The Irony of a Call Center Job

The Irony of a Call Center Job

The Irony of a Call Center Job

In countries where the business process outsourcing industry is flourishing, some fresh graduates and job hunters do not want to work at offshore call center companies. In India, for instance, there is a decline of applicants for call center agent positions. While some choose to earn high salary and big bonuses, others argue on the hazards that a call center job can cause to one's health, emotions and psychology.

Researchers have found out that the call center workforce is more likely to experience anxiety and exhaustion because of the demands of the job. Moreover, they have identified four key stressors which cause burnout to call center employees. These are the nature of job, conflict of quality and quantity of work, intensity of workload, and the need to meet targets.

In call centers, employees follow a certain routine in accomplishing their daily tasks. Once they have punched-in their time cards, they sit down in their cubicles and wait for their digitally-engineered telephone stations to transmit calls. Once a call has been transferred, an agent has no other choice but to answer succeeding inbound calls repetitively and continuously. Doing this for a number of months causes stagnation of one's ability to learn new things and adapt to change. Call centers create work environments which weaken "employee autonomy".

The conflict of quality and quantity of work is causing pressure to call center agents. One is expected to keep call volumes up, while time in conversing with clients must be kept at a minimum. Hence, one does not have any chance to recover and reinstate a good mood after an unpleasant caller. Pending calls must be answered uninterruptedly.

Furthermore, the intensity of workload forces call center agents to spend more time in the office. Meeting sales targets also cause them to do work overtime. Although sales are not necessarily a requirement for some, managers and directors frequently give appraisals to those who are able to come up with a good sales record. Hence, many agents are forced to work more than their allotted work time in order to get these appraisals as well.

The irony is that a call center job is an easy but a complicated task. Learning the technical side of the work is easy, but keeping up with its nature and demands makes it complicated.

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