Pros
-Good pay - forced shifts mean double time pay -Coworkers can be awesome -Sense of community during storms
Cons
- "Emergency Situations" mean you (and the rest of the floor of reps) have forced 12 hour shifts, can be force-extended to 16 hour shifts, and often times less then a one hour notice before you're stuck there (usually for storms but if call volumes are high and customers are unhappy, there were weeks that we were forced to do 7a-7p shifts to accommodate customers) -You can/will be forced on weekends and all holidays with no notice or exception -You can not say no to either of the above, you sign a union contract that says so -Yes, you will be paid time and a half, but there's only so many missed weekends and missed holidays that money can buy. -Your every move is monitored and micromanaged from bathroom breaks to scribbling on a notepad/coloring to keep your hands busy while on call - feels very jail-like -You get (2) 15 min breaks and (1) 30 min break per day. All other "personal time" when you are not actively on a call must be kept under 20 mins per day (bathrooms, taking a walk, talking a minute to breathe between back to back calls, getting flustered by irate customers) -This is not a job for someone with a family they are active in, there are no exceptions for "my daughter needs to go to the doctors today" if you run out of sick days. You cannot come in a little late and stay a little late to make up an hour. You must start taking calls at scheduled time and you cannot stop until scheduled time. -Customers WILL yell at you, belittle you, swear at you, on the daily basis, and you cannot hang up on them until their problem is resolved but if they ask for a "manager" and you send too many people to one you get in trouble despite it being out of your control -Although training for the job is 4 weeks, it is terribly set up and impossible to learn what is actually needed for the job. Even if you do not feel ready to take calls they do not care but you WILL get in trouble if you handle a situation wrong -Despite having numerous connections out of the call center, I had proof of HR tossing my applications to other positions within the company. If you start in the call center, leaving is nearly impossible.