Bad management, lack of knowledge regarding their own product, stressful environment, absolutely no room to grow, no transparency in their hiring, mandatory overtime, absurd level of employee turnover and dissatisfaction, minimal pay, no raises, lots of promises of bonuses but they were false.
This was genuinely one of the worst places that I have ever worked in my entire life. They were not transparent in thier hiring practices and flat out lied about numerous aspects of the job. When I asked repeatedly if there were any sales, I was told there were absolutely no sales. That was completely false. They said I would receive an extra 50 cent an hour simply for adhering to my schedule, basically coming in on time, completely false, there were numerous other sales goals and criteria that had to be met. I was told that we had five “holiday” days off with pay and the interviewer even said, and I quote, “How many companies do you know that offer that”. That was a lie, you did get Christmas and New Years Day off and some other holidays off but they were not paid and so your pay checks were less for that pay period. What seemed like an easy call center job turned into a literal pit of despair with unattainable sales goals and schedule adherence goals. Every month you were teased with promises of bonuses but it was simply impossible to meet. There were daily emails sent out showing everyone’s individual performance, people were listed by name, which I felt was demoralizing to those that were not performing well. I’ve worked at many places and performance criteria is typically posted by employee number or non identifying information. When you asked management a question regarding policy they would often give the wrong answer and you would eventually get a feedback from the client stating you followed the wrong policy, then the manager who gave you the information would never admit they were at fault. It was a level of chaos and disorganization like I’ve never seen before. No one was on the same page. No one could clarify anything.
At one point, one of my coworkers smelled so badly that I had to start sniffing my magic marker, for real, to avoid vomiting while on the phone with a customer. Instead of relocating me the supervisor brought me vapor rub. I’ve worked with many homeless people in past jobs and I knew I was going to have to pull out something stronger, so I brought my Ben Gay in. I remember sitting at my work station as the Ben Gay burned through the lining of my nose and wondering if this is what napalm felt like. Whenever someone made a sale, keep in mind this was the job that I was told had no sales, we had to use these little clappers, like party clappers, like the kind you would give to a toddler. Between the burning nose and the noise from the clappers it felt like a war zone. It was a complete sensory overload.
If you used the restroom you had to deduct it from your break time. So, you just sat there, with a burning nose, needing to use the restroom for ten dollars an hour, while providing excellent customer service.
In all seriousness, when I left, I felt like running to my car, like I had been freed from a third world prison.
I am literally on a drug for depression now. On a positive, the mandatory overtime cut into my schedule so badly that I stopped eating and did lose weight.
Watching people struggle and work so hard for such minimal pay and absolutely no chance of advancement and false promises of bonuses and higher pay made me profoundly sad. Working at Alorica has changed the way in which I view labor rights, pay equality, labor issues in general. The entire experience was surreal. I do not recommmend working there. It’s like the frog in the boiling pot of water. If you place a frog in a boiling pot of water it jumps out and lives. If you place it in a pot of water and slowly turn up the heat, it becomes accustomed and eventually dies.
It was a level of stress that is simply not worth it. No truth in hiring, simply set up to fail.
