What is it with telesales jobs in large offices and call-centres?



Whether it's ResQ, Citi, Barclays, 2 Touch, Northumbrian Water, Royal Mail, BT ... they're all a bit shit in varying degrees (and I've worked in them all)
Middle-managers get absolutely high as a kite on the power given to them, despite having no experience whatsoever in man-management.

They get promoted on the strength of a few decent months' sales and licking the arse of HR at the right time. Nepotism also helps.
These same bosses twist on about the pressure they get from above, and blame the plebs if he/she can't run a team.

They act like your best mate when you've had a good month and you're wanted on THEIR team, stab you in the back when the heat is on.
Reach for company manual and quote policy ad verbatim when they can't even understand a word of it.

I always did quite well in call-centres but - this may surprise you - my bad attitude let me down.
I wonder of my experience matches that of others..

  • Barclays - great training, decent basic but poor commission structure. Most managers on power trips.
  • 2 Touch - good money if you graft but nepotism was rife. High staff turnover, now known as something else.
  • Northumbrian Water - good training, poor money, awful to get to.
  • Citi - nepotism central (long-gone after the worldwide financial crisis)
  • Royal Mail - the boredom makes you yawn so much, people think you're crying.
  • BT - as above, but this was in the days of 192 so you'd expect little else.
  • ResQ - rife with drug-taking, poor management at all levels and little fascists getting the plum jobs. Two sisters that do the training were hot AF though.
Middle management often attracts wankers.
 
Worked in Call Centres both sides of the Atlantic and they are equally shit. That said they made me much more effective later when I got ‘grown up’ jobs.

BT- 192 - was fun as my first graft, shit place to work and got rumbled in the queue for tickets for first game at SoL on my lunch break (3 hours)… left soon after.

One2One - Great days at first but went rapidly downhill as agents became team leaders and they became more corporate. Got fired for threatening to slit a customers throat in response to obscene abuse (as you do)

Fusion - May be the most soul destroying place I ever worked. Great group of colleagues but job sucked arse. Managed not to get fired for calling a customer a Cocksucker on a recorded line (to this day I don’t know how my managers saved my arse)… Still had to get out before I topped myself (came real close).

BT Business - shit show that pretends to be more than it is. Ultimately just a call center for B2B

MCI Worldcom - Loved working here, it was B2B but they treated staff well and being in central London made it a lot of fun after work. Only left here when I went to the USA

Verizon - Another shit show but with the most amazing golden handcuffs, making $100k+ and sales trips to the Oscars, Grammy’s and Hawaii meant you put up with a shit job for the great money.

I’ve been lucky enough to be self employed for the past 6 years now, the monotony of call center environments prepped me well for the crap side of my business (prospecting calls) but I could never go back to a full-time job working for someone else… my mental health is worth so much more.
 
it's certainly more for the younguns like.
Having said that, the bairms need to know that work and work-life is certainly NOT like that in general!
Going straight from school or college into that kind of environment must be a shock and a real let-down.

I think it's formative to have a really shit job early on in your working life as a reality check. Character building, and you end up with some great stories.
 
I think it's formative to have a really shit job early on in your working life as a reality check. Character building, and you end up with some great stories.

when I worked in blockbuster when I was at uni I caught some crackhead filling some bags with sweets etc. I asked him if he was going to pay for them. He said no and I just said fair enough and he scurried out. Wasn’t going to get stabbed over some fruit pastels.
 
  • Barclays - great training, decent basic but poor commission structure. Most managers on power trips.
I can concur with Barclays managers on power trips, they were absolutely horrendous when I was there and each manager got worse than the last. I worked there from 2004 to 2016, the job in the last couple of years was easier and better than ever, but it was the nepotism and the corruption I could not take anymore, I just walked out one day, one of best decisions ever.

From what I remember, Barclays opened as a small office in 2001ish at Doxy park, then all of a sudden exploded about 2002/3 to two buildings and over 1000 staff. Some of the admin lasses in the small office of like 30, ended up getting manager jobs as they expanded very quickly. A good few of these managers were from Houghton, over the next 5 years or so they just all hired their mates who they went socialising with (one of the ones from Houghton was sound, rest were inadequate in man management).
Before I left I remember a 26 year old lass getting given a job as a team leader because she licked arse and went on holidays etc with top boss as she went through a divorce. This lass was absolutely awful, upset everyone and genuinely thought she was better than others because she was a manager. I could not witness her speak to 50 odd year old mothers/fathers like shit, the hierachy was all wrong. Once I walked out I told them all what a bunch of idiots they were and they soon blocked me on facebook, but I have no regrets :lol: :lol:

As bad as Barclays is and was, it can always be somehow worse which I found out a few years later in another job.
 
when I worked in blockbuster when I was at uni I caught some crackhead filling some bags with sweets etc. I asked him if he was going to pay for them. He said no and I just said fair enough and he scurried out. Wasn’t going to get stabbed over some fruit pastels.
I worked as a porter in a hotel kitchen. Turned out the hotel manager had been paying an employee who didn't exist and pocketing his money for months/years. When caught, he pretended to be mad and put adverts in the local newspapers begging this person (who none of us who worked there had ever met) to step forward and clear his name.
 
Worked in customer service for EDF at 2 Touch rather than sales for a year while I waited for my security clearance for my current role to come back, as I knew I could get started there immediately basically and get some money coming in between university and my “proper” graduate job.

Really benefitted me tbh, improved the social side of me that you don’t get at university (not in the same professional way anyway) and it wasn’t the worst job in the world. As I’m a qualified mathematician, they had me off the phones regularly within a few weeks and fixing more complex cases (that weren’t actually complex at all still) around metering issues and backdating bills several years. It was nice really being able to leave the office and not think about work in the slightest until your next shift, something I can only dream of having now.

And I had a young 1 year old at the time, so was a god send to have that extra time at home of only working contracted hours.

In a weird way, was one of the more enjoyable times of my life. Maybe because I joined with a start date for my next job, was honest in interview and said I needed a job for 14 months and I’d then be leaving and they were happy with that too. Mutually beneficial arrangement, as 14 months is probably way longer than their average staff turnover.

Biggest issue for me in there is a lot of the people don’t help themselves - loads phoning in sick, turning up with shit attitudes, not trying to help customers, etc., and just being in a general sulk about the job. If you turn up in a bad mood everyday then there’s only one thing going to happen to your career there
I think it's formative to have a really shit job early on in your working life as a reality check. Character building, and you end up with some great stories.
Never a truer word spoken.

Also, I left mine in a good position with a very good relationship. I know if i lost my job tomorrow and rang you they’d find a new role for me. Whilst not perfect, it’s still graft and pays the bills, so you have that extra security behind you. Shouldn’t be overestimated, job security, in having a happy life
 
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Middle managers have a difficult position - they have no real power or decision making authority but get squeezed by the staff from below and senior management from above. This brings out the best or worst in people.

Easy to knock but their position can be horrible.

The next move to senior management finishes a lot of managers who either, have no imagination and cannot drive the business forward or cannot cope with the responsibility of making decisions and constantly seek approval they no longer need.
 

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