available now, but I'm not risking my job transferring them! You learn how to do the dance to keep your job...........and hope and plan for better times!
Just remember, JQPublic, that "girl" at the drive thru window could be my daughter, working her way through college, that "jerk" mopping the floor in the MCD is my son, working to save for a car so he can drive to college while living at home, that "service rep" on the phone you cuss out because you didn't pay your Visa on time and now wonder why you have a late fee is me, working to provide some extras for my family while my husband works overtime towards retirement........
And both me and dh have Maser's degrees
This is so sad and tells so much about our economy. People who want to do better and can do better are stuck mopping floors and answering phones. When these jobs are automated away or offshored, what will we do?
Since my first call center job back in 1999, I have not talked on the telephone in my personal life.
I will go out to dinner, go to someone's home, invite them to my home, go driving with, text, email, facebook and google someone, but I will NOT talk on the phone.
I hate being on the phone, especially in the middle of the day when I could be doing something else, useful or useless.
Yeah, I really hope A.I. advances to the point so that we'd not need call centers any longer - nobody should ever be subjected to that kind of abuse, from both customers and management.
Then customers would just complain about not being able to talk to a human. A lot of automated CS systems are in place to divert calls to force the customer to do their own input and that makes people angry. I don't mind it usually, as with my cable service since sometimes it requires something simple but it does get frustrating when you need to have another human being confirm information or explain what happened. I however, don't find it useful to yell at someone.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,936 posts, read 36,957,550 times
Reputation: 40635
I think these are variable. I worked at an answering service (medical) and that was alright. I also worked at a call service (outgoing) and that was hell.
This is so sad and tells so much about our economy. People who want to do better and can do better are stuck mopping floors and answering phones. When these jobs are automated away or offshored, what will we do?
Some people do call center work from home for major companies. You could call it being outsourced, but I think that would be better than being chained call center desk all day long.
I did call center work (mostly technical support related) and got burned out after a while. I didn't mind it for a year or 2, but beyond that, I really wanted out. If the position paid well, I may consider call center work again. When I was younger i worked in retail and fast food, and overall, I do prefer call center work over doing that.
I worked in an inbound call center for a major bank back in 2003-2004.
Like others stated, you are monitored extremely closely. We got reports every week showing our time spent on calls. I was constantly worried if I would have a job eveyday I arrived to work. Luckily I quit that job before I totally lost my sanity.
Turnover was very high and they hired about anyone who had a pulse. But about half of the people they hired were fired during training because something negative came up on the background check.
I also worked at an outbound call center for one day. Enough said.
You sound like a bitter frumpy person yourself. You go work in the call center, there is nowhere else for you
Hahaha, you are so wrong, and talk about bitter. You're that angry over a post about how there's two types of people in call centers?
I don't need to work in a call center, I'm self employed and do a whole hell of a lot better now. I did the call center job many years ago when I was in desperate need for a job. I'm not in desperate need for a job anymore.
So, let me guess, you're middle aged, and you work in a call center, you do a lot of back stabbing and gossiping, and you don't like that I called you out. Boo hoo. Get back on the phone, a customer is waiting.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That isn't a future to look forward to!
I hate phones
