Pros
Great benefits including free health, vision and dental insurance, frequent pay raises and good starting pay. Decent vacation, smart and interesting co-workers
Cons
Employees were squeezed to meet constantly moving performance targets and had the threat of termination hanging over them at all times. Management routinely mistreated and threatened employees. Excellent performance was simply not recognized. Communication about changes was extremely poor and agents were normally learned about new features from customers which adversely affected the ability to assist the customer with technology issues. Communication and cooperation between departments was horrible with co-workers frequently hanging up on each other and hanging up on customers in order to meet unrealistic target call times. Stress levels were extremely high and at least 75% of my co-workers had been or were being treated for stress and depression. Morale was always low because management failed to listen to either customers or employees. Internal software was poorly designed and frequently redundant. Internal software frequently crashed meaning it was virtually impossible to meet strict call guidelines because one often had to recreate customer problem reports more than once per call. Overtime was mandatory and often given at very short notice. Sick leave was not tolerated and extensive, very intrusive documentation was required to remove penalties for taking sick leave. Personal emergencies were not tolerated either and also resulted in penalties which could lead to termination. The shift work was horrible and it was impossible to schedule concert dates or schedule time with friends and family because frequently days off were not scheduled together. This meant that anyone working a late night or overnight shift never got a true full day off. No accommodation was made for people taking college classes and they had to scramble & beg to switch shifts with other co-workers to get time off for classes. The whole purpose of any management decision seemed to be designed to drive up stock prices at the expense of employees and customers. Jobs were quickly moved offshore while I worked there and I was eventually laid off courtesy of new Verizon call centers in Mexico, Philippines and India. It was the worst job I'd ever held and every minute of working there was like a prison sentence. No amount of money in the world will ever make me want to work for Verizon again.
