Pros
- air conditioning at call centers keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter
Cons
It's a Wells Fargo-style setup: you either violate company policy by mistreating customers, or you don't meet the metrics. Which means they always have you right where they want you legally, so there's even a good chance they can jip you you on the unemployment. The insurance is unremarkable and just about more trouble than it's worth... it'll save you from losing everything to the hospital if you have an emergency, but at these pay scales you'll never have anything more than a 2-bedroom apartment and a barely functioning car. On the matter of catastrophes, there are no "sick days" -- you get a few unconditionally excused "events" a year which cause you to lose pay if you have to make use of them. Following that, you're out -- no appeals, no transfers. You join on "probation" which means you have a few "free" months in which to learn the ropes. After those three monThen after that you progressively get written up for failing the metrics (which you will do unless you can either talk really fast or type really fast). The client companies for whom the work is actually done (all Staffmark employees are temp-to-hire) are always on the lookout for smooth talkers and fast typers and these are the people who get the max bonuses and promotions. Everybody else gets canned after six months or so. The performance metrics are divided into two parts: productivity (measured in call handling time), and quality (customer handling). If your quality is bad, you're out early; if your productivity is below the target , even if you're at average for the center - they'd sooner purge their entire workforce than give people who manage 65 wpm regular raises. And they do, very often, making the job really tough from the get-go because callers are always irritable from being on the phone for a while. But let's face it: you're not taking this job because you want it... you're desperate because companies want cheap labor and they can bribe congress to force you to do it. Just know what you're going into, and try not to let it destroy those values your grandmother tried to instill in you, because that just makes it worse on all of us.