r/callcentres

Flashbacks keep popping up of frustrating calls.

I've just remembered this guy calling and I asked how I can help. He replied "well you tell me!"

Confused I asked if we had sent him an email or letter to call, he said yes.

I'm like okay, did the letter or email say what it was you were to call about (as I can't see anything on the system).

Him, you tell me!

Me, okay so if you don't know I can look through emails and letters we've issued but it will take about 10 mins (exaggerated the time but it's a huge process).

Him, well you had better do that then!!

Me was it email or letter, so I know where to start.

Him, you tell me!

Me okay.......yup I've looked through all emails and letters and I can't find anything. We've issued a statement and that's all in the last year!

Him yes that's it?!

Me (losing will tolive)

Okay where is it saying to call us.

Him "right here, if you need help, call us on this number!"

Me......so you have the letter in front of you??????

Do you need help?

Him oh I thought I had to call!

I'd get these calls daily, they really messed with my mind.

Usually older callers

I know it’s not really a question but I work in a call center that takes mostly inbound calls but outbound calls are also in the mix when it’s busy and the caller requests to be called back to hold their place in line.

For the longest time callbacks that did not answer and went to voicemail were my friend. I would leave a super long and detailed message. Then I would choose the option to replay the message. I would replay it 2 times, sometimes 3 times. Also would replay the voicemail option menu before actually sending the message. This would create a call of over 10 minutes. This was all good until some needs to get a life manager discovered this.

What’s worse if it was a problem, why didn’t they tell me right away and not wait until they had several calls.

I’ve been in customer service for almost 15 years, and something in me has completely shut down over the past year.

I used to care about performance, targets, quality scores, customer experience, all of it. Even when jobs were stressful, there was still some sense of pride in doing the work well.

Now? I honestly don’t care anymore. Not because I’m lazy, but because I feel mentally exhausted in a way I can’t properly explain.

The weirdest part is how physical it has become.

Before logging in, I already feel anxious. The moment I hear the incoming call sound, my body tenses up. During shifts, I get constant headaches that feel like pressure building inside my skull. Sometimes it genuinely feels like my head is going to explode while talking to customers.

What messes with me is that outside of work, this doesn’t happen.

I can listen to loud metal music for hours and feel completely fine. Gaming relaxes me. Music relaxes me. Silence relaxes me. But the second I start talking to customers back-to-back for hours, the headaches start almost immediately.

It’s like my brain has started associating customer interaction itself with stress and danger.

And honestly, I think I’ve mentally checked out of the entire industry. I still do the job because bills exist, but emotionally, I feel disconnected from it. Targets don’t motivate me anymore.

Threats don’t scare me anymore. Even the idea of getting fired barely registers because I already feel drained all the time.

Has anyone else in long-term customer service or call center work hit this point where your mind and body just… stopped cooperating?

Company Ive been working at for 3 years is going through a messy merger so they’re running us so thin and making all these changes that really don’t make any sense for employees or the company. Now they’ve been pushing us to do way more work than what our stats require.

Im consistently top 5 in our dept of 30 people and they still push me to do more. I asked leadership what the incentive of us doing more work when we’re already exceeding our personal stats. My DM decided to interpret this as me questioning my job role and threatening to fire me in writing if I continue to ask valid questions to my coach/manager.

It’s so stupid and they didn’t even bother to acknowledge the amount of work I already do

I’m trapped in my health care call center job because I’m trying to get back on my feet, currently living with friends. It pays better than anything in my friends’ area so I’m trying to hold on, but the anxiety has been eating me alive and it’s making me feel physically ill. I’m seeing a psychiatrist soon.

Lately I’ve been fantasizing about going off on rude patients (of course I would not, and also understand it’s usually not specifically me they’re upset at, it’s just tough to deal with) and I’m wondering if any of you ever talked back to someone at a CC job you were leaving or something. I need some catharsis lol

Yeah another racist scum on the call. As usual, I was asking him probing questions to get the root cause of his concern. “ hello? Can you do your damn job faster? I don’t have time to do these all and answer your irrelevant questions “.

…dodged it off, told him that the questions were asked just to get the main issue sorted. NO , “listen mam, I’m not understanding what you’re saying, and you’re not doing your damn job”, after 30 GODDAMN SECOND on mute. I said I’m getting all troubleshooting steps for you so we can resolve this.

“Can i get another person who knows what they’re doing? And not some fucking indian? Give the phone to someone who’s white.”

Ruined my entire fucking day, clocked out, I don’t care. Cried miserably on my damn birthday. I hope he have GOOD DAY of his miserable as f life.

People on my team have "dance parties" where they post gifs of people dancing literally everyday. They act like theyre fired up to make 22 a hour for 2k+ call attempts a week. I feel like it sends a bad message to managment. This is a dead end job. They have absolutely no chance for a promotion. Only peoole who get promoted already have friends or family higher up. Im not sure if they realize that. Are you a dance party person? If so why? Im tired of scrolling through 50 dumb posts to find the single line my manager post about important information.

Edit: Thank you all for your responses, they have been enlightening.

I no longer work in a call center per se, but take inbound calls and provide in-person customer service. Today, I had someone ask me to print out some documents because they lack a computer and printer. They are literal millionaires, but refuse to use technologies that have been commonplace 30+ years.

Almost every call center job I've had exists solely because people don't know how to use Google(or AI).

Call centers have made me realize how incredibly broken our economy is.

I’m hanging on strong with this job but I swear it’s like they want you to quit.

So today I clocked for lunch at 1:46 about a minute late from the 1:45 time my lunch is. I take my lunch everything is fine and I go back to my desk (2:46. On the hour) and I see that I was taken out of lunch and put into ready and that I had a call that had been on for two minutes! Even worse the mic was picking up on my coworkers and the cx thought that was me! I wasn’t able to take control before he hung up and I read the transcript and god it was bad.

Just when I thought it couldn’t be worst there was a second script open and that was for five minutes!? I was originally thinking it was just a new policy and that now if you aren’t ready when you’re supposed to they’ll force you ready (which is damn ridiculous if true) but that previous call shows they put me in ready when I would have been on my scheduled lunch! They’ve never done this before and now it’s happening? That’s so weird and it’s not just me my cub neighbor had a similar experience today where she was on her schedule break and she was put on call! I don’t understand why they are doing this!? Has this ever happened to you guys before?

I'm 75 and I find it difficult paying my card! Right ok so you can't pay by card which has been around since 1987 a year before I was born and im doing just fine with it, but you find it easier by cheque, isn't paying by cheque more difficult than just inputting numbers off a card. I swear boomers are so exhausting. The guy would have been in his 40s when debit cards were introduced but wants to make an issue out of it because we dont accept cash or cheque.

I have major respect for those who actually like their call center job… in theory, it should be easy. You take calls, you make tickets, and move on with your day. You have stuff to do in between calls, but you can barely get to them when you have constant incoming calls and you’re expected to be on ready all the time.

Every day, I crack more and more. I have completely lost motivation to talk to anybody after one 10 hour shift, I’ve developed phone anxiety to the point any vibration, ring tone, or notification of a call incoming causes me to become irritated and raises my heart rate. I’m sick of people yelling at me for the shit I cannot control within the company. I am sick of people calling me for non-emergencies when they are supposed to put in a ticket themselves. I am sick of HR departments not having their own button to press on the call tree instead of just calling me and bitching because they go to voicemail and can’t speak to someone right away for something they poorly timed.

I have been trying for months to leave, but no other department will hire me. I can’t quit as I have bills and a wedding to pay for.

I am so miserable. Waking up each morning for my job does not feel good anymore.

Working out does wonder to the mind and body. I also invest in stock market and occupy myself reading and watching news relates to the market.

I've been noticing just how much like cults these call centers are, I work outbound sales and been doing it for 2 years now, upper management and the supervisors below them all believe the service we provide actually benefits ppl, when it's all just for health insurance companies to make more money, I watched a man on yt that's worked in call centers for years and it's so true what he said "this is where all the misfits go to work" these places are full of weirdos

Always heard negative things about working in a call center but always thought people were exaggerating , how bad can an 8 hours working from home job be right ? I don’t think my mental or physical health ever been worse than they have this last month.
My hat is off to anyone who is capable of enduring this job , I really am proud of you.

Just got done with an interview. Apparently there is a mandatory 60 day class at the beginning. What is the class for?? 60 days seems quite excessive, to be honest, and i didnt expect that

I worry bcs its a lot of days id have to take off work if they are long classes and i got a ticket so i will have to miss one morning to go to court at least. are the classes super long typically?

i dont want to drain my savings before i even get started on a new job. I cant quit my old job til i get a new one. I cant just spend two months not making any money before i even start the job.

Yesterday, a colleague of mine took their own life. I don’t know every detail, but it’s hard not to connect the dots when you’ve lived this job long enough. The constant pressure, the metrics, the monitoring, the feeling that you’re never doing enough no matter how much you give. It builds up quietly, and for some people, it becomes too much.

This line of work can wear you down in ways that aren’t obvious at first. You start your day already tense. Every call feels like it’s being judged. AHT, QA, CSAT, adherence, escalation handling, targets stacked on targets. You’re expected to be calm, empathetic, efficient, and perfect, even when you’re mentally exhausted or dealing with your own life outside work. And the worst part is, nobody really talks about how heavy that gets over time.

No metric is worth your mental health. Not a single one. No job is worth pushing yourself to a breaking point where you feel like there’s no way out. Companies will always have targets. That won’t change. But you have to draw a line for yourself somewhere, because they won’t do it for you.

For me, the only reason I stay somewhat grounded is because I’ve found escapes that actually help. Music and gaming. Stuff that pulls me out of that constant pressure loop, even if just for a while. Lately, I’ve been listening to Bloodclock by Fleshgod Apocalypse, and there’s a line in it that just sticks: “I’m not dead yet.” It sounds simple, but in moments where everything feels overwhelming, it hits differently. It reminds me to hold on, even when the day feels unbearable.

I’m not saying music or gaming fixes everything. It doesn’t. But having something, anything, that gives your mind a break can make a difference. It gives you space to breathe, to reset, to remind yourself that your life is bigger than your job.

If you’re reading this and you’re in this industry, please take care of yourself. Seriously. Step away when you need to. Don’t let numbers define your worth. Talk to someone if things feel too heavy. Find something that helps you decompress, whether it’s music, games, workouts, or just being alone in silence for a bit.

And if you’re struggling more than you’re letting on, please don’t keep it bottled up. You don’t have to carry it alone.

This job can push people to the edge. Yesterday proved that in the worst way possible. Don’t let it take you there too.

Idk if this job has made me bitter or something but everybody that calls my job acts brain dead. Most of the people can’t even tell you the reason they are calling and get mad at you for not knowing the reason they are calling. Then you ask them question to help figure out why they get mad and don’t want to answer the questions, like why would I automatically know why you called ?? Then there’s the people that are rude asf then expect you to bend the rules for them, why would I put my job on the line for someone who could not even show me basic human decency. And the “ they let me do it last time” people knowing that they are lying piss me off the most. I just say well they were supposed to, or you are welcome to keep calling back until you speak with the person that allowed you to do the first time.

This subreddit has let me vent so much and you guys made me feel less alone for the 1 year and a half that I’ve been at this place that is practically hell. I went to an interview today at an airport store which is a huge airport. I make $26 an hour at my current call center job, I will make $22 an hour at the airport gig but I will make more at the airport job because my current company is in NY and they take a shit load out on taxes. I am in Florida so we don’t have state taxes here. My aunt who works at the airport gig literally makes more than what I make at the call center and there will be a raise on October for everyone to pretty much $23. It’s full time. Great benefits, pretty much the same ones I have now. The schedule at the beginning is not ideal but eventually I can move to 5 AM to 1:45 PM which is the perfect schedule for me. I went to the interview today and they gave me the job on the spot. Here’s the problem though, they want me to start on Monday. Which will not allow me to give my two weeks and although this job has destroyed me mentally, I wouldn’t like to leave on the wrong foot, I could technically work until Friday but I honestly don’t want to, I mentally can’t do this anymore (I’m bipolar and this job has caused back to back episodes due to immense stress). Any advice? I just feel bad because although I am on probation again due to being switched to different dept and I have new supervisors and managers, but still I feel guilt to just leave and not sure what to say.

I do want to say, that anyone stuck in this call center hell, there’s a way out. I’ve been applying for MONTHS, I lost hope more times than I can count. Shit I even became suicidal at many points. KEEP APPLYING, try to not lose hope and I wish all of you who wish to get out, find a job that gives you mental peace.

I've been really struggling with the Call Center life for awhile now. In my area the market is ultra fucked up so I've been stuck in it for about a year longer than I wanted to be.

Today is mother's day and my mom is super sick and unsure of how much time she has left here. I really don't want to miss these things if I can. But obviously, we gotta work, and sometimes we miss things, and that's life.

Our cc is pretty new to the company and it's very dysfunctional. On top of that, as we all know, customers can be very annoying. Calls are also back2back literally the entire shift, everyday. Pretty much a guaranteed recipe for burnout.

Today I clocked in for my dreadful shift. I took about two calls. Like 13 if you count our outbound voicemails. After the second live customer, my mind literally just went "Nope." Without hesitation, messaged the supervisor, clocked out, closed the laptop, and haven't looked back. I didn't even stick around long enough to see their response. I literally worked for like 40 minutes.

Part of me feels guilty because I know that as an adult it's irresponsible to leave work like that. But I am at a breaking point and I feel like my brain is not letting me do this anymore. I also read a post from awhile ago that you guys may be familiar with where a person talked about how somebody they knew took their own life over this call center stuff. I read the comments about people feeling like this job has also ruined them as people, or randos saying they knew somebody who changed after doing this job, and I have not been able to get it out of my head.

Anyways, I feel shame a bit. So just wanted to get it off of my chest and rant a bit.

I've worked in call centers and service type jobs for 10+ years. And man. I think its time we got unionized.

People say these types of jobs are "unskilled" but they wouldn't last even two hours on a high-volume day. Do you know how much skill it takes to sit there calmly when you're being screamed at? To respond with a level of professionalism that makes you feel like a robot? To not demand that client pull up then and come get these hands? The level of violence is crazy.

People look down on call center and customer service jobs like whole companies wouldn't crumble in 2 minutes if we all got up and walked out. Who would help the clients? Sales? Back Office?? Management??? Upper Management????

Not to mention, I really hate that some people look at you like "aw you didn't pick the right college degree that's why you have this job". No. That's not what happened, Susan. College grads haven't been getting hired in their chosen field since the 2010s. It's not an us problem. It's a corporate problem.

Call center and customer service jobs are the most undervalued jobs on the planet. We need to organize and demand more pay, more benefits and honestly either shorter work hours or more pto for mental health. If the companies want our metrics so bad, they need to cough up more. There's no reason imo that a team lead should make 3-4x more than a rep when they couldn't even take a call even if you handed them a script.

I know it's hard to get people to organize. But nothings going to change if we don't demand more. These companies need us or their bottom line suffers. They need us more than they need upper managers and directors, just think about it.