Emotional labour, emotional dissonance at work in customer service jobs
- Thread starter J Ed
- Start date
tommers
Busta Rhymes is an unstoppable movement
Exactly.
exactly what? I was just agreeing with butch that treating staff well (when conditions demand) is simply a management strategy rather than caring about people. My other points still stand.
tommers
Busta Rhymes is an unstoppable movement
I was agreeing with you. I said that it was a management strategy already.
I've given up on the "other points".
J Ed
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A very good point, actually this can come from the same manager. Having looked at call centre websites aimed at call centre managers, the culture of blaming the employee for a customer abusing that employee is very obvious and if there is any fall out from that then obviously that fall out is due to that employee's personality defects. Fortunately though, these personality defects can be cured with psychobabble bullshit called 'neuro-linguistic programming'
http://callcentrehub.com/how-to-guides/2831-how-to-handle-pessimists-on-your-team
J Ed
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The bizarre thing is that a lot of call centre managers actually believe this stuff, that they can manipulate people by saying positive words over and over in order to implant suggestions in employees heads. I think it's just an attempt to rationalise an irrational situation. I once overheard a manager smugly talk about how 'dangerous' he was when armed with 'neuro-linguistic programming'. For anyone interested in this psychobabble, this is a good summary.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I'd assumed NLP was the sole preserve of sex pests and deluded people with aspirations to ubermensch status
J Ed
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Nah, in the two call centres I have worked in both explicitly and proudly used it as part of their 'training' programmes. Aviva gives people working in its call centre a list of 100 positive words on a sheet of paper and suggests that they read it over and over before going to bed, with the suggestion that this makes you a more positive person.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
also reminds me of the bullshit psychometric thing, for use by nobheads when interviewing people
J Ed
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I did a personality test for another call centre job last night where you are supposed to choose the 'best' and 'least' worst answer in a given situation. The scenario was basically that management have changed your hours at short term notice and you have been told about it in an informal meeting. The obvious 'worst' answer was more or less "organise collectively with the rest of your team to put forward a united front to keep your old hours" the 'best' answer was more or less shut up and be grateful that you have a job.
Tankus
Amused OAP
In the group I started with ...after 3 months inc. 2 weeks training, staff attrition must be close to 40% with the majority culled in the first 6 weeks .....but its tailing off
Orwell would be astounded at the level of personal monitoring .
Quite amazed myself by the number of people who have degrees in their mid /late 20's and the educational level and ability of the under 25's too ...
A noticable age gap between the ages of 30 and 50 in workers....
Orwell would be astounded at the level of personal monitoring .
Quite amazed myself by the number of people who have degrees in their mid /late 20's and the educational level and ability of the under 25's too ...
A noticable age gap between the ages of 30 and 50 in workers....
Probably quite an overlap with middle management types.
Of course it's all about profit. Some call centres are better to work at than others. Generally the ones where you have a bit more responsibility. certainly whilst applying for jobs last year, there were some that sounded okay and others
You knew definitely wanted to avoid. through reputation as well as the job advert description. The The Call Centre work can also be a bit of a merry-go-round. I have mates in Bristol who have worked in several over the years.
You knew definitely wanted to avoid. through reputation as well as the job advert description. The The Call Centre work can also be a bit of a merry-go-round. I have mates in Bristol who have worked in several over the years.
J Ed
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Applied to a lot of places since leaving the last shitty call centre job, despite a good amount of restaurant experience the only call backs I am getting is from call centres and I will probably have to take one of those jobs. There is no escape. Hopefully at least whatever the next call centre is the management will be less shit than the last two, particularly the last one...
Good luck fella. Hope you get something more rewarding.
Kaka Tim
Half Arsed and Slapdash till I Die
Worked in call centre for four months in 1997 - customer services for cellnet. I walked out cos i just couldn't face going into work anymore. utterly alienating. No break from the phones during the shift other the 30 minute lunch break, constant hassle from the managers about taking too long on calls (i.e. by occasionally being a bit chatty/freindly with callers) and not hitting call targets, getting jumped on every time you turn your phone off -(like taking a minute after a particularly stressful call or too many toilet breaks) and being completely unable to talk to your co-workers - because everyone is on the phones all the time.
Just horrible.
Just horrible.
The thing that destroys me about customer service work is the dynamic that, at the end of the day, the people you are serving are buying a small amount of you, or at least of your time.
If someone came up to me in the street and said, "I'll give you 30p to go and get something from over there for me", I'd tell them to stick it up their arse. At work, that basically happens about 20 times an hour, more if it's busy. You basically get paid so that people can tell you what to do, and I hate people telling me what to do.
If someone came up to me in the street and said, "I'll give you 30p to go and get something from over there for me", I'd tell them to stick it up their arse. At work, that basically happens about 20 times an hour, more if it's busy. You basically get paid so that people can tell you what to do, and I hate people telling me what to do.
J Ed
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I know the feeling. Have you got any exit strategies? Thinking about that is what helped to keep me (mostly) sane.
J Ed
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Really sorry to hear that Tankus, I am sure it isn't you, any outbound call centre that is actually paying minimum wage is obviously a reasonably dodgy operation. Being unemployed is horrible but at the very least you will quickly find yourself shocked by how much happier you feel being off the phones, even with the despondency of being unemployed factored in.
Were you employed through a temp agency? Have you asked them if they have anything else?
sheetalmehak
New Member
Although customer service jobs are typically entry-level positions, they can lead to more advanced positions within an organization.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
hey, if you work hard enough you too can be team leader and award fagbreaks based on leads got within that hour! for 20p more an hour than the phone peons
