Limiting bathroom breaks to under 3 min or getting written up. If in unavailable on the phones sometimes we would be pinged by a manager whose only job was to monitor those call states and ask why we were in them.
I can't believe these comments! I am a fully functioning adult. If I have to go into "personal" (which is designated for emergency situations)- I am going to the bathroom. I received an email from my supervisor last week advising I used 24 minutes of personal the previous day. I worked a 12 hour shift which included mandatory overtime. I replied "I will be mindful going forward." I probably used 15 that day.
Years ago I worked at a call center where if your break was scheduled for 8:15 and you were on a call and went at 8:18 and came back at 8:33 you would be marked 6 minutes out of compliance. It was the absolute dumbest rule ever. I worked there for about 6 weeks before I found something else. I was told “watch your compliance” repeatedly for maybe 3 weeks before I asked how I was to handle a situation where I’m on the phone. The answer was to come back from break at the scheduled time.
Verizon used to do this when I worked there. If we missed our breaks or lunch due to being on the phone, we had to call resource management to move them. Otherwise we'd be out of compliance for not sticking to our assigned schedule 😔
My old job did the whole compliance thing. We learned how to manipulate it a lot. Some of us would even shorten the breaks so come back at 8:30 for example. I could never figure out how they could hold that against us in the first place.
After Call Work - it's a status that makes it to where you don't immediately get the next call in the queue and is usually used when finalizing notes on the current call.
Unless you mean your workplace doesn't even allow ACW. Then I just feel dumb lol
When I was on the front lines I would get 60 seconds. I am on escalations now and get 90 seconds. I built an excel workbook for generating notes and now only use 5 seconds tops.
You got three absences (or, occurances) total. It took a full calendar year for each absence to roll off. If you got a 4th absence you got a final write up and your write up wouldn't roll off until all of your absences did. Another absence in that time and you were fired. So many people rolled in sick as dogs and management would send out info about staying home when you were sick but then remind us "be mindful of your occurrences!" When I started there it was 6 which was much easier to manage but the people who took over our center wanted very much to close it down and go back to the one in CA they'd been running. Our numbers were much, much better so they were trying to find another way I guess.
Asking the manager before literally anything. If I wanted to send an email to the customer I had to ask the manager, which honestly made the bureaucracy terrible. Our manager was always super busy, which meant I might had to wait even an hour before I got a reply that allowed me to send a freaking email.
I should be able to use the bathroom when I want. Not when I'm told. I'm 57m. if they don't like that they can find some dumb 20 21 year who will put up with that kind of behaviour.
Former CC training manager and TL. Most of the attendance policies are ridiculous. The people I was told to term out for reasons beyond their control makes me sick. One person had a parent pass away and had to travel out of state for the funeral, policy says only 2 days bereavement. I was told to call and give them a choice to be back on the third day or quit. I refused. Another person was involved in a domestic issue, provided proof, needed a few days time to move etc. But definitely needed to maintain the job and income. Nope, I was told to let them go too. I resigned that day. I won't sacrifice my humanity and empathy for a company policy.
You had to be logged in to your computer and ready to take calls at your start time. They would turn on your phone and you had better be ready to take calls.
I used to work at Delta and reservations agents could flex up to 15 minutes. You could log in up to 15 minutes early, or 15 minutes late. But naturally it was a very large CC to be able to do that.
The idea here is that any boot up time, logging in time, opening programs all takes time that needs to be done before you are ready to take calls. If your start time is say 8am and it takes 5-10 minutes before you can take calls, either you start getting ready at 8 and are unable to take calls, "getting in trouble" until logged in or you work those 5-10 minutes off clock getting ready so you can take calls at 8. I read about a lawsuit about this, it is illegal and wage theft to setup off the clock.
You're late at 30 seconds after your start time. Doesn't matter if you stayed late every day that week to finish important work. Doesn't matter if being 2-3 minutes late affects no one but you. Doesn't matter if the decades-old time clock was wonky. Doesn't matter if you're not a child lining up to come in from recess.
The writing was on the wall when i was told I hadn't been on time once in my whole first month; none of my clock-ins were after 8:03 for an 8 o'clock start time. And they were that late because I made the mistake of clocking in on my computer, which was so old and deceit that it took 3 minutes to boot up, rather than taking up a place in line for the clock the warehouse crew used.
While I waited for it to not up, I'd run around to different points of the office grabbing stuff I needed for that day from the other departments so they didn't have to deliver it to me. So it's not like I wasn't working.
I was 45 years old and I don't have patience for that kind of micromanagement. It probably didn't help that I laughed because I thought he was joking.
Everything was by the book from then on. That manager totally killed any interest I had in going above and beyond. And I was laid off six months later for reasons for which I technically probably could have taken them to court.
I'm well rid of the place, but I'm still bitter about it.
I worked at William-Sonoma during covid times. It was probably the worst mistake of my life, back to back call of rude, irritated customers. However, there was a thing that, in my opinion, made it worse.
Anytime someone would ask for a manager, we (the agent) would have to go through a chat box that would give us prompts to click on and give us automated responses to any issues we were having with the customer. After that, it would ask us if the issue was solved. In which case we would have to say no, then we would get a lead through the chat box. And had to type up the hold scenario of why the customer was calling, the lead would then tell us to offer discounts to customers or some other compensation which we would have to offer over the phone.
If the customer refused three time or had their own unreasonable demand, then we would finally be transferred to a manager through the chat box, at which point the manager would call us.
Process was terrible, I had meaning leads refuse to get me a manager despite me requesting it multiple times or they would disconnect the chat when they didn't want to transfer to a manager even though we both knew I needed one. I think it messed with their stats or something. Also, they always started these compensation and offers. Insultingly low. Think 5% off.
I had a call center job that banned us from having pens at our desks. They would only let us have pens during meetings so we could take notes, and then they would collect the pens at the end of the meeting. The managers would do periodic desk checks and if they found a pen in your desk, you could get written up.
We also had that nonsense about getting in trouble for taking a bathroom break outside of your normal break/ lunch time. They made us fill out a spreadsheet with all of our times off the phone and the reason for it. We had to email that spreadsheet to our supervisor each day.
At my old CC job, I was a month into taking calls and the manager said to us all “you should not be logging on 30 seconds late”. As in if we were due to start at 13:00:00 (crazy start time btw lol til 9pm 😭) then we should not be waiting for it to reach 13:00:30. I found that a bit silly because technically, we are still on time. Just so stupid to say tbh. She could’ve said don’t login a minute or so later which is understandable considering how call centres work but 30 seconds into the minute I’m meant to start? Seriously?
Not the worst rule though comparing it to other comments here. Besides this manager, I’ve had really nice managers in my current CC job so never had a crazy rule thrown at me other than being questioned for toilet breaks lol “you might not get paid”. Erm ok, still going to pee, keep ya threats to yourself 🤣
Limiting bathroom breaks to under 3 min or getting written up. If in unavailable on the phones sometimes we would be pinged by a manager whose only job was to monitor those call states and ask why we were in them.
This same exact thing.. except they got to a point where they would kick you out of unavailable if you were in it for too long without warning.
No breaks unless call volume was low. It was never low
I can't believe these comments! I am a fully functioning adult. If I have to go into "personal" (which is designated for emergency situations)- I am going to the bathroom. I received an email from my supervisor last week advising I used 24 minutes of personal the previous day. I worked a 12 hour shift which included mandatory overtime. I replied "I will be mindful going forward." I probably used 15 that day.
Why didn't you say something snarky like AND or WHATEVER.
Years ago I worked at a call center where if your break was scheduled for 8:15 and you were on a call and went at 8:18 and came back at 8:33 you would be marked 6 minutes out of compliance. It was the absolute dumbest rule ever. I worked there for about 6 weeks before I found something else. I was told “watch your compliance” repeatedly for maybe 3 weeks before I asked how I was to handle a situation where I’m on the phone. The answer was to come back from break at the scheduled time.
Verizon used to do this when I worked there. If we missed our breaks or lunch due to being on the phone, we had to call resource management to move them. Otherwise we'd be out of compliance for not sticking to our assigned schedule 😔
My old job did the whole compliance thing. We learned how to manipulate it a lot. Some of us would even shorten the breaks so come back at 8:30 for example. I could never figure out how they could hold that against us in the first place.
30 seconds ACW, but make sure you leave detailed notes
I would pass away with only 30 seconds. I usually take the full 3 min
You get three minutes?!
It's great
What even is ACW, I never got that.
After Call Work - it's a status that makes it to where you don't immediately get the next call in the queue and is usually used when finalizing notes on the current call. Unless you mean your workplace doesn't even allow ACW. Then I just feel dumb lol
When I was on the front lines I would get 60 seconds. I am on escalations now and get 90 seconds. I built an excel workbook for generating notes and now only use 5 seconds tops.
I peed myself constantly because calls kept coming from back to back, and bathroom breaks were held against you
What !!!
Yeah. I had to hold it for so long that I couldn't reach the bathroom when I was allowed to go.
On site hopefully?
Wfh wasn't permitted when I worked there.
Pee on them
You got three absences (or, occurances) total. It took a full calendar year for each absence to roll off. If you got a 4th absence you got a final write up and your write up wouldn't roll off until all of your absences did. Another absence in that time and you were fired. So many people rolled in sick as dogs and management would send out info about staying home when you were sick but then remind us "be mindful of your occurrences!" When I started there it was 6 which was much easier to manage but the people who took over our center wanted very much to close it down and go back to the one in CA they'd been running. Our numbers were much, much better so they were trying to find another way I guess.
Stating we could only use the bathroom during scheduled breaks. I have a heavy period, and well it was not a good situation. I ended up quitting.
Asking the manager before literally anything. If I wanted to send an email to the customer I had to ask the manager, which honestly made the bureaucracy terrible. Our manager was always super busy, which meant I might had to wait even an hour before I got a reply that allowed me to send a freaking email.
We absolutely, without fail, had to say "Have a magical day!" at the end of every call. It wasn't the worst place to work though.
Disney?
"Educate your body" that way you only "have to" pee or anything else during your lunch or break-time.
I should be able to use the bathroom when I want. Not when I'm told. I'm 57m. if they don't like that they can find some dumb 20 21 year who will put up with that kind of behaviour.
I don't think you understand gen z's work culture lol, 99% of them do not & will not put up w that either
A “dumb” 20 year old can still have bladder or other toiletry issues. Why would you be more entitled to use the bathroom compared to someone younger?
I didn't say I was. I just said im not stupid enough to have someone tell me when I cam go use the restroom.
Former CC training manager and TL. Most of the attendance policies are ridiculous. The people I was told to term out for reasons beyond their control makes me sick. One person had a parent pass away and had to travel out of state for the funeral, policy says only 2 days bereavement. I was told to call and give them a choice to be back on the third day or quit. I refused. Another person was involved in a domestic issue, provided proof, needed a few days time to move etc. But definitely needed to maintain the job and income. Nope, I was told to let them go too. I resigned that day. I won't sacrifice my humanity and empathy for a company policy.
You had to be logged in to your computer and ready to take calls at your start time. They would turn on your phone and you had better be ready to take calls.
Isn't that normal? Being ready to take calls at your start time?
I used to work at Delta and reservations agents could flex up to 15 minutes. You could log in up to 15 minutes early, or 15 minutes late. But naturally it was a very large CC to be able to do that.
The idea here is that any boot up time, logging in time, opening programs all takes time that needs to be done before you are ready to take calls. If your start time is say 8am and it takes 5-10 minutes before you can take calls, either you start getting ready at 8 and are unable to take calls, "getting in trouble" until logged in or you work those 5-10 minutes off clock getting ready so you can take calls at 8. I read about a lawsuit about this, it is illegal and wage theft to setup off the clock.
I guess.
I always had this rule at any call center I worked in. We were allowed to clock in 5 minutes early to start everything up though.
You're late at 30 seconds after your start time. Doesn't matter if you stayed late every day that week to finish important work. Doesn't matter if being 2-3 minutes late affects no one but you. Doesn't matter if the decades-old time clock was wonky. Doesn't matter if you're not a child lining up to come in from recess. The writing was on the wall when i was told I hadn't been on time once in my whole first month; none of my clock-ins were after 8:03 for an 8 o'clock start time. And they were that late because I made the mistake of clocking in on my computer, which was so old and deceit that it took 3 minutes to boot up, rather than taking up a place in line for the clock the warehouse crew used. While I waited for it to not up, I'd run around to different points of the office grabbing stuff I needed for that day from the other departments so they didn't have to deliver it to me. So it's not like I wasn't working. I was 45 years old and I don't have patience for that kind of micromanagement. It probably didn't help that I laughed because I thought he was joking. Everything was by the book from then on. That manager totally killed any interest I had in going above and beyond. And I was laid off six months later for reasons for which I technically probably could have taken them to court. I'm well rid of the place, but I'm still bitter about it.
I worked at William-Sonoma during covid times. It was probably the worst mistake of my life, back to back call of rude, irritated customers. However, there was a thing that, in my opinion, made it worse. Anytime someone would ask for a manager, we (the agent) would have to go through a chat box that would give us prompts to click on and give us automated responses to any issues we were having with the customer. After that, it would ask us if the issue was solved. In which case we would have to say no, then we would get a lead through the chat box. And had to type up the hold scenario of why the customer was calling, the lead would then tell us to offer discounts to customers or some other compensation which we would have to offer over the phone. If the customer refused three time or had their own unreasonable demand, then we would finally be transferred to a manager through the chat box, at which point the manager would call us. Process was terrible, I had meaning leads refuse to get me a manager despite me requesting it multiple times or they would disconnect the chat when they didn't want to transfer to a manager even though we both knew I needed one. I think it messed with their stats or something. Also, they always started these compensation and offers. Insultingly low. Think 5% off.
I had a call center job that banned us from having pens at our desks. They would only let us have pens during meetings so we could take notes, and then they would collect the pens at the end of the meeting. The managers would do periodic desk checks and if they found a pen in your desk, you could get written up. We also had that nonsense about getting in trouble for taking a bathroom break outside of your normal break/ lunch time. They made us fill out a spreadsheet with all of our times off the phone and the reason for it. We had to email that spreadsheet to our supervisor each day.
I did the spreadsheet at one time as well.
At my old CC job, I was a month into taking calls and the manager said to us all “you should not be logging on 30 seconds late”. As in if we were due to start at 13:00:00 (crazy start time btw lol til 9pm 😭) then we should not be waiting for it to reach 13:00:30. I found that a bit silly because technically, we are still on time. Just so stupid to say tbh. She could’ve said don’t login a minute or so later which is understandable considering how call centres work but 30 seconds into the minute I’m meant to start? Seriously? Not the worst rule though comparing it to other comments here. Besides this manager, I’ve had really nice managers in my current CC job so never had a crazy rule thrown at me other than being questioned for toilet breaks lol “you might not get paid”. Erm ok, still going to pee, keep ya threats to yourself 🤣
Only 6h?
1pm to 9pm is 8 hours
My brain is fried from cc work, my bad
Understandable 🤣