Anyway this seemed like an ok job. Talk to the oldies, knuckle down and try to get a permanent contract, you know the deal. The training had a large emphasis on making the most of a bad situation. To the degree that an entire half hour was devoted to watching some men in seattle flinging dead fish about and loving it. They were obviously on drugs. Really? Alarm bells should have rang, but didn't. After all he had been told the job was 9-5 Monday to Friday. Easy. There was even overtime if needed. The wage was shocking. A pathetic £6 an hour, but hey, in the current job market even having a job is a result.
So my friend ploughed on through training and thought that this seemed a pretty easy not great, but not the worst in the world. That opinion would soon change. During the first couple of weeks he was treated to abuse from customers, a vile attitude from his management and conditions which bordered on illegal.
For example: When you work in a call centre it is widely accepted that you have to take a break every 15 minutes to avoid fatigue. Staring at a computer all day is damaging to the eyes (yeah, says me). So taking a break for even five minutes or so is a necessity. This was not allowed. Infact, staff were permitted to take a total of one hour's break per day. Even on 12 hour shifts. Two ten-minute breaks and one 40-minute break for lunch. This was unpaid, and- considering the layout of the office- if you wanted to go outside it was impossible to get from the fith floor to the ground floor and back in under 7 minutes. There was one lift which held six people. There were over 300 people in that building at any one time and about 50 or so on breaks. This made it impossible to adhere to break times unless you simply sat on the stairwell for a few minutes then returned to your desk.
It's worth mentioning at this time that although he was working for this company, his actual employer was an agency. This agency treated their staff with the respect that a typical youtube commenter treats the english language. You're sick? well don't excpect anything but more grief there. One colleague of his was dismissed for atending a close relative's funeral. Yeah, you read that right. On top of that this agency would pull every trick in the book to screw you out of money. For TWO ENTIRE MONTHS my *ahem* friend's wages were short. A running battle took place to have a day's holiday paid which he was entitled to, but the agency tried to squirm out of for a myriad of reasons.
When you work for such a small wage, every peny counts. You were paid weekly in this place, and a mistake of a few hours could mean you couldn't pay rent. So upon calling the agency to report their mistake, you would routinely be told that it would be rectified next week. In the meantime, tough shit.
You work for this company? You are a number. You never have, and never will matter. All you are is another voice on the phone to these customers. The very same ones who either think they're being scammed or are just calling to speak to another human. Seriously. One story went something along the lines of: An engineer attended the address to install equipment, only to find the customer stark bollock naked, surrounded by broken dolls and eating her own shit from a commmode. The person on the end of the phone was lucky, they didn't have to see that. They just had to get shouted at by someone with serious mental illness for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile the uper management are content to blow their own trumpets about how successful their company is, while standing on a battery farm of disillusioned people who only work there because they are desperate for work.
As for the workload? Jesus. Where to start? You sign into your phone, you wait ten minutes and twiddle your thumbs, then a call comes through. You disconnect. Another call. Straight away. No rest, no respite. Constant bombardment. This continues for eight hours, or in some cases up to twelve. At one point my friend recieved their shifts (by the way the shifts were decided a day before the last of your current shifts were decided. Take that, social life!) and was gobsmacked to discover that, despite them changing the game early on (they were informed during training that they would be working between 8am and 8pm, on any given day, including weekends, and that these shifts were subject to change at 24 hours notice), they were rota'd in for three weeks of 10 hour shifts. No arguments. That was happening, you don't like it? Leave.
I'm sure there are worse jobs, but i'm lucky enough not to have experienced them. My friend, who i will now call John, once witnessed a member of his team putting eyedrops in (as prescribed by her doctor) only to be chastized by a passing team leader for "chatting". This fat bitch really was a nasty peice of work. Power corrupts, she was proof. A constant scowl on her fat face, and a massive arse. Hideous. She took her self loathing out on everyone else and was a truly pathetic individual.
The layoffs happened about two months into Johnny's stint at this place. One of his friends, a father with a young family who were scraping by, was unceremoniously sacked for daring to take time off to care for his daughter when his fiance' was sick. The guy didn't have enough shit to deal with, apparently. Oh, by the way, if for some reason you were thinking this still sounds better than your current job then the good news is that they're taking on. The bad news is that you won't get a job with them unless you're signing on. See, they only take on people off the dole as the head honcho (i have yet to find the words that describe this creature)gets a bonus for every single one! Yep, he'll take you on, give you a little while then fuck you off to do the same to some other sucker. You will be told of all the wonderful opportunities for advancement that are available. They certainly are, if you know the right people. If not, or if you dare to say that their system is wrong..... fuck you. Because we all know that independent thought has no place in business, right? Yeah.......
For example. Johnny mentioned to his team leader that if the incoming calls were dealt out in a way that gave people maybe 30 seconds to a minute between calls, there would be less reliance on placing the phone into busy at the end of the call. This would mean less opportunity to exploit the idle mode on the phone, which was essentially "do fuck all for a bit" mode. Added to this, when coming out of that mode you would be placed into the back of the queue for the next call. Meaning you would sit for 10 mins doing fuck all whilst everyone else got hammered. Common sense, right? Nope. Johnny was advised that "it's just the way things are with the system". Ok, so you're looking at a simple change that could improve morale, and create better results, but you can't be arsed changing because it's just "the way it is". Fuck! Do these people need a catscan!?!?!?
There's more to this but really, i'm not making allegations that may cause legal action should the people in charge see it. I'm going to end on what i could do right if i was in charge.
1. Ok, first of all there is NO FUCKING POINT in business wear in a call centre. The customers cannot see you. There's no point. Wear whatever you want.
As far as structuring incoming calls? Wherever possible there will be time in between calls. The idle mode will still be available, just check it's ok with a team leader before using it.
2.
Sick pay. Yeah, you heard right, if you call in sick you are still getting paid. If you keep your staff happy then they will show loyalty. Trust your workers. Without them you'd be working in fucking McDonalds. Treat these people with respect.
3.
A total ban on charity collecting, birthdays, pregnancy collections, advertising things for sale etc. This may sound harsh, but when working in a team of 40 people, how many of them do you actually know? If a colleague you're friendly with has a birthday, or a child, get them a card or a little present. as for charity, every colleague has the option to give 5p of their wages per week to charity through a company scheme. Trust me, this would earn a LOT more than asking everyone to pay a pound to wear fucking pink for the day. I'm quite a generous person, but i begrudge giving a fiver a week to people i don't know.
4.
Two 15 minute PAID breaks, and an hour for lunch. Unless you would prefer to take a half hour lunch, in which case- service permitting- you are allowed to leave an hour early.
5.
One place i worked in had a "whiteboard". You would put your name on it and ask to leave either half day, or an hour or so before the end of the day. Names went into a hat and the winner could go home. This was their own paid holiday they were taking, but nonetheless was a huge morale boost. Everyone likes leaving early, right?
6.
Instead of stuff like cakes or biscuits, the company selects one person who got 100% on a monitored call (basically, gave the best service possible) who recieves vouchers or a bonus on their wages. This happens once a month.
7.
An attainable minimum bonus. Say, £25 for getting the minimum requirement, really easy. £50 a little trickier and £100 for great stats across the board. This bonus is paid monthly.
8 A transparent progression system. Targets and criteria to be considered for promotion are set in stone, are given to all staf in an easy to understand manner, and any promotions are decided by an interviewing panel from another office branch. They have no personal relationships with any candidates, and are not allowed references for the position apart from the candidate's team leader.
There you go, that's just a few ideas to completely turn things around. Easy!
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