- Chaotic corporate structure. I was there for less than 5 years and weathered at least three major reorgs. One time my team was merged into another overnight with no forewarning. Another time my manager was let go during a major restructuring and a coworker and I were left wondering if we were also about to be let go for about 48 hours until someone confirmed that we would be moved to another team. Once an entire team was cut overnight only for two members to be rehired within a single business day. The constant change often left me feeling insecure and confused about who I ultimately reported to and what direction we were going in.
- Unequal treatment of global workforce. I know that based on cost of living and cultural differences, sometimes working conditions can vary dramatically from country to country. However I often felt that especially employees in the Philippines did not receive equitable wages while they were also expected to work much longer hours. They frequently had to work overnight shifts to align with USA time zones, even when they weren't doing call center work.
- Inconsistent workloads. Sometimes I would go for an entire week with barely anything to do and then suddenly have to work 9-13 hour days the following week. This was a pattern across multiple roles that I had. The constant shifting of structure, priorities, and projects led to a lot of wasted work and sitting around waiting for executives to make decisions only to be given extremely short turn around times to meet deadlines because so much time had been wasted waiting for the green light from leadership.
- Pressure to use AI in everything. There are some very useful applications for AI in this industry, especially around customer support and knowledge management. However we were also pressured to use generative AI for creating images and drafting communications. When I expressed moral qualms about utilizing such tools my direct manager seemed to be very understanding. However it was brought up to me every month or so in some new way and there was a lot of pressure from higher levels of leadership to find new ways to implement AI into every process even where it wasn't needed.
