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

I did 7 and a half years at Barclays. Admittedly whilst the final 2.5 years were pretty torturous due to a massive switch of emphasis from the business from customer service to sales (but the type of sales that apparently should masquerade as "customer service" - bollocks to that), the first 5 years were pretty good. This was little to do with the actual work however, more down to the fact I was a young lad, earning decent wages and bonuses, and having a pretty good laugh along the way. Regular nights out and trips away, 5-a-side every Thursday night up Silky, decent enough (and cheap) gym on-site, and piss-easy work. As a young 'un in my first proper job, I couldn't have asked for more in reality. It started to change around the time of the crash, which seemed to coincide with middle management evolving into little dictators, who believed their own hype. I got out of there in the end, leaving with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. But quite honestly, I wouldn't be doing what I do now if I hadn't worked there (not that I'd let them take any credit for my own success). It is what you make of it. If you want something short term, earning decent enough money until something better comes along, do it. If you want to make a career out of it, and be there long term, do it (though I'd recommend becoming romantically involved with a member of the middle or senior management team in order to fast track your career goals - seemed to work that way there anyway). There are worse jobs.
 


Whilst a student I spent 6 months in telesales for an insurance provider and 1 year on the counters at the Post Office, a mix of p/t and f/t.

In regards to autonomy and purpose, there was none, they want robots - so they weren't great jobs for me and I was pretty unfulfilled, but they brought in some much needed beer money.

There are positives though - I learnt some very meaningful skills on how to deal with people from all walks of life, and some good knowledge on behaviours (tone of voice, leading signals, etc) when selling that I still use 20 years later in a much different career.
 
Went for a test/interview type thing at Royal Mail Doxford in the run up to one Xmas when I was at uni.
It was nothing more than looking at envelopes on a screen with badly-written addresses and inputting what you thought the post code should actually be.
Basically, if you could read ... you got the job.

There was a sample of 100 that we had to do in 30 minutes or something, and the pass mark was something shit like 80%!

After 10 minutes, I stood and said I was finished, but I had to wait every other daft sod to finish.
Most passed with marks in the 80s but when they said I got 99/100 I took the huff and demanded a recount.

There was some reassurance that I could start the job proper the next day but I had other irons in the fire.
Why would I want to work somewhere with such low standards?
 
On a related note I spoke to a GMB rep not long ago who told me that they are universally hated by companies at Doxford who all seem to be affiliated with Unite. Strangely when Barclays did their last pay increase offer and changed the job role to this “one team” thing no one was consulted and Unite simply “agreed with the business”

Someone I know who works at Kura said that they were told on day one they are “not allowed to be members of a trade union”
 
Went for a test/interview type thing at Royal Mail Doxford in the run up to one Xmas when I was at uni.
Ben Gardner said:
It was nothing more than looking at envelopes on a screen with badly-written addresses and inputting what you thought the post code should actually be.
Basically, if you could read ... you got the job.

There was a sample of 100 that we had to do in 30 minutes or something, and the pass mark was something shit like 80%!

After 10 minutes, I stood and said I was finished, but I had to wait every other daft sod to finish.
Most passed with marks in the 80s but when they said I got 99/100 I took the huff and demanded a recount.

There was some reassurance that I could start the job proper the next day but I had other irons in the fire.
Why would I want to work somewhere with such low standards?
Click to expand...

I’ve done this one 3 times.

I got 100 each time by the way, some decent money to be earned in the run up to Christmas to be fair to them.
 
Seaham Towny said:
Went for a test/interview type thing at Royal Mail Doxford in the run up to one Xmas when I was at uni.


I’ve done this one 3 times.

I got 100 each time by the way, some decent money to be earned in the run up to Christmas to be fair to them.
Click to expand...
I did six nights of it. The fact you get 10 minutes break every hour shows how mind numbing it is and those who went back year after year knew how to play the system.
Worth going for the first couple of days training and then bail out with a couple hundred quid in your pocket.
Proper mix of people in there as well.
Had to laugh at the fat lad they'd brought up from somewhere else in the country to be a trainer/supervisor. Massively out of his depth and promised the best 'team' a box of chocolates to share. :lol:
Couple posters off here outed themselves as well.
 
Ben Gardner said:
that's part of the tragedy, isn't it?
great people, loads of nous, intelligence, humour, ability, decency ... all stuck at the bottom of a rather shitty tree.
Click to expand...
It certainly is. I think these places have a brainwashing effect that creates a sense of apathy. The 'great place to work' facade is always staunchly and obsequiously enforced. The most egregious crime was always voicing concerns, and getting yourself labelled 'negative'.
 
Obvious Mag said:
I did a few months at British Airways doing admin in Scotswood after I got made redundant.

Absolute hell, the people were awful so you had none of the redeeming features of a shit job.

This was all pre internet as a way to do everything and the holiday sales people were seen as gods and the whole thing was like a cult. We are BA and we are the greatest. People there would literally enjoy being spoken to and treat like shit for 60% off a holiday and standby flight tickets as perks. The Union lot in there were probably the worst (back in the day BA mildly tolerated the unions).

the lass in the canteen was fit. That’s about the highlight.
Click to expand...

I’ve been based there 16.5 years mate, admittedly only 4 years or so on the phones when I first started, last 4 years in supplier management managing our outsourced, overseas site, obviously pre covid meaning regular business travel.

I always say pay is ok but the BA perks are incredible, keeps so many people tied in as the travel becomes addictive, especially as my kids have travelled the world in business class for next to nowt.

Like previous posters have said, call centre roles really open doors to the wider business, if you really want it.
 
Tadger said:
As someone who is currently working such an environment I sympathise with a lot of what’s being mentioned on this thread but as someone who’s currently doing TL cover work, some people are just bone idle and think that they’re owed a living despite not doing what they’re paid to do.

These are also the same people who moan about making shit commission every month, yet when you give them constructive, relatively easy to understand coaching on how to improve with actual examples from higher performers, they don’t do it. Then whinge when their commission statement comes out at the end of the month.

You can lead a horse to water as they say.
Click to expand...

No offence to you mate but that reads as poor people management skills to me. Google the Hawthorne studies and read up on the key findings, you might find it inciteful.

It sounds like your organisation needs to take a look at the underlying reasons as to why people are not motivated by money. Maybe the staff feel they have unrealistic targets? An unrewarding commission scheme? Disengaged with the company? Management not in their corner?

Why don't call centres just have a simple profit & loss commission scheme where the staff get a percentage of the money they earn the company? Other KPI's could still be performance managed separately. There's always additional caveats to earnings, for example;

1- At EE I lost £900 because a customer replied to a feedback text with a 1/10. Turns out she didn't like the hold music, nowt to do with me.

2- At Barclays I lost £1200 commission because my 'Barclays behaviours' were marked poor. The justification? I didn't want to do the fast food song dance at 7:30am on a Sunday morning.

I could give many more examples but I've made my point. Ask yourself this, what I found most disappointing about the above examples?

Loss of money I hadn't yet earned? Or exposure of my perceived value to the company?
 
TexasMackem said:
No offence to you mate but that reads as poor people management skills to me. Google the Hawthorne studies and read up on the key findings, you might find it inciteful.

It sounds like your organisation needs to take a look at the underlying reasons as to why people are not motivated by money. Maybe the staff feel they have unrealistic targets? An unrewarding commission scheme? Disengaged with the company? Management not in their corner?

Why don't call centres just have a simple profit & loss commission scheme where the staff get a percentage of the money they earn the company? Other KPI's could still be performance managed separately. There's always additional caveats to earnings, for example;

1- At EE I lost £900 because a customer replied to a feedback text with a 1/10. Turns out she didn't like the hold music, nowt to do with me.

2- At Barclays I lost £1200 commission because my 'Barclays behaviours' were marked poor. The justification? I didn't want to do the fast food song dance at 7:30am on a Sunday morning.

I could give many more examples but I've made my point. Ask yourself this, what I found most disappointing about the above examples?

Loss of money I hadn't yet earned? Or exposure of my perceived value to the company?
Click to expand...

I still work for the company I’m about to talk about so won’t name them. They have narks everywhere. Here are a few other examples of what you mention.

I once lost a quarterly bonus of £400 because they plucked a conversation out where I hadn’t pushed hard enough on a product that could’ve had serious repercussions for a customer down the line. I was told to agree to it or my probation wouldn’t be signed off for another 6 months.

I missed out on a higher performance review and a higher increase in salary because ‘Your product A output is only 7th on the floor’ - This is on a floor of 120. I’d not been taking calls for half the year while training new starters.

I had a customer survey score come back as 0/10 for the company. 10/10 for me by the way. The customer’s reasoning for this score was thus ‘get rid of the fat cats at the top’. They of course base your performance by the company score. I then had a half hour meeting whereby my manager explained to me if I’d only tried to sell him x, y or z that could’ve made him more positive about the company.


I’ll say this for them. This all happened years ago, it’s better now but this stuff goes in peaks and troughs. I can feel them bringing the selling back in and dressing it up as something else.
 
Seaham Towny said:
I still work for the company I’m about to talk about so won’t name them. They have narks everywhere. Here are a few other examples of what you mention.

I once lost a quarterly bonus of £400 because they plucked a conversation out where I hadn’t pushed hard enough on a product that could’ve had serious repercussions for a customer down the line. I was told to agree to it or my probation wouldn’t be signed off for another 6 months.

I missed out on a higher performance review and a higher increase in salary because ‘Your product A output is only 7th on the floor’ - This is on a floor of 120. I’d not been taking calls for half the year while training new starters.

I had a customer survey score come back as 0/10 for the company. 10/10 for me by the way. The customer’s reasoning for this score was thus ‘get rid of the fat cats at the top’. They of course base your performance by the company score. I then had a half hour meeting whereby my manager explained to me if I’d only tried to sell him x, y or z that could’ve made him more positive about the company.


I’ll say this for them. This all happened years ago, it’s better now but this stuff goes in peaks and troughs. I can feel them bringing the selling back in and dressing it up as something else.
Click to expand...
I used to have a boss at EE who'd say "Bonus is called bonus because it is an unexpected reward, you should never rely on it because it isn't guaranteed".

Then why the fuck am I putting myself through the arse ache of selling shit to line other peoples pockets? Patronising twat.

It's my opinion that these companies don't equip floor managers with the skills or empowerment to genuinely improve their people because there simply isn't the will to do so at organisational level. Much easier to show an unhappy employee the door because there are always plenty of willing replacements.
 
TexasMackem said:
No offence to you mate but that reads as poor people management skills to me. Google the Hawthorne studies and read up on the key findings, you might find it inciteful.

It sounds like your organisation needs to take a look at the underlying reasons as to why people are not motivated by money. Maybe the staff feel they have unrealistic targets? An unrewarding commission scheme? Disengaged with the company? Management not in their corner?

Why don't call centres just have a simple profit & loss commission scheme where the staff get a percentage of the money they earn the company? Other KPI's could still be performance managed separately. There's always additional caveats to earnings, for example;

1- At EE I lost £900 because a customer replied to a feedback text with a 1/10. Turns out she didn't like the hold music, nowt to do with me.

2- At Barclays I lost £1200 commission because my 'Barclays behaviours' were marked poor. The justification? I didn't want to do the fast food song dance at 7:30am on a Sunday morning.

I could give many more examples but I've made my point. Ask yourself this, what I found most disappointing about the above examples?

Loss of money I hadn't yet earned? Or exposure of my perceived value to the company?
Click to expand...
TexasMackem said:
No offence to you mate but that reads as poor people management skills to me. Google the Hawthorne studies and read up on the key findings, you might find it inciteful.

It sounds like your organisation needs to take a look at the underlying reasons as to why people are not motivated by money. Maybe the staff feel they have unrealistic targets? An unrewarding commission scheme? Disengaged with the company? Management not in their corner?

Why don't call centres just have a simple profit & loss commission scheme where the staff get a percentage of the money they earn the company? Other KPI's could still be performance managed separately. There's always additional caveats to earnings, for example;

1- At EE I lost £900 because a customer replied to a feedback text with a 1/10. Turns out she didn't like the hold music, nowt to do with me.

2- At Barclays I lost £1200 commission because my 'Barclays behaviours' were marked poor. The justification? I didn't want to do the fast food song dance at 7:30am on a Sunday morning.

I could give many more examples but I've made my point. Ask yourself this, what I found most disappointing about the above examples?

Loss of money I hadn't yet earned? Or exposure of my perceived value to the company?
Click to expand...

The people I speak of have had every kind of coaching under the sun from various different people with different approaches. They’re just not bothered.

But then moan.

That’s just life. Some people are like that. Complain about their situation but do absolutely nothing to improve it.
 
TexasMackem said:
No offence to you mate but that reads as poor people management skills to me. Google the Hawthorne studies and read up on the key findings, you might find it inciteful.

It sounds like your organisation needs to take a look at the underlying reasons as to why people are not motivated by money. Maybe the staff feel they have unrealistic targets? An unrewarding commission scheme? Disengaged with the company? Management not in their corner?

Why don't call centres just have a simple profit & loss commission scheme where the staff get a percentage of the money they earn the company? Other KPI's could still be performance managed separately. There's always additional caveats to earnings, for example;

1- At EE I lost £900 because a customer replied to a feedback text with a 1/10. Turns out she didn't like the hold music, nowt to do with me.

2- At Barclays I lost £1200 commission because my 'Barclays behaviours' were marked poor. The justification? I didn't want to do the fast food song dance at 7:30am on a Sunday morning.

I could give many more examples but I've made my point. Ask yourself this, what I found most disappointing about the above examples?

Loss of money I hadn't yet earned? Or exposure of my perceived value to the company?
Click to expand...

Barclays doesn’t seem to push sales these days but I think this will change soon. I’m trying my absolute hardest to get out of it now - been there a year on the phones to tide me over during the pandemic and it was going okay until just after christmas. Looking at moving away to be honest Sunderland is utterly shite for jobs. Nissan, Nissan suppliers or call centres.

Someone apparently got wrong a few weeks ago for not logging any complaints though which did raise a few chuckles. I mean surely as a business less complaints is better ffs. Can’t for the life of me understand the logic behind many of the business decisions.
 
Tadger said:
The people I speak of have had every kind of coaching under the sun from various different people with different approaches. They’re just not bothered.

But then moan.

That’s just life. Some people are like that. Complain about their situation but do absolutely nothing to improve it.
Click to expand...
So they've had people telling them what to do and... other people telling them what to do but a bit differently?

See my other post above. The Hawthorne studies BTW, showed that improving work conditions and offering more money does little to improve performance. What did produce results was empowerment; making people feel valued, involving them in decision making. the bigger picture etc.

It sounds to me that they're working for a company who doesn't give a fuck about them and are therefore expressing their frustrations in the only way they can. Again, no offence meant to you personally marra. That's call centres in general.
 
rey mysterio said:
Barclays doesn’t seem to push sales these days but I think this will change soon. I’m trying my absolute hardest to get out of it now - been there a year on the phones to tide me over during the pandemic and it was going okay until just after christmas. Looking at moving away to be honest Sunderland is utterly shite for jobs. Nissan, Nissan suppliers or call centres.

Someone apparently got wrong a few weeks ago for not logging any complaints though which did raise a few chuckles. I mean surely as a business less complaints is better ffs. Can’t for the life of me understand the logic behind many of the business decisions.
Click to expand...
The banking regulations changed they sales push for all banks, it’s now not targeted sales but they still actively encourage them afaik
 
Ben Gardner said:
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 - .....poor management at all levels and little fascists getting the plum jobs. Two sisters that do the training were hot AF though.
Click to expand...


Get a decent job ya bitter twat
 

Back
Top