Pros
Apparently the evening shifts for part time staff are much better than full time day shifts, because all the management go home except one team leader and they’re normally much more relaxed without the bosses present. So if you’re looking for something more part time I’d say the job is okay but just don’t bother will full time. Some of the team leaders are lovely people, but you can tell they’re tired and struggling themselves. The managers try to do things like decorate for Christmas and buy in pizza hut/crisps/biscuits etc. which is nice, but there was rarely any food for the multiple vegans/coeliacs.
Cons
A lot of callers are horrible and rude and that makes the job quite emotionally exhausting. I even got sexually harassed on the phone once, as well as several other girls (the caller just hung up if he got a male agent). Management got the number blocked as quickly as possible but it’s something to bare in mind. Random calls you take will be listened to by management to make sure you’re following the script/being helpful, but this adds a lot of pressure and stress. You get red flags if you don’t say the callers name when speaking to them, which is really over the top. The way you get scored for the accuracy of the calls they listen to is really stress-inucing. In general, the office feels very uptight a lot of the time - management monitor how much time you spend on the toilet to the second. The way breaks are organised is crazy, and so difficult to manage whilst giving every call 100%. There’s a massive upstairs-downstairs divide, the people in customer service who handle the clients and sort out the scripts rarely ever smile or speak to call centre staff - and we aren’t allowed to use their toilet, even though it’s right next to the break area. Do they think the call centre staff will make a mess or something? It’s really disrespectful.