u/Own_Significance_296

I have been an Adventist for a long time but lately I am not feeling it. The thing is, I have members who embrace me when I come to church but when I don’t no one contact me to see if I am ok. I feel that it is very cliquey and everyone belongs to a small pocket of friends and no matter how long you attend you are never considered a full member of these cliques.

Another thing too is the pastor’s sermons are usually based on comparing churches, especially the Catholic Church, and preaching how wrong they are versus how right our church is. I just want to listen to a good sermon about forgiveness and God’s love for all. I don’t care what other churches are doing. I also want a sense of belonging. If my name is in the membership book and I missed a few sabbaths in a row, I would like to be contacted and asked how I am doing. Sometimes just a call is enough to draw you back to the church.

I just want to say that when I started the call center, I thought I was the only one having the negative experiences and feeling like I am losing my mind with fielding calls from all manner of people while being scrutinized all day. Then I found this Reddit community and realized I was not alone and there were lots of agents who had even worse experiences! Unbelievable! Reading these experiences made me feel heard and with the ability to also share my very own experiences. It was like a CCA meeting! Call Center Anonymous.

Thanks for sharing! It really helps to know we are not alone and just being complainers.

I am naturally a funny guy and love to crack jokes even if the situation is serious. It’s just how I deal with life. Talking to people in the phone and having all these opportunities to really take advantage and say something funny and not able to, is tough. Sometimes I can’t help myself and it comes out before I can stop myself. I can’t do scripts, I just have to be myself and I have callers compliment me and told me to keep being myself. I laugh at and with them and that ease the day a bit for me. Any other funny agents out there in our caged environment unable to fully be themselves?

I received a review on one of my calls and got unsatisfactory. The reviewer stated that I did not ask all the authentication questions, I apparently missed the Date of birth question, plus something else. I asked to listen to the call and they were wrong. They apologized and gave mué satisfactory plus! so if you don’t feel right about a review, ask to listen the recording.

After one year in a government call center, I have come to the conclusion it is not for me. Not even close. I am normally a person who can look at the bright side and see silver linings. With this job, every time I try I could only squeeze a few seconds out of that good feeling before the manager’s micro management brings me back down with a jarring thud.

Every staff meeting signals the introduction of new restrictive measures. Team leaders have no clue about the job but try to tell you what you should do better when we all know they wouldn’t last a day in call center.

I have already taken time off and planned on it again. I now detest conversations with humans including my family and have zero patience. I am sulky after my shifts and slowly slinking into a shell. I have lost 10 pounds in one month!

I simply cannot sit at my desk and take calls after calls being a therapist, a lawyer, doctor and sometimes translator. My emotions are all over the place and forcing yourself to be nice to people for 8 hours is draining.

My job switched to a call center type environment last June. I had never worked in a call center but had it as one of the last jobs I would do. Fast forward to current, I am a mental mess! Unlike many of you, my issue isn’t even that clients are agressive or rude etc. It’s just the micromanaging that comes with it. The waiting for that next call and mentally having to switch thought process to suit the call. Over and over and over. I am an empath so I tend to get caught up in the clients’ feelings and that adds a layer of anxiety in itself.

Almost on a weekly basis, managers introduce another area where they could micromanage us even more and break down your days into minutes and seconds that you are accountable for. Why did you get back from lunch or the bathroom 1 minute late? Why did you spend 5 minutes on after call work?

As an employee who is within three years of retiring and who has spent most of his career before the Federal Government working without supervision and taking my breaks whenever I chose to, I wasn’t and still am not ready to go back in time and treated like a high school dropout who requires supervision and guide to do a simple menial task.

I have already taken time away due to my mental health and that is a first for me. I am still struggling and with the return to office mandate, this just compounds my anxiety and depression with this job. I see no valid reason for a call center agent to commute to the workplace just to be on calls.

Thankfully the end is sight for me but for everyone else in the call center, it’s just the beginning.