The Reality of Being A Call Center Worker
By: Jacob Woodring
Tags: Employee Engagement, Business, Mental Health, Call Center, Customer Service

It was back in 2010 and my parents moved from California to Idaho. I was a broke college kid and a prisoner to the disease called Gout. There were days when I couldn’t walk, move or even go to the bathroom without the assistance of my parents. College was a failed option on my end and I was stuck with a decision to either move with my parents to a place that I didn’t know or stay in California where I would be on the struggle bus alone.

I chose to move to Idaho. One problem with Northern Idaho is that the economy, especially back in 2010 was not booming. My pickings were slim. I reached out to multiple jobs, but none were biting except for a local call center.

At first the training was decent, but I remember it being dumbed down to the importance of customer service. I was upgrading customers from one card to a higher tiered card and instead of training about the financial benefits, reward programs or even the requirements of the credit card… we were taught things like the importance of empathy and how to handle escalating customers.

I went with the punches. I was told numerous times, “Why the hell would I upgrade to that card when the workers don’t even know what an APR is?!?” Or that one time I had to calculate the rewards on 5 different cards to justify to a customer why they needed to upgrade to a fancier and higher tiered credit card. I sounded like a fool. To top it off, the “supervisor” was usually just the person next to you on the occasion a customer was frustrated and wanted to speak to a person on a leadership team. I was doing this while earning only $10 an hour with no bonuses and horrible healthcare.

I kept at this job because I was conditioned to think that I couldn’t do anything better. Each time I went up for a promotion, I was always denied for the prettier person who usually did far less than me. I quit. I had enough.

Throughout the next ten years I kept going back to call center jobs. I did this because I was comfortable with sitting and doing a menial job. Problem with that mentality is that you think of yourself as less than or inferior to a Supervisor. Many of times I have seen supervisors getting hired just because they were the night manager at a Jack N the Box or they were an assistant manager at WalMart. I have seen supervisors abuse their power in the workplace and sexually abuse their workers. On the other hand I have seen supervisors go to bat for their employees and still get fired because they didn’t meet a “quota.”

It’s no joke that call centers have a high ratio of people quitting or “turnover.” The job usually doesn’t pay enough for the amount of stress you get from a supervisor, manager or company. You are also told to “control the call” meaning you have to figure a way to be a short term therapist or friend while gearing the conversation back to what the customer originally called for. You might call in wanting a resolution by the end of the call no matter the means, but your company wants you off that call by 10 minutes.

The pandemic has taken a toll on call center workers though. I have observed a switch of attitude with customers who are mostly upset calling in and having no shame in cursing you out. For example at the end the customer is sharing, “Hun, this isn’t on you. It’s on your company so please don’t take it personal.” Our responses have to be polite but deep down we want to share that saying it’s our companies fault and not our own still DOES NOT take away from the million pounds of stress you just unloaded on us.

I worked for a LARGE cable company and during the pandemic we would get parents calling in for assistance on their self install internet kits. If the coax cable is not producing a signal to the modem then the goal was to get a technician out to the location to fix it. The amount of fury that comes out of a parents mouth when they find out little Jimmy cannot be on the computer the next day for remote learning is unfathomable. I have seen people up and leave during their shifts never to come back. I have seen agents snap back at customers just for the simple fact that they couldn’t handle another screaming parent over the phone.

Customers are bold when they are on the phone with a representative. Their liquid courage is unsurmountable. The customer would say such harsher language over the phone in the privacy of their homes rather than if they were in the actual establishment surrounded by others. Some might play the victim card when they know clear and well they are not the victim in the situation. Supervisors also will try their damndest to not get on the phone with an angry customer who requested a supervisor, instead they are asking the agent to try another approach.

Call center workers get paid various amount of dollars so to say that we do not get paid enough is not fair. BUT what is not fair is the stress and anxiety you receive while being a call center worker is astronomical. You are supposed to hit certain metrics all while trying to control another Karen who is yelling at you. After 10 years of putting up with this, I had to just let it go. I have spent many of days in my car when I should be at work, crying. My mental health has been depleted. You are taught by others that you should NEVER put up with verbal and mental abuse, but working at a call center you have to put up or shut up.

Call center work life is stressful, filled with anxiety, numbers driven and heavy on general population interaction. You are trained very little and you are expected of for so much. The one tip I have for those who want to get into call center work is to check to see if your employers offer free therapy sessions because you might need them. Most of us who work at a call center are of brilliant minds and aptitudes, but we are sanded down to a thin layer of insecurity and inequities just to keep us in the seat waiting for another call.