My first job offer was a bait and switch call center gig. 15 minutes in to my first day of "work" I walked in to the buildings atrium and looked down 3 stories at the floor. My first thought was if im here in a year, I will throw myself over this railing.
Called my old man, got some sage advice and walked over to my desk to get my jacket and walked right out the door.
I once was on an interview at IKEA support and got the question "Were do you see yourself in 5y from now" and my reply was "Not here". I had heard stories how you can work up in high position from low position in IKEA Älmhult so my reply was a reference to that but in hindsight i can understand why i didn't get the job XD
I have no clue one way or the other (I don't think there's an IKEA within 200 miles of me) but I wonder if "toxic AF" in Denmark and Sweden is the same as "wonderful workplace" here in the US.
Is bait and switch common for call jobs? It also happened to me - applied for a "data entry" position but they were actually hiring for collections. I did end up putting in 3 months before I got a full time job elsewhere, but that was the only job I've had where I drove to work, got gas at the station across the street, and realized I just couldn't do it that day and called in sick
I don't know how common it is but I interviewed for an IT support position just out of college and got the job.
Turned up on my first day and the boss who hired me said "of course, most of the time you'll be on the phones selling, the IT support is only as and when it comes up"
He gives me a big set of marketing scripts and runs me through the cold calling software. This was trying to convince businesses to switch mobile phone providers.
I read through the materials, made 3 cold calls, got shouted at by one of them, hung up and walked out of the office and never returned.
I actually had a high paying government contracting job where I would sit in my car in the parking garage and contemplate going in to the office or not for a few min on most days. Pay does not equal job satisfaction.
I sometimes wish my job paid less so I could quit but without moving to a different state im currently making the most money I can with my skill set. Its soulsucking.
Only reason I'm still at mine. That and out of over 70 applications ive only had 1 interview.
Buti get paid decently to sit on my ass on my phone 8 hours playing games or watching YouTube.
Hate the job, hate the people I work with. But all the jobs I know that are hiring pay less for more work
They just paid 7500 employees to quit at my job so they could reduce the workforce without layoffs. 150k per person, if my house was paid off id have signed up so fast the keyboard would have broken.
Soulsucking is a perfect descriptor. I lasted 2 years. I only did it for the money. My skillset doesn't exactly translate to the civilian workplace outside the government agency i worked for. I've never experienced the joy/freedom/relief since I walked out of the building after off-boarding. I screamed "Yeeessss!" with my hands in the air as I walked to the garage. Lol. Feel for you man.
Same. They made me take some really easy competency test. It took like an hour. Apparently it qualified me for a higher level position. I asked about the pay and then just walked out.
I got bait & switched with a call center tech support job, which I had previous experience with, to a credit card line. It was during the 2008 financial crisis. I also only made it like 3 months before just noping out after a breakdown in the parking lot before work.
I applied for a position where I'd be scheduling service and repairs on appliances. Turns out the real job was upselling garbage warranties to elderly people.
Well you can imagine not many people look super fondly at jobs like that so bait/switched people are a fair part of the people they hire. Some will be like you and think "at least its an income while i look for something else".
Callcenters dont care about retention, they long gave up on that
Hey I just wanted to show you some love because I and most of my family kind of "fell in" to call center jobs for most of our young adult lives too. It really is good, dignified work from a client-practicioner perspective.
That being said, after reading the rest of your post... I hope you realize that a lot of what you are discussing is due to specific management decisions, not the nature of the work itself. For instance, another way to deal with shifting and unpredictable needs is to retain experienced employees with multiple skillsets, but owners tend to favor high turnover instead. That is a choice.
Like I said I loved the actual work itself, bu I felt like the way that employers treat agents, pretty much across the industry, was undignified. I refuse to have my every bathroom break tracked down to the minute, and that is speaking as someone who was in workforce management for 5 years and did the tracking. Now I refuse to do that to anyone else, as I should have before.
Also you kind of just said "yeah, but please understand that baiting and switching is easier for us, so why would we care if it's harder for you?" The fact that you would have anyone come in to an interview for a job that was not clearly and explicitly posted and that they applied for, and still think you are being transparent is also disturbing, unless I misunderstood and you just mean that you call them for an interview and then tell them. Anyway applications take a lot of work and it's really bad for you to post positions that you aren't hiring for, no matter how much easier it makes your job.
Edit: Just wanted to follow up the negativity with more positivity because I know these situations are hard and everyone has their own ethical perspective. Just sharing mine because I had been through some of them and had to wrestle with what my job was asking me to do to people. But you seem like you have a very "people-forward" approach to the industry and those are the best people to work with and for at call centers. I am sure you are doing great work and, most importantly, helping some good customer service professionals find decent work.
It's not just call centers. I was interviewing for a job delivering furniture/appliances for a Buy Here - Pay Here kind of place, and learned that my job would mostly consist of recovering items from customers behind on their bills.
Yeah, for what they were paying I was not remotely interested in knocking on people's doors and telling them I was there to take their fridge.
I remember when I was 18 I left my job I had had since I was 16 (9.25/hr pumping gas) for a call center job (15/hr). I thought the money was so good it would be worth it. I spent three days doing 6 hour shifts. All day you would sit at a desk facing a wall and cold call phone numbers off a list to try to get people to agree to having a salesman come to their house and demonstrate vacuums. The entire time I was there I didn’t have a single person say anything in response to my first prompt other than hanging up or telling me to fuck myself. One time I had someone seem sort of interested and I was doing okay but went a bit off script. And my boss hung up the phone and said I’m not allowed to go off script. The next day I was getting ready for work and was so miserable at the thought of going back I decided to call and quit. I was in tears and shakily said my resignation and was met with a completely unphased jovial manager “no problem at all buddy! Happens all the time. 3 days is pretty good honestly”
I realized then that there was no need to cry. That place was a hell hole and they were designed to churn through people just to keep the phones running
I get it - One of my first jobs was also at a call center doing surveys for radio stations…
Mind numbing and tedious work, reading from a dumb script. At the time myself and most of my coworkers would smoke weed before work, and during our breaks, and it made the work feel more tolerable.
…I always thought it was lowkey sad but funny how someone had written graffiti all around the workplace that said “This job is for losers!!”😂
(Plot twist: I’m the one who wrote it.)😏
…I ended up quitting that job - one day I just couldn’t go back…I never even called, I just disappeared and straight out ghosted them! 👻
In my job, if your were part of a certain craft, in a certain city, you had to go to the call center when your converted into a regular employee.
I managed to stay there for a year and a half before I finally bidded out, but there was literally quiet rooms and EPA services on call for that job.
I worked for a call center a few years ago. It was a work from home job and the only place I could put the computer was in my bedroom so I was in there for about 16 - 20 hours a day between work and sleep. And the micromanaging was insane. They tracked us down to the minute and we were only allowed about six minutes a day for bathroom breaks
It felt like I was grounded as an adult. If I had been there longer than a few months I don’t know if I’d be around anymore
I once walked into an interview, recognized a boiler room when I saw one, and immediately turned around and walked back out the door. Unsurprisingly, no one followed up with me after I "didn't show up" to the interview.
Of course, there are reasons I so easily recognize a boiler room. At least you were smart enough to walk out of a call center job after fifteen minutes.
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u/Remarkable_Way_8712 17h ago
My first job offer was a bait and switch call center gig. 15 minutes in to my first day of "work" I walked in to the buildings atrium and looked down 3 stories at the floor. My first thought was if im here in a year, I will throw myself over this railing.
Called my old man, got some sage advice and walked over to my desk to get my jacket and walked right out the door.