5 Reasons I Hate Call Center Jobs

If you've ever worked in a call center then these 5 reasons will probably resonate with you personally. If you've never worked in a call center, it has it good and bad sides, just like every job. Here are my top 5 reasons why I hate call center jobs.

1. Bad hours.

When other people are at home having dinner, you're at the call center, calling them. I would much rather be having dinner rather than interrupting some other persons dinner. The reasons call centers are usually staffed between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. are because that is the time people start getting home from work. If you're going to make a sale you need to get someone on the phone. Your best chance to do that is around 6:00 p.m. so as a consequence you'll work most nights instead of having dinner.

2. Commissions make or break you, most of the time break.

A day with great commissions makes it fun to go home, but a slow day where you couldn't get many people interested is horrible. It is bad knowing that you worked a full shift and made 25% less than the day before, or that great day you had last week. Working on commission has always been fun for me because those $800 days are great to talk about and think about. You rarely hear about the days that you didn't sell anything and make $10.

3. Horrible managers and supervisors.

I have worked in a few different industries and by far the worst managers and supervisors are in the call center industry. I don't know what it is about these people, but they are the absolute worst. They're idea of "constructive criticism" is yelling and talking about you to your coworkers. "Why can't you be more like Sarah?" Or behind your back, "I can't stand John. He's only been here 3 weeks and it feels like 3 years!" For some reason they think this is better than trying to make the call center agent a better employee.

4. Poor working conditions.

If you thought Nike sweat shops in Mexico were bad, you've never seen the call centers that I have. Tiny dirty cubicles, poor lighting, dirty and never vacuumed floors, overflowing trash cans, etc. All because the managers (see point 3) don't want to spend a few bucks to pay someone to clean up once a week. Instead of working the phones while at work you'll find yourself cleaning up your workspace so you don't vomit on the phone in front of you!

5. Monotonous days.

When you're selling one particular product, every day is the same. People yelling, you calling again. People yell, you keep calling. Every once in a while someone buys your product, but it's rare. Most of the time people don't want to talk to you and that puts you in a bad mood. Such a bad mood that your friends and family don't really want to be around you either. You can't expect your prospects to understand the type of day you've had so you put on a smile and keep calling, and keep calling, more calling, and calling...

Well, that's what it really looks like in a call center. If you've never had a call center job, you won't understand, but once you take that first job, these 5 points will come flooding back into your mind and you'll understand everything!