Call Center Woes

Have you ever worked at a call center before? Have you ever thought about working for a call center? Consider these 13 points of what call center life is like:

1. During your interview, every call center claims they're different from the average call center. They are not, this is a lie.
2. Every call center at the interview tells you that you will not be on the phones long, that this company is growing too fast and they will need staff elsewhere soon other than on the phones. This is a lie.
3. Every call center is always hiring (I wonder why).
4. Every call center gives you a very brief lunch break and they encourage it to be as short as possible because they need you on the phones.
5. Every call center has a phone queue that counts the minutes a caller is waiting for service. The call center team leads freaks out the higher up those minutes go.
6. Every call center has programed phones with different categories of putting yourself on hold whether it's for an emergency bathroom break, technical down time, or you just need to log in notes from a previous complicated call. Even though this "Hold" option available to you, don't ever use it. You need to always be available to answer calls no matter what.
7. Every call center has a hired staff of "over-seers" specifically hired on to electronically watch your computer and phone status to make sure you are never off of or away from your phone.
8. Every call center listens and records your calls incoming and outgoing to use--they say--to protect you and the company against law suits, but it's more to be used against you in future force and criticisms.
9. Change! If you don't like your job, wait two weeks. Every call center changes so much and so fast: policy, rules, job shift, even your salary, will all change at a moment's notice and not to your benefit.
10. Every call center wants was a phone agent to answer any question the caller may have even if its not job-related.
11. Every call center has usually has shifty and entrapping terms and conditions with account orders. Even though they are completely legally compliant they can still be misleading to the average customer. This is why they need over-the-phone agents to deal with the huge demand of angry customers. Think about most big businesses that require you to sign a contract with them. Most of the time the only way to inquire about your contract and account is over the phone (because this is easier than dealing with people face-to-face).
12. Most call centers have only one source of communication... over the phone. Sometimes you may have an email option.
13. Most call centers have escalations and tech support that is supposed to be there to assist you but they highly encourage you to not use them or transfer calls to them because you need to deal with the belligerent customer yourself.

If you have ever worked in a call center before, leave a comment and share your experience with me. Do you think my 13 descriptions are accurate?