CALL CENTRE AGENT , WORST JOB EVER.

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?