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Repost from r/workonline
Obligatory I’m on a mobile and also my second account so forgive me for any formatting errors.
Hello, fellow call center worker I’m sure you heard of Concentrix and all the horror stories that surround it’s reputation, now I’m betting your wondering… is it all true?
I say this with unrestrained vitriol and memories containing sleeplessness nights and stress abound!
Mostly.
Lemme explain:
**Start**
Honestly the recruitment process wasn’t so bad, I received a few on phone interviews after sending in my credentials and the individual who interviewed me was also extremely polite and professional. They gave me a start date and everything was normal.
Eventually I started training and the process itself of learning the ins and outs of working for this company, but besides learning about what I’ll primarily be doing which is pretty much being support for a particular company that sells smartphones with a fruit on them, a one thing stood out to me. That being all breaks are not paid and overtime is to be mandatory due to the high call volumes. Little bit iffy but I stomped through it.
Training was about two weeks and it was generally very pleasant, then nesting was the next week after which was also decent but not terrible.
Then my journey really went downhill and after going through the motions I understood why Concentrix had developed such a bad reputation.
**Issues**
So, Concentrix has a attendance policy and I have had clashes with management regarding the policies and the problems I had with it. Now, the policy without going to specifics has it’s own limits so to speak meaning if you call sick you get docked or if you decide to throw in the towel early meaning if you leave early you will also get docked and the time that is missed you get docked accordingly.
I had developed quite a docking experience so to speak, for unrelated medical reasons I had missed time at work and had developed docks and with that in mind if you hit a certain amount of them you will punished in some ways, maximum punishment is termination and ideally everyone would like to avoid this. But, the catch to this is that you can make back any docked time by not missing a month without any absences.
Catch is to that. Absences also counts for being late, if you are late that time gets reset and you don’t make any progress on your docked time.
Meaning, that you could go a whole 29 days without missing a single day but if on the 30th day if you clock in even one second late, that time you wished to make up? Your progress is reset back to the beginning and you are back at day one trying to make up time.
And yes I thought this was bullshit and also yes I went to complain to the relevant management and I had confirmed with them that this was the policy and there was nothing they could do. So I got stuck in a cycle of being fearful I would lose my job despite almost perfect attendance.
I should also mention that during my time with Concentrix, I dealt with a multitude of technical issues and had to do the runaround with the various support departments and when asking for assistance from management due to the inadequate service, they kept pointing me back to them, thus keeping me within a another cycle. Only when I threatened to resign did I recieve actual support.
**Tipping Point**
At this point time being stuck in the cycle I had been actively looking for a new job and began not giving a fuck about Concentrix but two particular incidents happened which tipped me over the edge and caused me to immediately rethink my employment.
One day, one of my family members had a medical emergency and I couldn’t attend work so I proceed to go through the right channels and tell them I won’t be at work for a few hours. Then, the emergency while it didn’t get worse it required a little bit more time so I yet again inform them that I’ll be a late for a little longer. (you don’t get docked for being late)
I show during that day for my shift and everything proceeds as normal. I show up the next day and find out I had been docked. I am immediately bewildered as I showed up for my shift and not to mention I couldn’t afford being docked further due to termination (didn’t want a firing on my credentials) so I go ahead and contact management and eventually they get back to me and this while I’m paraphrasing here, here is what they said:
“The time you missed on (date) was more then the alloted time allowed for single day lateness. Therefore you are a docked a full day absence. If you have a issue read up on the policy.”
I was fucking furious, I tried to ‘do the right thing’ and Concentrix had fucked me for it, I was better off just calling in sick instead of trying to show effort for this job.
Sadly, that wasn’t the only thing that also made me furious. One day while in the middle of my shift I had received a message from a family member in the middle of a emergency and I had to step away, so I informed management who gave me the all clear to step away so I can deal with said emergency. So, I leave and attend to it then I come back to complete my shift and it’s all good for that day.
Next day come back and I get docked for “leaving early” I got once again completely bewildered and was able to get into a chat with management this time after I alerted them to this and once again I’m paraphrasing but this what they said.
“The dock will remain because while you did step away under permission from management we didn’t think you’d be gone as long as you did and so you were docked for it. If you’re confused read up on our policy.”
*Management has left chat*
Yep. Now I was done.
**Exit**
Few days later I was able to find separate employment and normally I would have stuck it out and just dealt with the politics and the bullshit until I started the new job, but after one particular shitty shift I had just decided to quit. I send my notice to my HR department and I was done I was so unbelievably happy, I took the time I had I spent it with friends and family it was a wonderful break.
Then, a few days later after my exit I recieve a email I check it and it’s a HR representative that represents the company not the same one I had sent my notice too. Paraphrasing again.
“Hello, Throwaway. You didn’t show up for work for the last *number* of days, you didn’t tell no one you wouldn’t be there we tried to get into contact with you but you didn’t get back to us. You also, didn’t notify anybody about you not showing up during these days gone from work. We are gonna follow our policy and assume you don’t wanna work for us anymore, so now offically your fired. If you have anything you wanna say regarding you being gone from work you have until *certain date*. Bye!”
Yes, I got fired after I quit. The hilarity and irony of it does continue to astound me. I got back to said representative and sent them my original notice (alongside proof I had sent it to them) and I said my gripes about them even emailing me in the first place. And that then promptly concluded my time with Concentrix.
**Epilogue**
This is certainly the definition of call center hell in my experience they clearly do not care about their employees whatsoever and whenever there’s legitimate criticisms they are downplayed and you treated like a child.
Do not work for this company unless you can follow these policies to a T and are able to devote 10 mins prior to your shift to start your equipment up and make sure you’re signed into your punch at the exact time, oh and make sure you’re signed into 3 other things as well as it’s required before punching in oh and that also takes 10 mins.
All and all I have a new job and I’m happy. I hope you enjoyed my suffering.
Bye!
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