Need some advice...

[toxico.livejournal.com]

I work at a call center (duh) wherein I get calls from IT workers (external) regarding our software. Common duties involve troubleshooting SQL databases, client-server communication, and the occasional registry scrub. Normally, there are periods of business, but they subside and we'r able to get our existing work touched.

My shift lately brings a non-stop onslaught of one-off issues from IT managers and similar ilk. We literally start the day with calls on hold when the lines are transferred over at 7 AM from another location. Of such constant volume is the barrage of calls that, for two days this week, breaks have been non-existant, including lunches. That's 9 hours, no breaks, hardly being able to stand up. Ther is NO time for anything. Restroom breaks are a commodity, but serve to only increase your after call time.

We're given the option to work through lunch on most occasions, meaning that we get a voucher for free food from the cafe downstairs. We're allowed a few minutes to go down and grab it, and come right back up. Try to take more than that to actually EAT it, and a manager's at your desk saying you've been gone too long. Ever try to answer a customer's question with a mouthful of Chicken Caesar?

I wake up with a headache, go to sleep with a headache. my stomach hurts a lot lately, either from all the ibuprofen or maybe I'm developing an ulcer. My blood pressure is up, I lack energy.... you get the idea. I think it's having adverse effects on my health. At any rate, I loathe every waking moment I spend at this place.

Do I need to get out? Am I taking it too seriously and just need to relax, or should I consider that maybe my antisocial nature makes me possibly not "cut out" for phone support?

What do you all do to relax or alleviate stress? A remionder: oral sex at work is still illegal; that suggestion is right out.

Comments

[lrdjester.livejournal.com]

The company isn't Keane Inc by chance?

[toxico.livejournal.com]

No. Due to the fact that I'm on their network (IP trace anyone?) let's just say it's a major antivirus company.

[teriwyn.livejournal.com]

Hey, I interviewed with them at some location in Arizona.. assuming it's the same company. Just thought it was weird cause I haven't heard their name in 5 years.

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

Welcome to my world. I've been in this job for 2 years (Tech support of ISP).

It's deadly. I'm looking for a job...at my job.

My advice...look for something better.
I am.

[jecook]

An anonymous call to OSHA about the abuse of the lunch hour and breaks might work wonders.

[greeklady.livejournal.com]

Yes I second this action. I threatened the same as a joke to my ex husbands boss and he knew I was right and suddenly pizza was bought and lunches were given.

Also, yes if you are getting pysically ill from your job start reporting it to HR. I developed IBS from a help desk job. I was throwing up for 6 months without any definate problem or ulcer. I was fired for being sick to much. HR said had I come to them first things could have been different. What ever. Either way, the next day after I was fired, man I was cured!

Your health is never worth a lousy paycheck. Start applying for other jobs now.

[klytus.livejournal.com]

I'll third that notion.

[jjjiii]

Fourthed!

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Me, I'd tell the management that I was *taking* a lunch break and the volume of incoming calls was not my problem. But I seem to be able to get away with stuff like that, mainly because our employment red tape is so complex it takes about a year to fire someone. No idea what your situation is.

But really, the volume of incoming calls should not make a difference to your breaks. Let the management stress out over their lack of personnel budget - maybe someone will grow a pair and actually do something 'proactive' (now there's a fun buzzword) to cut down on the incoming.

Yeesh... one manager we had a couple years back had a great method for doing this - he'd find out who was responsible for the screwup that was causing the problem, and tell us to divert all the relevant calls to that team's phone numbers. More than one 'non-uninstallable' software release was 'miraculously' pulled off the corporate network as a result.

Crap will roll downhill only as far as people are willing to let it.

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

I don't see how you can possibly relax under those conditions when you're not even allowed to take a lunch break (which has got to be a violation of some law somewhere, especially if you're a full-time employee). Are you first tier, or is there any resource available to the callers (such as online help or documentation) prior to them calling you?

Without knowing specifics about your situation or duties, several things occur to me:
1 - Whatever you're supporting is crap, if your call volume is that high
2 - There aren't enough employees to handle the call volume
3 - Call centers are the lowest level of hell in the IT world, and you should do whatever you can to advance out of such a position into something a little more buffered from the userbase at large
4 - Find a job with a different employer who cares more about the health and sanity of their employees.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Nope, Tier 1. Only been here ~9 months.

It's a combination of 7 different products; most of the time it's a PEBKAC or RTFM problem, or an unrelated networking issue. The software has its issues, and there are hotfixes for lots of common ones; the cases have to be escalated in order to obtain them and the process for doing so is outrageously convoluted.

By and large, the turnover is so high that we can't keep enough people here. In the past two weeks, three people that have been here for over 2 years left, and one contractor was canned. The pay is surprisingly high for the type of work; that may be the only way they can attract and retain those that are willing.

Even when I have a job I enjoy, I'm always on the lookout for something better, if for no other reason than to see what's out there. It may just be time to ramp up my search.

[krrayn.livejournal.com]

yeah, i'd be really leery of a high-turnover kind of place like that. It usually has less to do with the skillset of incoming employees and more to do with inefficient management practices. Good luck with your search.

[klytus.livejournal.com]

High turn-over is almost always about the work environment. people are willing to do high-strees work, but if their supervisors are not treating them right, they'll bail. I once worked for a small company where people basically enjoyed the work they did. But after the owner bought out his partner's half of the company, people were leaving in droves. By the time I'd been there for 2.5 years, I was the senior employee. Everyone who wasn't laid-off left for the same reason: the owner was a flaming prick and a complete asshole.

[meijhen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, there's no national law in the US regarding lunch and rest breaks, except that, if you are paid hourly they must pay you if you work through lunch (if you're salary, you're out of luck).
Some individual states have laws requiring you can only work a certain number of hours without a break, but those states are actually in the minority.
Also, some unions have requirements regarding breaks, but I don't think this is a union situation.
I had the same situation at a previous job, and did some research into this to see if I had any legal rights, and was really surprised to find out that there is no protection for the worker in this situation. Assuming you are not in one of the few states that do have laws requiring breaks, they can work you for 14 hours straight and as long as they pay you for it, you can do nothing about it.
Outside the US, it's another story, of course....EU law in particular has a lot of protections for the worker, lucky them!

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

American labour laws seem so 3rd world.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

I agree with jecook and the_s_guy here. Management will keep piling their responsibilities onto you guys as long as you continue to take it. It's like the old salesman trick: name your price, and if the client doesn't blink, continue with "and there is an additional charge of...".

Most companies are extremely loathe to fire anyone (partially because then they might have to pay unemployment benefits) so I doubt your job would be at risk, although you might get bitched at a lot. Call OSHA and take your goddamn lunch break.

[zercool.livejournal.com]

Heh. I feel your pain, as that's the line I just got out of. My situation was very similar - I was working long hours, short breaks, understaffed with a rapidly increasing call volume... and I left as soon as I got a decent offer. I went back to visit a few former coworkers about three months after I got out, and the first thing I heard from every single one of them was "you look wonderful!"... and I do. I am sleeping at night. I'm eating healthy(/healthi meals. I've lost nearly 35 pounds (16kg for you Euros). I no longer have headaches every night and backaches every morning. My desk is no longer ornamented with Advil, Rolaids, stress balls, and piles of unfinished work.

So what, I hear you asking, did I leave the wasteland of tech support for? 911 Emergency Dispatch. That's right. Life-or-death emergencies are less stressful than tech support. Think about that for a while...

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're being shit on from height. Don't know what I can add here except take care of your stomach man.. I've had some nasty stomach issues in the last year and I'm only just starting to realize they are stress-related (along with dandruff and skin allergies most likely caused by nervous stress).

My antisocial nature makes me not cut-out for jobs in the "human" sector of the workplace. I figure tech support is probably the most apt for me (on this planet).

[ghostdandp.livejournal.com]

texas has no laws requiring breaks unfortunatly

[jecook]

OSHA is a federal agency, and they mandate the breaks and lunch hours:

four hours, one hour lunch, four hours. A fifteen minute break is permitted during the four hours.

[meijhen.livejournal.com]

There are no OSHA laws mandating breaks and lunch hours.

There are no national laws at all regarding breaks and lunches.

[meijhen.livejournal.com]

well, small correction.....OSHA does not mandate any kind of breaks UNLESS you are in a job where it is a safety issue (such as driving a truck, or construction, or some such).

[catfewd.livejournal.com]

That is utter crap. If I was working there, I will take a break in the morning, again for lunch (45 mins perhaps) and another one in the afternoon.

Get another job asap and leave that company before your health deteriorate. Health is far more important than work itself I'm afraid. Proves that people in this world forgotten what it is like to be human. With all the technology around us those days, everytime I go home, I see my dogs and they just reminds me how simple their life is. *sigh*

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Your dogs would happily eat their own faeces. Intelligence makes for complex lives but luckily it breeds discernment.

Norma Rae

[jayrtfm.livejournal.com]

burn a bunch of copies of "Norma Rae" and mail it to all the owners, managers and some random employees.....

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

I worked for about 6 months as a tier 1 HSI support rep (for a company that sounds like naughty bits) and just tried for a long time to get supervisor.

Now I'm a supervisor and I don't have to be on the phones anymore. However, I find that singing really loud on my drive home helps me feel better. That and Troli Bright Crawlers.

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

A supervisor huh? Who are you??!

[pixeltwist.livejournal.com]

Jessica. Scrawny, biracial, angular glasses. Black hair with blonde bangs. I actually work for CallTech though.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Hi, I've been Tier I for five years now and will never get out. I totally sympathize.

I guess I'd be careful, depending on how easy it is to fire someone at your workplace and how much you need the job. At my job it is disgustingly easy to get rid of someone; we are a dime a dozen no matter how many graduate degrees we have.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

Screw your after-call time. You don't have enough personnel to get the job done. And if you don't draw the line, they'll never fix the problem.

Odds are they aren't paying you enough to cover the medical care you'll need to recover at the end of it all. You're putting in an hour of work now and an extra hour in the grave later.

They hired a human, not a robot. Take your breaks, eat your lunch. You're giving them more than they can reasonably expect, and if they aren't working to fix it, more than they deserve.

[klytus.livejournal.com]

If they fire you, you can collect unemployment while looking for another job. And if they try to contest your unemployment, I'd love to see them explain that you were fired for taking daily lunch breaks.