So, I've put a lot of thought into it...I hate call centers. I am currently relatively employed in another call center here in the Provo/Orem area (Prorem?...Orvo? Think about it and get back to me). This is my fourth in the Salt Lake Valley, fifth if you count the couple of weeks I failed at selling crappy phone service in Dallas last fall. Which, if you're like me, you probably don't.
It has occurred to me that the entire atmosphere of call center life has been scientifically constructed to be as deliberately soul-crushing as possible without actually killing the employees; although I'm not ruling out the attempt to do so. At this point I'd believe just about anything. You remember that speech in office space about how every day in Peter's life is the worst day of his life? Here, let me help remind you. I find that, after just a few weeks back in a call center, I am every day reminded of this sentiment. "But why," I hear you asking me, eyes turned upwards not unlike little Cindy Lou Who, imploring me to make sense of all of this. "Why would you hate a job that you have only had for a little over a month, when you spent so long without one before, and you know how much more awful it is to be constantly broke and bored?" I know, I agree with you, it doesn't make sense; and yet, it is. I hate all call centers. And I'll tell you why...
First and foremost, let's get the scheduling out of the way. I have yet to go into an interview for a call center position and have the interviewer give me an accurate response when I ask what I can expect my schedule to be once hired. In the case of my most recent job, I was told that training would be Monday-Friday, from 8:00 am - 4:30 pm; it was to last two weeks, after which I would hit the floor for "Grad school", 12:30 pm - 9:00 pm for three weeks. Of course, the day before I'm told that it will be exactly the opposite. Then I'm told the day before leaving training that the three weeks of Grad School will be Tuesday-Saturday, the morning shift. Then after two weeks of that, I'm told that my new schedule will be Sunday through Thursday, still the morning shift; so after only four and a half weeks of working at this place, I have already been given three different schedules. wt-capitol F? If you happen to be looking at a calendar, you may have just realized how fundamentally screwed I am for this week, having just started my most recent "new" schedule: I worked last week from Tuesday through Saturday; this week started on Sunday, when I began my new schedule of Sunday through Thursday...meaning, for those keeping track at home, that I get to work ten straight days without a single day off. Add to that the mandatory overtime that they have forced on us - at least 8 hours a week - and then the fact that, unaware that I would get schedule-screwed three days after doing so, I signed up for two straight weeks of 12 hour days. I was hoping to get a new amp, and needed the scratch to do so. So pretty much I was signed up to work til my eyes bled and my brain rotted out of my nose...
Except that for some reason they cut most of my overtime this week; I didn't get any the last three days, and i have none scheduled next week either. And to be honest...I can't decide whether I'm pissed or elated about this. Half of me is happy to be out of that hole-of-Hell, but t he other half is pretty pissed that I'm not getting the hours that I already had approved. Seriously, when I started work on Tuesday the only schedule I got for the entire week was "Overtime: 5-9 PM". That was it. No regular shift, no breaks or lunch or nothing. Two hours into my shift, I had a schedule for that day, and that day only. But suddenly, somehow, from Thursday on all of my overtime has been removed. Okay, but...you already approved it, so...what's up with that?
It really reminds me of when I was being forced to rip customers off for Vivint/APX - oh, I'm sorry; I mean that I was working tech support in the Vivint call center - and I asked about a month in a half in advance for a week off of work, and had it approved the next week. Then, a week before the time off was set to begin, I was informed that I was required to work the next week. Well, I couldn't do that; I had scheduled a trip with the band to go play some shows on the road, one of which promised to pay us $1000; the shows were already booked, and couldn't be backed out of, plus...I mean, that was a lot of money for one show. It still is, for that matter. I informed my brand new supervisor that I just got that day - because my previous one was pregnant and started her home leave or whatever that very day - of the situation, that I could not work the coming week and was there anything he could do to work it out for me...and he replied with a blank expression, an object lesson in making me feel denied...that no, he could and would do nothing for me. So I got up and walked out. That's what irritates me the most, to be honest; the blatant disregard for employees that pervades call centers; and why not? They pay you less that they should, the benefits are always crap, and the turnover rate is so high, they know that they will probably be replacing you with someone new in a couple more months, so why break their back to help you out; especially if they aren't going to make any money out of it?
Ultimately its the lack of freedom that rankles in my bosom; elsewhere too, like sometimes my feet and occasionally a lung - almost always the left, for some reason. Are you aware - no, you are not because you don't work where I do, that's why I'm making you aware of it right now - that if I have to take a piss outside of my regularly scheduled breaks (which in most human beings happens rather frequently, given that our bladders are rarely synched up with the scheduling department; lame, I know) that I don't even get paid for it? That's right, I have to piss on my own time. They seem to find thousands of other ways to avoid having to pay me for the hours I work as well. At Vivint, they required us to be logged on taking calls the exact second that our shift started; zero lenience. 1 single second late from break or lunch or anything would likewise result in a "point;" ten points within a rolling 90 period and you were fired. It didn't help that they didn't have any system to count down - or up - the time you spent on break, so you basically had to sign in a minute early to avoid the penalty. So with breaks, your 2 federally mandated fifteen minute breaks were more like 13 minutes. It also meant that for your lunches, you were working about 2 extra minutes a day that you weren't even getting paid for. Over a month, that adds up to about an hour of pay you aren't getting. Which may seem like a small amount, but as Community has so eloquently put it, "its not a pen, its a principle." Worst of all was the fact that their computer systems were so freaking slow that it would take at least fifteen minutes to log on and be ready to take calls, but usually closer to twenty minutes. Now remember, if I was 1 second late to take calls at the start of my shift, I got a point. So that meant that, just to keep the job, I had to show up about thirty minutes early every day and pretty much start working, while not being paid for it. They were masters at getting free labor from us miserable wage slaves.
So all of this is basically to say...I really detest the thought of going back in to work in five hours.
