Taking calls all day long is hard work already, made much harder by the tight rules regarding how much time you are allowed to spend not taking calls. Basically you're on the phone all day long unless you're on a break. If there is downtime, agents are given the option to take extended breaks or clock out early, but this is unpaid. There is often pressure from management to work overtime when a high amount of calls are expected.
The culture in the call center can feel a lot like high school. It's very clique-y, lots of rumors and drama. There's a serious lack of professionalism, maturity and personal accountability. The facility is run down despite a recent renovation because of lack of respect the employees have for their workplace - broken chairs everywhere, desks with graffiti on them, scratched up computer screens. You can expect to have items taken from your desk and have your lunch stolen unless you take precautions.
While there are lots of opportunity for growth, going into a supervisory role means taking on a high-stress, high-pressure salaried position where you'll be overworked (and until recently, underpaid). The threat of being fired or demoted in a higher level position is always there.
Benefits are terrible. There is one option for health insurance and it has a massive deductible.
Frequent policy changes mean you're constantly relearning your job and held accountable for being on top of all those changes. The company goes through major restructuring about once a year that involves mass firing of managers. Positions or sometimes entire departments get moved around or eliminated.
Communication is a major problem. Agents are left in the dark with regard to what agents in other departments can or cannot do which is a constant source of conflict and blame-gaming. Products and services get launched and announced to the public before employees are trained on them or sometimes before they are even aware that it's happening. While the information resources are pretty good and improving, there is still way to much reliance on "unwritten rules" and vague ideas on what policy is. It's not uncommon for a customer to ask a question that nobody can answer.
