Cyracom International Work/Life Balance FAQ

Pros

You learn a lot about many different industries, stable work & income, fixed schedules, can work from home, some people are kind and value what you do, you get to help people with very serious business, you also to learn how to manage a very high load of stress but, is that a pro?

Cons

Too many to list, here's a few: This type of work can be stressful to the extreme, back to back calls with zero downtime *not even 2-3 minutes between calls to gather yourself, extremely short breaks, unrealistic expectations for your results, *people are often quite rude to you no matter how nice, composed or soft spoken you are, you are constantly monitored and micromanaged (by ex-interpreters who have less experience than you but were shrewd enough to apply to QS) with a barrage of interruptions and "meetings" to a demoralizing point and when there is a problem nobody has your back because it's always your (the messenger's) fault, some supervisors and even center managers are also ESL/LEP so they're very difficult to talk to and understand, to say the supervisors are supportive is a true understatement as they only pretend to be, there's a lot of very obvious cronyism and nepotism there as well as inappropriate affairs between supervisors, very poor infrastructure for support and advancement, HR is a complete joke because they say they can't help or support you if you have a problem because anything having to do with the call center or he actual job is beyond their scope, it's just a ridiculous total runaround, I don't know how the business keeps running, maybe it's because instead of advancing most people just find something better when they get hip to it, this company exists on micromanaging because of the constant influx of new employees, and the cycle of toxic work culture propagates.

Advice to Management

Do not hire anybody for QS or Supervisor who has not been an interpreter for at least 2 years, and hire out from your existing interpreter pool. The micromanaging really should cease after 12-18 months, it really accomplishes not much more than stressing out your more experienced employees to the point of it being very unhealthy, but maybe you don't care about that. You need to change your toxic culture if you want long term quality employees. Also, you need to train your clients more thoroughly on how to properly use an interpreter service during a call so everyone can save face and keep their dignity, which is priceless. It is the humanity of the employees that will save this business from becoming obsolete. If you don't make these changes your calls will never go smoothly and you'll keep trudging along until a solid AI replaces you. Best of luck.

Pros

Flexible, supportive leadership, good work life balance.

Cons

health benefits not as good as before

Pros

They don’t require any training, there’s plenty of extra hours available and they do pay overtime

Cons

Very fast paced job, taking calls back to back can be very frustrating. Be sure to try to keep a good attitude or you’ll soon find yourself in a constant bad mood. The starting pay was not amazing but it was a good way to get interpreter experience

Pros

- 2 weeks paid training before you start (because you wouldn't stay otherwise) - $500 - $1000 Sign on Bonus (to lure you in since they are a revolving door) - Casual Attire during Pandemic (due to low wages you can't afford cleaners) - Center & Mid level management actually care to help/support you (Thank you) - You never feel exploited for helping the CEO buy more jet fuel. Since they only charge $99.75 to activate a new client account, plus $7.93 per phone per month, plus a minimum of $2.75 "per minute" of interpretation. You know he's giving clients a great deal and a little above minimum wage is all he can pay his employees. Since 1 one single interpreter working a normal 8 hours shift will only gross him $165hr or $1,320 USD during their 8 hour shift. That's only $6,600 per week working Monday to Friday, therefore you are only contributing $28,340 month to his pocket. Everyone knows if you only make $340,560 a year in consistent revenue to your boss you don't deserve a raise, jet fuel comes first. So you feel great at the end of your shift everyday. - You can learn a mentally strenuous new skill while making a little above your states minimum wage ($12hr-$16hr depending where you are) and after 6 months apply elsewhere and actually get paid your worth $30hr-$40hr+ or more and wave goodbye to them. (I advise you do this and stay even if you are frustrated at the end it will pay off and you will get the last laugh)

Cons

- Abuse 1 way state privacy laws to spy on your cell/laptop without your consent - They see/hear "everything" you do after downloading their work apps (really!) - Upper management doesn't care about their employees - Raises are non existent, they'll rather hire new people than give you a raise. - You are just a number to them, there is no company culture. - The calls never stop, not even for a second, the moment you punch in, you'll get non stop calls until you punch out. - Some of the calls are traumatizing and graphic in nature, yet if you try to use the bathroom to put yourself together, they'll penalize your attendance. Which is tied to your raises, so you'll never make any money and be exploited and spied on your whole career there. (I met an excellent interpreter who finally got a less than $.13cents raise after being there for years) - Most management and HR is not aware of upper Management bugging their computers and cellphone to monitoring their every text, call, image, file, sent or received in/out through any browser or app that is on at the same time as their remote monitoring spying software is on any of their/your computers/phones (usually if you are logged in somewhere, while on the clock, you give consent for them to spy on your devices 24/7 as long you are logged in somewhere). But they never mentioned this during training, or make you sign a consent form because of a loophole within state(s) laws.

Advice to Management

#1 - Stop bugging peoples personal devices with your company software just so you can spy on your employees, and gossip about their allegedly private life's, that's pretty creepy! #2 - Pay people what they are worth, not what they are forced to accept during a pandemic. #3 - Lunch/Breaks should be longer (20 mins), OR if you don't want to pay for them at least offer them a option to take longer unpaid breaks and lunches without being penalized for their your attendance. #4 - Employees should receive a portion of their raise based on tenure and actual work done, regardless of your ironic metrics. Without us you have no company, stop exploiting us and cheating us from our pay. #5 - Instead of paying $500 sign on bonus which is now been upped to $1000 to lure in new hires because you dont pay enough your current workers. Give them a raise for their work or pretty soon your bad reputation and revolving door will cause you to have to offer $2000 sign on bonuses because nobody will stay there.

Pros

The benefits package is above average, a Flexible work schedule that once you pick you must adhere to for eternity and you do not have to speak to anyone only to your ignorant boss who apparently got hired because they are power-hungry and brown nosers.

Cons

Rigid schedule, rigid breaks, they say to "train your body to not use the restroom" they monitor you as if you are a crazy monkey with rabies, they never believe you, they correct you for one word that they think is wrong instead of focusing on interpretation is meaning for meaning not EXACT and in different cultures their are different syntaxes.

Advice to Management

Get a life, take counseling, take your medication, stop being a brown noser, actually care about the employee, stop only looking at your numbers and see what each one of your employees needs help with.