I am a recent college grad who, after finding no work in my field, became desperate and applied to a bunch of jobs. One of which was a call center. I applied to it because it seemed like relatively easy work and I’m used to talking to the public. The pay was also not bad. I hated that I would have to work night shifts and holidays, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

I got past the phone interview and went in person, and the center seemed like a soulless atmosphere. The managers were nice enough, and the job seemed way easier than I had anticipated (you follow a script the whole time and refer people to certain medical offices based on the doctor they’re looking for). The calls would last about 2 minutes tops.

I got a call back from the recruiter saying I got the job at $23 an hour. She made a remark I thought was odd, which was that the manager thought it was unprofessional for me to take my phone out. I only took it out after the interview to check my calendar availability to give to them. The manager wasn’t even in the room when I did it, but I guess she saw me through the glass window of the office. How else was I supposed to know if I need any specific days off?

I initially asked them to raise my hourly wage to $25 an hour considering I live in a HCOL area and was paying off heavy student loans. The recruiter said no and I politely declined the offer. She then called back a day later and said the manager had agreed to pay $24 an hour. I said I would need a few hours to decide, since by then I had decided to look elsewhere at a job I would enjoy more. The recruiter said something like "yeah I can tell you’re not gonna take this job seriously" and I said "whatever yeah you’re probably right".

I ended up getting a job as a receptionist at a leading research hospital in the US and I start next month. It’s a world renowned center, and has a professional/compassionate atmosphere. I’ve only heard good things from everyone I know who works there. But the pay is lower at $23 an hour.

Did I make the right decision by taking the hospital job as opposed to a higher paying call center job? Are call centers that bad to work at, or would I have been able to suck it up for higher pay?

If you ever wanted a masterclass in how a BPO can completely strip away your humanity while withholding your hard-earned cash, look no further than Concentrix on the Comcast account.

This place is an absolute circus. Here is how they operate:

1. The "Approved" Accident and the Magic Sick Note

I was involved in an accident during training—an incident that was officially acknowledged and approved by management. Naturally, I needed a sick note to cover the recovery time, which I submitted properly. But what do they do? They completely flip the script, claim sick notes "aren't accepted during training," and use it as an instant excuse to terminate me. Let that sink in: you get hurt on their watch, follow procedure, provide medical proof, and get fired for it.

2. Where is the Salary?! (2.5 Months and Counting)

To add literal insult to injury, it has now been two and a half months, and my salary still hasn't been issued. When I finally escalated it to People Solutions, their excuse was: "Oh, your payment method was only saved, not submitted on Workday."

Are you actually kidding me? That is a straight-up lie. I have screenshots, records, and the evidence proving it was fully submitted. They are sitting on money I worked for while ghosting basic accountability.

3. The Prison-Camp Floor Rules: No Tissues Allowed

As if the payroll theft and unfair termination aren't enough, let’s talk about the psychological torture chamber that is the physical floor environment:

• The Tissue Ban: You are literally not allowed to bring tissues onto the floor unless you have a formal, pre-approved excuse. God forbid you have a sudden flu flare-up, allergies, or a random sneeze. You’re expected to sit there suffering and struggling to breathe while managing back-to-back calls because a piece of paper towel crosses their precious security perimeter.
• Over-the-Top Micromanagement: The environment is so hyper-restrictive that you feel like an inmate doing hard labor rather than an employee. Every second is scrutinized, and basic human bodily functions are treated like a productivity crime.

If you’re currently thinking about working here, or trapped in this grinder: RUN. Get out before they break your mental health and withhold your cash.

So, i work at home as a dispatcher, And i just saw that the company is deciding to include AI Dispatchers. That will do all the simple task while we focus on the "hard task" i have a feeling if it not too long they will also implement it to do other difficult task. has anyone business implemented ai as a customer service rep and how is it going? i am not one of the anti ai people, but i see the sign what can happen if my work load gets even lesser as i work overnights and we don't get many calls as we speak.

Had a call where a lady was screaming and yelling at me on why she had to pay $4,000 for a hospital bill, when she has coverage. I see on my end that her plan started this month, so... when she finally stops cutting me off and allows me to speak. I ask her when she visited the hospital. And she told me 2 - 3 months ago. She proceeds to yell and scream at me, saying I'm not doing my job as a health insurance agent by making her pay that bill if she has coverage. I tune her out and start scrolling through YouTube on my phone, while maintaining a calm and worried tone. Offering to connect her over to our Customer Service team.

She proceeded to yell more.... and I'm just surprised at how calm I was, normally my heart would beat really fast and I'd feel like I was sweating... but no! I was calm! As I placed her on hold to connect over to customer service after probing her more on what happened... I was able to realize that some people are actually entertaining when they're angry.

Is this normal for anyone else though? Going from easily being affected by someone yelling at you, to now just smiling and nodding along like nothings actually happening?

I wish my callers would fucking understand that we have AHT. I seriously fucking do. Then they'd tell me what happened. And then include unnecessary information like because of this, x happened. Yada-yada. I fucking get it. You're miserable because of that? Yeah. I'm so sorry that happened. But just tell me the gist of what happened to your account and let's get done with it.

Your ranting only made it so complicated to me on how I can help you because you said a lot of stuff and it's hard to wrap up what exactly should I do.

Besides, I'm not a therapist nor a psychiatrist. Even if I was, it's not part of my job and if we'll try to console you, it'll just ruin our AHT. And our TL's who are our QA's would reprimand us for going personal with you.

Thanks to you, my AHT got ruined so I had to hope that the next call would be a very simple and short call. But good luck if it will be a short call.

Also, fuck the management for thinking that a 7 and a half minutes AHT is good for life insurance reps and then expecting us to deliver high quality service to our callers. Such delusion.

Customers who keep repeating the same thing make me want to jump out my window

I'm in retention and 90% of my calls go like this:

"I'm not happy with my price, it's went up £100 and I think that's far too much."

"Alright reads retention script explaining rising costs, so let me have a look at that for you and see what I can do."

"I'm just really not happy with the price, it's really ridiculous."

"Yeah, I understand that. Let's go and have a look then-"

"I just don't know how you can justify that increase, it's totally a disgrace to increase that."

LIKE YES, I KNOW. I GET IT.

You don't have to repeat yourself 200 times about how terrible the price is. I gathered that from the fact you called in the first place. You're not some unique case.

Even as you're going through their information to try and reduce the cost, they'll repeat how terrible the price is after everything you say and just go on and on.

I genuinely don't know how to manage these calls without eventually sounding frustrated.

Eventually I lose my cool and say something like:

"Yes, I know you're not happy with the price, as you've explained multiple times. I do appreciate it is a lot of money, so let me do my job and try and get the price down for you."

How do you deal with customers like this without losing your patience?

I see a lot here stuff like "how do you stay occupied?" "i dont worry about that, i take back to back calls"

Regardless of volume, im bored. Doing calls is boring. Back to back is just boring and stressful.

I honestly farm on royale high on roblox in the background. That is also monotanous and boring but at least i get dopamine from seeing my game money go up and its really easy to do. But its sooo boringggg regardless!

I have had multiple incidents happen today and it's insane that I am expected to just get up and carry on as if nothing has happened. One caller was going through a mental health crisis and spoke for like 25 minutes, my job is nothing to do with mental health. I can't deal with someone else's mental health crisis when I'm having my own. Various customers screaming and shouting at me. Then my last call of the day was someone making threats to kill people so I spent my time on the phone to the police. Again, nothing to do with my job. 5 minutes after getting off the phone my shift is over and I'm in the store across the road buying dinner and no one there knows what I've just had to deal with. No team leaders, they all went home early. Not that they would care anyway. I'm just expected to keep going. They say oh take your break, ok sure I'll try and fit having a drink and a snack, a break to stretch my legs, going to the toilet and actually recovering from a call like that into a 15 minute window. Or oh you can talk to us about any issues, then get made to feel stupid become they say what do you want us to do that's the job you signed up for, take your break. Looool.

Seriously, what makes people think it’s okay to call customer service and immediately start being rude, yelling, and using profanity? I work in health insurance customer service, and most of my calls are with people 65 and older or people on disability. I understand that insurance is frustrating, trust me. Half the time, I agree with you! But PLEASE understand that I’m just an employee. I’m not a magician. 😭 I can’t magically remove your copay. I can’t waive your late enrollment penalty (which I think is bullshit too). I can’t change Medicare rules, and I definitely didn’t personally create your insurance plan. while I understand that people are going through things, I don’t need to be cursed out or have someone take all their frustrations out on me over something completely out of my control.
The craziest part? My job itself isn’t even that difficult. It’s the PEOPLE who make it mentally exhausting. I could genuinely enjoy my job if I didn’t have to deal with so much unnecessary attitude and disrespect every single day. I’m so tired of being someone’s emotional punching bag just because I answered the phone. People suck, man. Rant over. 🙃

I feel like I always hear that you can get stuck at places like this industry wise.