Absolutely at the end of my tether... advice please before I crack up completely!!

[Mrs_Ryan]

I realise I have probably left it a bit late to be asking this now but I really could do with some impartial help!

Basically, I work in the call centre for a large, well known company. I have been there just short of a year and have to say I have never had a problem with them before. I have quite a complicated home life (I look after my partner who has mental health problems, I myself suffer with a chronic illness which means I am ill quite a lot) and they have always been absolutely superb with me as regards that, on a few occasions I have had to drop everything and run home due to some emergency, and I have also had to take time off on a few occasions to deal with some very stressful and upsetting events and they have always bent over backwards to accomodate me. They have never complained when I was late due to trains (I live 2 hours- thats one way - !away from work) or have had to leave early due to trains, and my managers have always been approachable and have done their level best to help me when I was struggling with everything.

Until now that is.

Over these last couple of months, I have been getting increasingly stressed out and frustrated. We handle a lot of calls daily and an increasing number are from angry, quite often abusive, customers. It seems that daily we are getting more and more directions as to new things we have to do, and dont get me wrong, i know its part and parcel of the job, but now as well as doing my own work, it seems I am being expected to help the people who sit around me (as some of them have only been there a few months!) and take over their calls when they're stuck!!I have said I dont mind answering the odd question or whatever- thats fine, I used to!

But I have said that I dont mind as long as it doesnt start getting ridiculous. I might add, we have coaches and team leaders who are supposed to help with that sort of thing. Im not getting any recognition and definitely no extra pay.. as well as that I am diffusing some very explosive calls (I once stopped one of our employees getting arrested, such was the severity of the situation that I managed to prevent) and it seems we get a lot of threats of lawsuits which I usually manage to prevent - tbh its hard to differentiate from those people that are all mouth and those who will but still it can be quite upsetting when you get a call like that. Im not easily upset - I used to work in Recoveries for Capital One (dont hate me please!!!) so I developed quite a thick skin there, but some of the things we are expected to put up with are quite frankly ridiculous.

I spoke to one of the Team Leaders a little while ago when things came to a kind of head, and told him how I was feeling. He said dont worry about trying to do that sort of thing cos you arent going to get anything out of it, anything you cant handle put through to a team leader. It all calmed down for a little while and then it started up again, so I spoke to a coach and it all came pouring out, how I felt totally unappreciated, I was getting stressed out trying to deal with all this rubbish and I was fed up with being stuck at the bottom and feeling as if I was never going to get anywhere while SOME PEOPLE got everything.

(This is a girl I started with, within a few months of us being there she was doing some of the tem leaders duties, interviewing people over the phone and doing team leader escalations!!! She then got promoted to doing Specialist Products, ie meaning a pay rise, and now I have found out that because she has requested full-time, they gave her another promotion so she could do full-time!! When I requested full-time hours as we both started part-time, they offered me shifts they knew I couldnt do then it took them a month and a half to find me shifts i could do and then even longer to actually sort them out! She also got chosen to be the voice of the new phone system - and she even went for the coach's job when it became vacant!! I put my foot down then though, and said if she got the job I would quit there and then as I refused to take instructions from someone who knew just the same as me. Despite the fact I am more experienced than her, if I had have gone for the job they would have laughed at me! Thankfully, in the end, the job went to someone who had been owrking there 6 years, thats fine, nothing against her!)

The coach noted all this down, said he would speak to my TL, and see about getting me some experience in another department. He also said the same thing about putting thse calls through to a TL rather than trying to handle them myself. I went for my appraisal last Tuesday onky to find out that my TL knew nothing about this conversation, and all he said was dont stress yourself out!!

All well and good but 9 times out of 10 the team leaders dont want to know if you want to escalate the call, usually telling you to try and handle it yourself! The stress of everything means Im not sleeping at night, Im crying all the time and unfortunately have started self-harming again. Im going to the doc's tomorrow and I get the feeling she will sign me off but Im really worried about trying to tell them at work as they will probably say that I havent tried talking to them about it, but I have and I just feel like Im being ignored.

Sorry for the rambling but Im really at the end of my tether and really need some help!! thanks!

[mnrbig]

Is changing jobs not a option?

[labrat]

sounds alot like my old job...

changed hours 3 times in a year, once without the contractual 4 weeks notice..

when people complained that they couldnt make the shift they were given a choice of have it or find a new job (friend of mine took that option as lived near mansfied and first train to job was 30 mins after he was ment to start)

completely rubbish team leaders including the cupboard nav who must have hidden in a cupboard and could never be found...

team leaders promising to give cmrs a call back on escalations and neve doing it.

tech coaches being removed as it was peoples own job to deal with something they didnt know the answer to.

hope you have more luck than me i eventually moved out of the call center (where in the world's) after repeated broken promises of improvements)

hopefully some usefull advice along soon but in the mean time well done on posting, ive found the boards very helpfull and accurate and am sure someone will know whats best for you

[Mrs_Ryan]

mnr big, I have actually been offered another job but I've been waiting now for over a month for my CRB clearance and I think its going to be nearing the end of next month before I could start.Labrat, Im fairly sure I know where you mean because Im also fairly sure I used to work in the same place!!!!!!!!! know what you mean with the shift time problem... they put me on an 11.30 pm finish despite the fact the last train back home to Leicester was 9.54 pm. When I protested, they put me on a 9.30 pm finish. Eventually I got put on a rotating rota, latest finish 8pm which was fine, but not before I had kicked up a huge stink!

[zazen.warrior]

Ohhh these call centres, the people who run them are on another planet.

I'm on the stress train myself so I don't need to be told or indeed need to tell you what they are like.

Just posting to add my support Mrs Ryan.

[Mrs_Ryan]

Thank you zw, I've read your threads.... how awful is it?? thanks for your support. xx Like I said, Im going to the doctors tomorrow, will see what she has to say and keep everyone posted. Mrs R xx

[sweetnsexyenglish]

Good luck sweetie

I know the feeling I worked at GAP and with the stress they put me under treated me like crap, talked to me like crap and out of 7 managers running the two floor store which really wasn't very big, yes 7 (don't think they'd heard that too many cooks spoil the broth) I think only two of the managers were older than me, I had been in employment longer than the majority of the managers who hated the fact I would not make GAP my life as was their motto, hence knowing I had children they put me down to work till store closes even though I request 9-5 and did not live locally so commuted to work each day. Someone changed the hours on my original contact and they denied it.

Well to cut a long story short as I had a current long running health issue the stress I was feeling meant I lost 3stones in 2 months, I cried every day just the thought of going to work upset me , I was not eating I actually ended up drinking two bottles of wine a day no food, and I even told one employee if I was a weak person I would have cut my wrist already as I was constantly being singled out and various managers were trying to humiliate me almost every day. I had one manager ready to give me a bawling out about being late for work, she called and left a rude message on my mobile when I was driving into work. Only to find when she looked on the time sheet I was not due to start till 10am I got no apology.

They tried to criticise my work but no customer ever made a complaint about me, they loved me and made recommendations which I know p'd off the managers....and yet only 1 of the 7 managers ever treated me with any respect and all the employees who started when I started had no problems with me or my work. I was the first to be till train I was the fastest on the till and was the only one to be taught emergency procedures in a power cut and tills down.

I went to see my doctor who signed me off he was concerned about the 3st weight loss in such a small space of time and put me in touch with a works solicitor for discrimination and bullying, however it was not so much discrimination but there was a vast amount of bullying and humiliation. I realised my health and well being was more important than that job, yes I had a family to feed but there are other ways than to go to work in a place you are beginning to hate or is making you ill. Before you decide to self harm you need to LEAVE!!

No job is worth that And I have worked in the call centres too and know how they can be. Go see your doc and if he signs you off I suggest you find a new job to go back to once you are stress free!!

[Mrs_Ryan]

Thanks SSE

Ive read some of your other posts and wish I was as strong as you!!

I went to see my doctor this morning, who was lovely.(I deliberately asked for her when I made the appointment because she's so nice and understanding) She was absolutely outraged with what I told her and signed me off immediately for 2 weeks. She actually put on the sick note 'work related stress' and as she was writing it she put 'this should make them take some notice of you!!' Bless her.

Im just going to see how it goes, take it easy for 2 weeks and with any luck I should have heard from my other job before then.

Thank you everyone for being so lovely to me!!! Its really appreciated. xx

[sweetnsexyenglish]

That's good that you got it sorted, use the time to concentrate on YOU!!

[red.ninja13]

you should try just looking for/applying for 1 job a day, and booking one recruitment agency a week... thats the target i set myself when i worked in a call centre and hated it, (i ended up quitting and doing temp work for 3 months), but now i have a job i love as a financial administrator! so there is light at the end of tunnel, there is a way out! try and stay positive and play up your experience on your cv!

[Mrs_Ryan]

Hi everyone, just an update on the situation...

I had a lovely, relaxing 2 weeks off and my managers were very sheepish when I went back... but yesterday, I got a phone call from the job I've been waiting for for months... I start as a Health Care Assistant on a ward for older Mental Health patients on August 4... I am so excited, it is what I have been striving for since I had to give up Uni 2 years ago.

I handed my notice in yesterday and everyone was beggin me not to leave!!! Classic!!! xx

[sweetnsexyenglish]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Ryan

Hi everyone, just an update on the situation...

I had a lovely, relaxing 2 weeks off and my managers were very sheepish when I went back... but yesterday, I got a phone call from the job I've been waiting for for months... I start as a Health Care Assistant on a ward for older Mental Health patients on August 4... I am so excited, it is what I have been striving for since I had to give up Uni 2 years ago.

I handed my notice in yesterday and everyone was beggin me not to leave!!! Classic!!! xx

Well done and glad you took the time to relax...wish I could but as you know the show must go on.

Enjoy listening to that begging lol, as now they know what they truly had but as the saying goes, too little too late

[Mrs_Ryan]

Thanks SSE...

Thats very true what you said, but I think they were only begign me not ot go cos no-one else will take their rubbish