- Pay is set at an absolute minimum, even getting a promotion means a pay rise of about 40p. Nonetheless you are still in trouble of you don't arrive 10 minutes early before every shift to set up.
- No way of negotiating holidays or time off, it's all set up on an automated system and you have to apply way in advance.
- Similarly impossible to shift swap, you're told when you start working that you have to work one weekend a month and then they put you down for 3 for months on end and when you ask about it they essentially say 'tough' and tell you to wait until next month.
- Weird corporate paranoia in terms of security i.e. card details were rarely handled and were not usually sensitive when they were, but nonetheless having your phone on your person is a sackable offence, security people walk around with machines trying to detect mobile phone signals as if you're all criminals, all biros are numbered and you're expected to document the time, date, reason and 'pen monitor' whenever they're used - all anyone is allowed on them is a whiteboard, pen and eraser.
- Complete control freaks; all websites that aren't relevant to the job are blocked [sometimes even relevant ones are blocked as well] - paperless contact centre so no books/magazines permitted, even though that's generally one of the few perks of call centre jobs. One or two books are available on their online system but extremely limited and archaic choice.
- Just to underscore what kind of control freaks we're dealing with here, I was once told that an individually wrapped toffee on my desk was a 'security breach'. The same goes for jumpers or any sort of outerwear. They insist that everything is put in lockers.
- Breaks are made panicky because they're timed to the exact second - you get a 30 minute lunch and two 15 min breaks a day [unpaid] - but by the time you've got downstairs and retrieved what you need from your locker there isn't much time left.
- Someone once actually approached me to ask about the 'unusual activity' of my 'comfort breaks' as I had gone on one for 30 seconds [to get water] and another for 8 minutes [to go to the bathroom, which is downstairs] whereas they felt that 3-4 minutes breaks were more 'regular'.
- Most managers know less about the content of the job than than customer service advisers, many do as little as possible/flatly refuse to help customer service advisers deal with difficult customers.
