So i worked for a pretty big cell phone company from the start of 2020 til this week.
When covid started, they made a big show out of making it seem like they gave a shit or were trying in terms of keeping us safe. They sat us every other seat at first but obviously, that didn’t work, and when an employee tested positive they closed the center for 24 hours, and then opened back up and offered anyone who was hi risk a few weeks of paid leave. Surprise, nobody felt safe coming back and like everyone took the leave, the company couldn’t really argue that you weren’t at risk if you took the leave, considering its a fucking pandemic and we’re all at risk. So they quickly put together and rolled out a work at home program and began to offer hazard pay.
I started working at home no problem, the hazard pay was really generous and balanced the cost of having a computer running for 9 hrs a day. They didn’t tell us how long we’d have that pay rate. Turns out it was 3 weeks lol.
Then I got a new manager. She had been w the company for years, in a different department. They signed her up for the proper training, and apparently she went to the training, and found out it was for the same department she was transferring FROM. So she didn’t get trained. She didn’t know how to answer our questions but what she did know how to do was send us our stats. Like once or twice an hour. Even to the point where she texted me my stats on my lunch break a few times if I wasn’t in the green. We had a team of about 10. Her method was to screenshot everyone’s stats and highlight who was doing well (2 or 3 of us) and basically harass the rest of us. She’d send the stats hourly with comments like “Be Nice to our customers” or “control the call” or other meaningless “tips”. I pointed out to her several times that my stats were effected by her not being able to help me do things I didn’t know how to do, and she told me I will learn to use my resources better as time goes on.
On top of that, processes for the work at home program were still coming out and being developed. So once or twice a week, we’d have a new system, new procedure, new responsibilities, and new call types. My manager was still not trained. My calls were not going well. I wont get too far into that bc you all already know these calls lol. Brian is mad he didn’t get his iPhone 20″ supermax with the chrome rims, back to back, everyday, making weird demands that don’t really make sense. I am a super friendly person, so for the most part I could connect with people and at least protect myself from having MY asshole ripped out, but I still had to listen to them tear apart the company, and i still had to give bad news. Very rarely was I able to solve the problem in any way that was decent or made sense. It sucked.
I started looking for jobs and I was convinced I would never find anything that paid near what I was getting. Ok I was wrong. I found 2 jobs that paid the same or better, that weren’t call centers, and when one offered me a start date, I took it. So on Sunday, I gave my 2 weeks.
On Monday, I called out. My days off were Wednesday and Sunday, and this past Sunday I was fatigued mentally and just needed 2 days off in a row desperately. So I didn’t go Monday. Tuesday, I clocked in and it was busy as usual. I made it 3 hours into my shift. I got cussed out by a deaf guy that day. Then I got a call from this one particular customer. It went like this:
BEEP Hi, this is HaleyThc how can i help you today?
C: You don’t have all my information?
No, ma’am, but if you give me your phone number I can get started and check out the notes so you don’t have to re explain everything.
C: HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? My phone number is 1800whatever. The last rep said he was going to transfer all of the information with the call so how is it possible that you don’t have it?
Hey that sounds really aggravating, but I do have all of your information now that you gave me your phone number l, and I can definitely help-
C: Honestly? This is ridiculous, every rep tells me something different, I mean how the FUCK can it be so FUCKIN HARD for you to do your job –
And that’s when I hung up lol. I just put myself in ACW so another call wouldnt come, and i disconnected. In my job we are 100% not allowed to disconnect just for a customer talking nasty, they have to be actually threatening you for you to disconnect the call. But i noticed the customer was also living in my home town, which is like well known for just producing assholes… I know because I am an asshole from there, and moved across the country to get away from other assholes like me. And I decided I could miss the pay for the little bit of time. Because literally being talked to that way isn’t worth any amount of money, just being trashed all day long, with minimal breaks in between, with no help, not meeting a single metric and being reminded of that constantly. Maybe I am a shitty rep. Maybe call centers are soup and im a fork. To be honest, if it were structured differently, it wouldn’t be a bad gig at all. But 9 hours almost straight of being told what you’re doing wrong is not good for me. I don’t know how yall do it. Don’t let em convince you there isn’t better gigs.
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