1) Unless you have the means to break through the doors to better, any promotions will only be to another phone role. I think another reviewer said the same. The turnover is high for the CSR/AFSR/FSR roles. My colleagues and I heard a lot in those earlier meetings with leadership about how possible it is to move up fast. In hindsight, perhaps that commentary was to keep our interest and lower those turnover rates. But, what's moving UP? Different kinds of calls. But still calls. That’ not necessarily a bad thing if you’re okay with heavy phone roles. This is not to minimIze the importance of anyone’s position because we all want different things. Just letting you know what UP might look like.
2) I agree with the reviewer who cautioned others about coming on board unless they’re already dead inside. If you care about your mental health, this might not be the place for you. As someone in leadership told the group I was in soon after starting: "This job WILL affect your mental health." That person has now moved on to bigger and better things. But they called it as they had seen and experienced it. As soon as it started to affect me, I began putting my departure plan together and the company, with its continued way of doing things (or rather NOT doing things) helped me make my move sooner rather than later. Read on.
3) Few, excluding the trainers, cared except for those colleagues I was fortunate to meet. We tried to lift one another up until we could get out of the hell we were in. I’d heard that a couple of the floor managers were really good and helpful but, assuming that's even true, I was not on those teams. I'd been trying to have conversations with the "right" people for months about certain challenges and most were avoidant. One person was really proactive about wanting to talk to me once I shared a little of my experience, and a little is all I was willing to share until I developed trust. That opportunity never came. The person left, and their replacement was the total opposite. They stood me up for a planned meeting, which I practically had to beg for, and evaded talking to me about my situation. Their boss was about the same. I saw them active in Slack and reached out and was flat out ignored. I resigned that very day because it was the final straw of running behind them.
4) Employees' calls with their names were played for trainees and picked apart. From a respect standpoint, it's not good should you end up on a team together.
5) Time off was advertised as a perk upon hire, but you weren’t allowed to take it if you were on the floor - emergency or not. Or maybe it depends on your team. My experience was that if you were the first line of contact for customers, you had to work every holiday they advertised that the company was off, unless that was a regular day off for the representative. Extra pay was awarded for working, but it didn't replace family time if that was the attraction.
6) Depending on your team, the leads could be condescending, rude, and impatient in Slack and verbally. Yet they were always saying "team" this and "team" that. My team manager and leads failed to create an environment of support, trust, encouragement, or building up. Instead, it was quite the contrary. It could have come from their own insecurities and not really knowing what they were doing even if they knew more than their representatives.
7) The coaching on the floor was inadequate and Slack responses were poor, depending on the team. They were one word answers, yet, the representatives were expected to provide a LOT of detail on the issues placed in the team chat. Sometimes the responses were a link to a Salesforce article that was already read and made no sense - hence the reason help was sought in the first place. Sometimes I waited and waited for someone to give guidance, then went back and forth in a dialogue with leadership's one word responses, BEGGED for real explanations for what seemed like forever, and meantime customers were waiting and hold times were jeopardized. All of this was because they didn't know how to or wouldn't help. One day, my manger and lead told me they couldn't help because they were in a meeting. So I asked the second team leader for help - the one who was usually very unpleasant...or MORE unpleasant than the others because none of this team was nice. The lead claimed to be leaving. “Sorry, no. I’m about to head out.” So there I was stuck on a call with no help. This was common and happened with escalations, too. No one seemed to want to take ownership. I eventually started calling other departments to ask questions so my contact with them would be limited.
8) Just because the managers and leads had been in the business a long time didn't mean they were skilled in team building and management. As an example, I received a welcome email when I got on a team and it was full of chastisement which made me feel anything BUT welcome. Finger wagging and negative language (DON'T, NOT, CAN'T, NEVER, NO and lots of exclamation points) throughout the email. It was indicative of my experience on the team.
9) EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of time at work was dictated and monitored. This might come as no surprise as it's both call center and financial services culture. I felt more like a machine than a person. I suggest employees take note of how long it takes leaders to respond to questions on calls that they later blame you for taking too long to handle; if they frequently and purposefully look over your questions; and if they're being mean or punishing towards you like the team leader who was absolutely horrible to me and went out of the way to praise others to TRY to create competition and a sense of jealousy. I saw right through this and eventually found some humor in the behavior. See, no matter what was done, it still didn't make me want E*TRADE and especially not my team. I had already checked out once I started noticing the negativity.
