Why Working in Call Center a Career Suicide

By Carla Custodio, Makati City | Nobody said that “when I grow up, I want to work in a call center.” Every one is saying “I want to be a pilot, a ballerina, a soldier, a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a therapist, a model, a magician, a dentist, a scientist,” and any other profession not named “call center agent”.

Being a call center agent is not a choice, but what to do when you are running out of choices?

Call center jobs are one of the most stressful jobs according to the recent report released by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP). Being a call center agent requires huge amount of physical, mental, psychological, and emotional strength according to the agency.

The following are some of the reasons why working in a call center is a career suicide and extremely stressful.

1. Underemployment and over-qualification. The requirement to work in call centers in the Philippines is not that complicated. As long as one can speak better English and knows how to use computers, problem solved. But how do you feel if you are an HRM, nursing, education, and even engineering graduate working side-by-side with another employee who is under-graduate and receive the same salary? Your parents did not spend hundreds of thousands of pesos for your college degree just to be scolded by irate customers later right?

2. Overwhelming job demands. What makes call centers so stressful is that, once you sit, you have to ask permission even when you want to go to the restroom. When the demand exceeds the agent’s capacity, stress follows.

3. Insufficient social support. A Call center is not your typical office job where you can chat with your officemates any time you want. Call after call after call makes you learn sign language in order to at least interact with your co-worker, because you cannot use your mouth during calls. Lack of social support from co-worker has an effect on burn-out.

4. Excessive monitoring. As a call center agent, your call is being monitored every second in a minute. Knowing that you are being monitored while talking to an irate customer, your option is very limited. Doubt and curiosity can be very stressful.

5. Monotonous tasks. After working for three years, you are doing the same thing over and over again for the whole eight hours in five to six days a week. This redundant task limits mental simulation, creativity, and the lack of decision making. This leads to frustration, disengagement, low sense of self-efficacy and stress.

6. Feeling undervalued. Call center agents can lose their job any time regardless of any reason and regardless of their length of service. They feel their contribution to the company is not acknowledged. Very few call centers that performs annual performance appraisal wherein “good performers” are given even a little recognition. This can result to frustration and stress.

7. Lack of status associated with position. Most call center agents often state that the society find it difficult to recognize or appreciate their interpersonal or communications skills required for their work. This perception results to frustration and social isolation.

8. Lack of pride associated with position. One study says that call center agents does not consider their job as lifetime career. Majority says that their job is just temporary and that they have no choice for the moment. The lack of pride associated with their job can result to stress while on the job.

9. Difficult working hours. Eight out of ten Filipinos who work in a call center (single or married) said that they lost time with their family, and also stated that their health is affected while working on night shift. The physical and mental stress associated with inflexible working hours is very obvious.

10. Angry customers with high expectations. This is very common. A DSL technical support who receives at least 20 calls in eight hours during queuing time can expect at least eight angry and unsatisfied customers in a day. This is extremely stressful.

11. Almost zero job security. In a normal manufacturing company, a regular employee cannot be fired unless at least three disciplinary actions have been issued. In a call center, an employee who has been their working for ten years can be fired any time of the day because of a single mistake. The department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has yet to explain why this “zero tolerance policy” is in place in call centers. This is the main reason why call centers have the highest turn-over rate. Knowing that your job is not secure is like being tortured every day.

12. No opportunities for advancement. Ambitious teachers can be school principals someday. Engineers can be plant managers or directors. Call center agents can’t have the same dream. There is no room for progress. Another study suggests that call centers are becoming the place for incompetent managers who are not qualified to be managers in other fields. Eight out of ten call center agents are still agents after working for five years with the same salary grade. In the manufacturing world, someone who is four-year graduate can be promoted twice in three years. Having a career without direction is stressful.

There are other items mentioned on the report but the above lists are the most applicable and common in the Philippine call center environment.

This writer spent a total of six years in Teletech and Convergys and the experience was the same.

Although the salary is a little higher than working in other fields, money can be less important when talking about career growth, physical, emotional, and social aspects of one’s life.

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Here is a response from another contributor: How Call Center Helped Me Find My Lost Future

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