Pros
Like the title says, if you are applying for any job role other than customer experience (call centre) then do your research, know the company inside out and brush up on your competency questions. The company it's self is fantastic and something that I'd love to be proud to be part of but unfortunately my experience has had every ounce of enthusiasm beaten out of me slowly but surely. Working for the company brings you some great benefits - - free gym - discounted health insurance - fruit, teas and coffee (actually when I joined this also meant free breakfast cereals and yogurts which were taken away cause too many people used it..) - amazing events team who organise the best team days e.g. sports day and Christmas events aswell as keeping on top of events for winners - opportunity to travel to a winners events - learning about some amazing charities and being able to share this information with players (huge part of my reason for joining)
Kontras
I honestly do not know where to start. As many of the other reviews here have stated, the pay is good but it's 100% held against you so actually I'd say the pay in the long run is a con, not a benefit. You are worked from the second you sit down until the second you leave (which is usually about 15 minutes after your meant to as your expected to keep taking new calls until the second your shift finishes and the average call is about 10 minutes long - don't expect to get this time back and do expect a disaplinary if your a minute late in starting the next day - I would love to know how much free Labour this equates to from all the employees combined). I have never worked in an environment where staff are so badly under valued. So many staff with no history of mental illness (young and old) are currently signed of with stress, anxiety and depression. You are essentially a human equivalent of a battery hen in this role. Every single thing you do or say is over analysed. If you come back 60 seconds late from a break you are penalised - so you better use your last 10 minutes getting logged back on and reading all the important emails you've missed while you were on the phone for the last 4 hours. Speaking of which - communication is appalling. Emails are sent constantly, which, when your on the phone non stop are impossible to read and keep up with but if you ask something you need to know to do your job right, you get barked at as it's IN THE EMAIL - obviously - but then a call comes through and your unable to find said email. You are graded on how good you are at your job by the "call quality" team who change the rules near enough every day without bothering to tell everyone. This in turn means that you fail call quality down to no fault of your own, miss out on your £300 bonus that month and ultimately get put on further action so you are stripped of any opportunities to progress in the company or go on any of the trips mentioned in the 'pros' section above. The call centre is only actually busy 1 week of the month that is called 'cut off' (actually 6 months of the year even this week isn't busy) this is the week leading up to the date that you can no longer sign up for the next month. So the rest of the time we spend our days listening to answering machines, listening to old Patricia apologising frantically that she is unable to keep up her payments which she has been convinced so many times to do being filled with false promises of that big win and once again persuading her to keep it going just that little bit longer because you "Just never know when your luck might change" and being shouted at by some poor soul who's been called at their work every day for the last 3 weeks straight and is STILL not interested - surprisingly enough. Small thing but just the icing on the cake for how the call centre staff are treated - breakfasts were recently reintroduced however, they must be eaten before 10.30 so to make use of them you must be in at 8.30 latest to make it to the canteen, eat and be at the desk and taking calls by 9. This is on the 1, maybe 2 days a week that you start at 9 so the rest of the time, this 'team benefit' is only for valued members of the company who work 9-5 and can take a quick break when ever they like. As the company grows, the call centre management just seem more and more clueless and every other department is oblivious to just how bad it is (including the HR department who clearly write the responses to these reviews) - and I won't even go into the joke of promotion by picking names out a hat. Really just says it all about how we are viewed.
