The ILO makes comments but gives no details about depression, nervous breakdowns, suicides, other work related psycho illnesses and then there is ear damage including tinnitus, eye problems from gazing at a screen for hours on end. That is just a paragraph really, but yes they are poor buggers and by the end of their short 'career' at the call centre they are mostly no better off, just humiliated by having been exploited and given false hope.
No Mike, nothing so venal. Look me up in Linkedin if you like and you can see my whole career.
Good man Vic :-)
That's all true Brian. In one of my past incarnations part of my division was a technical support centre based in Europe with 500/600 agents. These folk worked so hard and despite our company providing good working conditions it was a tough job. These poor cold callers must go through hell to try and kick start their careers.
John,
Is it possible that you are in some way involved with a legitimate marketing company?
John, I wasn't commenting about the etiquette of how to respond to people doing unpopular jobs. It is simply a fact of life that if you are working at the sharp end of an unpopular agency, it would be naive not to expect some abuse.
You mean poor and overworked guy !
No comment.
Give me a break Vic, that's a disingenuous post. In fact it is worse that that, it is snide. There is a big difference between a phishing scam call and a call from a legitimate marketing company.
Poor guy, he'd obviously had a hard day.....!
But both of you should serious know that nearly all call centres are based outside the country they are calling to in order to avoid legal redress. The lengths companies go to is astounding. They fund language schools where students are taught European languages to word perfection free of charge on condition they work at the call centres for their final year as a practical and then become full call centre operatives on sales commission (which is derisory) with a fixed contract for at least three years. After that they can stay on as supervisors on a salary, teachers, call operative trainers. The supervisors have to be as strict as hell. An operative can only use the language he/she is working with. If, for instance, she is an English speaking Bangladeshi, working on sales in France, John Scully tells her to eff off in blunt English, she must remain impassive and try to continue until the call is cut off by the person at the other end. Then she has the next number on her screen ready to autodial. They do five and six hour stints non-stop, have a break and do the same again. In the ILO report on call centres it shows that the average daily earning on sales commissions in these centres is about US$8. Families support the young people doing the job through the study and whilst they work, hoping they will become teachers after the indenture. Each of the countries with these centres and the language courses produces far more language specialists than it requires, plus the qualifications are generally not accredited in those countries so the former sales operative would need to do a three year teacher training to even be qualified. Still too many of them then...
If you have really won that money and don't answer the phone, they will write you a letter. It's the people who tell you that you have won a fortune, but you must send them money to cover administration fees, that you should beware of.
I was cold called by an foreign sounding bloke who told me he represented MS. When I politely asked him how he knew I had MS he told me to "Go to hell" & hung up. Apparently the ' poor overworked, underpaid agent on the end of the phone' was not at fault & I should learn to phrase my questions better. Ah well ! maybe one day I'll learn the ways of international commerce.
120 mill I guess.
No sweat I mean , what's £120 mill nowadays ?
Mike all that traffic warden stuff was twaddle. If the only job one can get is as a call agent do you think the unemployed should refuse based on the fact that maybe some bored old fart (no insult intended) will occasionally abuse them? I think you are somewhat removed from understanding the unemployment situation in France. Any job is better than no job in my opinion in the current climate.
Of course I haven't pursued cold calling companies because as is evident from my contributions on the topic I don't really let that sort of stuff get to me.
So that day when the real call to say Doreen Bailey you have just won €120,000,000 comes you just will not be available :-(
So no worries then. QED
John, I hope I don't talk twaddle!
Have you successfully initiated a prosecution against cold calling companies? We would all benefit from knowing how to do that.
Of course Doreen, but it is the Company that is being rude not the poor overworked, underpaid agent on the end of the phone. If you are really that pissed off go figure out how to hit the Company.