Working in a call center makes me want to kill myself even more

[huntrix#1fan]

I work everyday from 10am to 7pm, with a one hour break. For eight hours I sit in a chair and get berated by angry people. I get yelled at, cursed at, insulted, etc. My bosses are not much better. They micromanage everything and make me stressed at all times. I can't do this anymore. This can not be my life. I want to quit so bad but I have rent and bills to pay. My mental health has suffered way to much for $19 an hour

 

[Suspect_Device]

I feel you. Sedentary, thankless, stressful work is hell, I'm in the same boat. People can be such miserable selfish fucks.

 

[Hollowman]

I heard ai will take over call center jobs soon.

 

[huntrix#1fan]

I heard ai will take over call center jobs soon.

lol not soon enough

 

[joey2424]

I worked in a call centre for a couple years. I used to have nightmares after my shifts just about taking calls. I took a pay cut to leave, it was worth it. I hope you at least have coworkers you can vent with.

 

[Raven2]

I dont know how you do that job. That's one job I could never do. I'd breakdown all the time with stress of it, your a strong person. Maybe you could look for a new job.

 

[Santana Idaho]

I had to quit working at QVC two weeks into training because I was fucking up so bad with my anxiety, and I wanted to kill myself every day. They kept telling me to read the knowledge base, but we're helping live customers... I also wanted to do it at my first job as a library page. Cold. Coworkers gossiping over a 15 year old. I didn't know this was retail! I can't stand obligations. Feels like a trap.

Hey, I work for Welocalize W2 and RWS and Appen Crowdgen 1099. It's data annotation for either Google or Meta, but you won't be told that's what you're working on. I've got a few jobs going that I'm not doing because I just tried to work for a few minutes today, and I almost blew a gasket out of frustration over my time limit at Welocalize. But if you can handle call center work, this won't be but a thing.

Pros:

No interview (I'm terrible. I don't understand what they want me to say. I've never gotten hired from an interview.)

No schedule, just requirements for payroll and a min and max number of hours.

You can work in public or private. Welocalize needs a Hotspot, though.

Cons:

Feast or Famine with 1099

Welocalize has the most confusing standards and guidelines, so this job is stressful because of the company.

 

[TheHolySword]

I work in a call center and it's actually an upgrade from my previous role with the organization. The only downside is not seeing people everyday as that will really wear down your mental health.

 

[hopemeetshopeless]

Oh wow. This is literally exactly what I am struggling with. I'm 35 next month. I've worked at shitty call centers since I was 18. With exception of a very few short jobs it's the only kind of job I've had for basically 15 years. This one is one of the worst by far. It's a billing call center for a cable company. Just like you said, every call every day is extremely angry, rude, heartless, ignorant and idiotic customer's screaming at me for things I didn't cause and the company doesn't give me tools to fix. Customer's will curse at me, mock me, literally insult me, talk over me CONSTANTLY when I'm just trying to answer their questions. every 5 minutes they want a supervisor who also can't do anything. I'm tired of being emotionally and verbally abused every day. I'm tired of being treated like an emotional punching bag. I called out of work today and put my 12 ga shotgun to my head. I'm still working on getting the courage to pull the trigger but I'm getting closer. I've tried and tried and tried to find another job but no matter how much I apply no one contacts me back. There are a million other serious mental health and life reasons that I want to end my life but being stuck at this fuck as hell of a call center is the primary and main one BY FAR.

 

[unluckysadness]

I feel you. My previous work gave me a disability because too much stress. I worked in a hospital... and the hospital made me ill... And when you're sick and cannot work anymore, nobody asks if you're going better. We are just numbers, here to pay bills and slaves for this shitty society.
Yes, work can kill. If you're able to quit your job, do it. But we're trapped with these fucking bills. We must work just to survive and pay taxes. Modern life is definitively a scam.

 

[Leonard_Bangley39]

When you work any retail or customer service position, everything is your fault no matter what. Customer comes in with a problem you've never heard of? Your fault for not knowing how to help. Customer crashes out because they cant get a full refund on something even though the store clearly states no refunds? Your fault. Miss a day of work because you got sick? Your fault.

Retail and customer service are the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to employment. With hard labor jobs like construction, welding, working a garbage truck, yeah the work is hard. But at least you get payed good enough to not worry about most things.

But in retail and customer service, you get treated like subhuman AND get paid dlave wages in return, not even enough to cover rent in most areas. "Oh, but its easy work, you just sit around all day." No the fuck it isnt. Just because you arent hauling tons of cargo day in and day out or clocking 36 hour shifts in at the ball crushing factory doesnt mean retail and customer service isnt hard.

That shit drains your soul and errodes your mind. It drives you insane. Im genuinely convinced that 90% of the policies and shit that most retail jobs have like not being allowed to use your phone, listen to music with earbuds, or even just fucking sit down are purely made just to try and maximize your suffering because the ceo bigwigs like inflicting torment in their workers.

When I say that i would sooner kill myself than go back to working retail, i fucking mean it. I mean, I'm here arent i?

 

[snow_in_summer]

I work everyday from 10am to 7pm, with a one hour break. For eight hours I sit in a chair and get berated by angry people. I get yelled at, cursed at, insulted, etc. My bosses are not much better. They micromanage everything and make me stressed at all times. I can't do this anymore. This can not be my life. I want to quit so bad but I have rent and bills to pay. My mental health has suffered way to much for $19 an hour

Customer service just sucks. idk, having done it I always just try to be empathetic because I know what limitations you're under when you do the job. Literally just feels like "don't shoot the messenger" the job.

Here's where I go off topic and ask who your favorite Huntrix member is (Mira, ok)

 

[J&L383]

I work everyday from 10am to 7pm, with a one hour break. For eight hours I sit in a chair and get berated by angry people. I get yelled at, cursed at, insulted, etc. My bosses are not much better. They micromanage everything and make me stressed at all times. I can't do this anymore. This can not be my life. I want to quit so bad but I have rent and bills to pay. My mental health has suffered way to much for $19 an hour

I worked at a call center some years ago and I sympathize with you.

 

[Worndown]

I understand. Long ago I ocassionally worked on a crew that cleaned a call center. Some form of marketing/sales.

It was the most cruel work environment I have seen outside chain-gang movies.

All young, no chance to succeed and late 20's managers eager to take you down a few more pegs.

Tears, depression, anger added to the normal angst of a bunch of young people in an office.

At least I got to escape!

 

[emilyprentiss]

your username made me smile, who is your favorite? mine is mira.
i have to say that people are inherently selfish and really don't care about anyone. in most people's eyes customer service are just these abstract and inconsequential people they can treat however they want, take out their aggression and their difficult days on because it has no ramifications on their daily life whereas being on the receiving end of this behavior will rot away at you inside. another thing about humans: sad we are created without being asked if we want to be born then forced to work for survival. i hope you find a better job, you don't deserve this.

 

[Suspect_Device]

When you work any retail or customer service position, everything is your fault no matter what. Customer comes in with a problem you've never heard of? Your fault for not knowing how to help. Customer crashes out because they cant get a full refund on something even though the store clearly states no refunds? Your fault. Miss a day of work because you got sick? Your fault.

Retail and customer service are the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to employment. With hard labor jobs like construction, welding, working a garbage truck, yeah the work is hard. But at least you get payed good enough to not worry about most things.

But in retail and customer service, you get treated like subhuman AND get paid dlave wages in return, not even enough to cover rent in most areas. "Oh, but its easy work, you just sit around all day." No the fuck it isnt. Just because you arent hauling tons of cargo day in and day out or clocking 36 hour shifts in at the ball crushing factory doesnt mean retail and customer service isnt hard.

That shit drains your soul and errodes your mind. It drives you insane. Im genuinely convinced that 90% of the policies and shit that most retail jobs have like not being allowed to use your phone, listen to music with earbuds, or even just fucking sit down are purely made just to try and maximize your suffering because the ceo bigwigs like inflicting torment in their workers.

When I say that i would sooner kill myself than go back to working retail, i fucking mean it. I mean, I'm here arent i?

Yeah it really sucks, retail wasn't always as terrible as it is now. Capitalism really ruined it and private equity fucks are just draining every store they can get their hands on. Any brick and mortar operation that isn't Wal Mart/Target (which also suck) is just being held together by like two people and metaphorical duct tape. Go into any Family Dollar store and just feel the horror.

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Also having a public facing job, I've encountered exactly what you're describing nearly everyday I go to work and it's terrible. I hope all of us here can get away from these shitty jobs, because they can and will drain you slowly and take their toll. The worst is when you know the environment is so toxic and unproductive, but you'll still have co-workers around defending things that are unacceptable - the level of bootlicking it takes for people to defend not having enough staff, being insulted by customs, it's terrible.

 

[Pale_Rider]

Don't shoot me, but I sold extended warranties for a few months. Absolutely hated the job. Not only am I a terrible liar, but I wasn't prepared for all the angry people who didn't want a warranty.

 

[flowereater]

My mental health was the worst it ever was when I worked at a call center. I struggle now for other reasons. I hope you are eventually able to move into something less distressing. I was at that job for 3 years before I was feasibly able to get something else.

 

[metfan647]

Oh wow. This is literally exactly what I am struggling with. I'm 35 next month. I've worked at shitty call centers since I was 18. With exception of a very few short jobs it's the only kind of job I've had for basically 15 years. This one is one of the worst by far. It's a billing call center for a cable company. Just like you said, every call every day is extremely angry, rude, heartless, ignorant and idiotic customer's screaming at me for things I didn't cause and the company doesn't give me tools to fix. Customer's will curse at me, mock me, literally insult me, talk over me CONSTANTLY when I'm just trying to answer their questions. every 5 minutes they want a supervisor who also can't do anything. I'm tired of being emotionally and verbally abused every day. I'm tired of being treated like an emotional punching bag. I called out of work today and put my 12 ga shotgun to my head. I'm still working on getting the courage to pull the trigger but I'm getting closer. I've tried and tried and tried to find another job but no matter how much I apply no one contacts me back. There are a million other serious mental health and life reasons that I want to end my life but being stuck at this fuck as hell of a call center is the primary and main one BY FAR.

Wow, similar story here. I'm 37 and I've also done call centres for about 15 years apart from a few roles when I tried something different. I must have gone through about 10 different call centres in the city I lived in before this place. That city was like a hub in the UK for contact centres and it just became my default to always apply for them, get burned out then onto the next. Fuck...what a sad story. My own doing but I struggle with self-esteem and social anxiety and the interview process for better jobs is too tough/scrutinising (panel interviews, presentations etc.).

My current customer service role is for a bank and they are absolute tyrants. The compliance and stats requirements are insane.

 

[huntrix#1fan]

I had to quit working at QVC two weeks into training because I was fucking up so bad with my anxiety, and I wanted to kill myself every day. They kept telling me to read the knowledge base, but we're helping live customers... I also wanted to do it at my first job as a library page. Cold. Coworkers gossiping over a 15 year old. I didn't know this was retail! I can't stand obligations. Feels like a trap.

Hey, I work for Welocalize W2 and RWS and Appen Crowdgen 1099. It's data annotation for either Google or Meta, but you won't be told that's what you're working on. I've got a few jobs going that I'm not doing because I just tried to work for a few minutes today, and I almost blew a gasket out of frustration over my time limit at Welocalize. But if you can handle call center work, this won't be but a thing.

Pros:

No interview (I'm terrible. I don't understand what they want me to say. I've never gotten hired from an interview.)

No schedule, just requirements for payroll and a min and max number of hours.

You can work in public or private. Welocalize needs a Hotspot, though.

Cons:

Feast or Famine with 1099

Welocalize has the most confusing standards and guidelines, so this job is stressful because of the company.

Thank you for the advice <3

 

[huntrix#1fan]

Customer service just sucks. idk, having done it I always just try to be empathetic because I know what limitations you're under when you do the job. Literally just feels like "don't shoot the messenger" the job.

Here's where I go off topic and ask who your favorite Huntrix member is (Mira, ok)

Mira girl for life!

 

[X-sanguinate86]

I can also attest to the fact that the supervisors at call center type jobs are usually made of dog feces. They usually also have an underling kapo who they use to abuse the other wage hostages. It's way uglier than most people could ever imagine. Where I worked some years ago the POS manager/supervisor had a strange relationship with another POS who they used to "train" people. The POS manager would actually be conspicuously absent whenever the POS kapo would be training someone. I realized after seeing it happen a few times that this was so that the POS kapo could have free reign to berate and abuse people to the point of breaking them to tears without the POS manager having to say anything since they just happened not to be there. It was irredeemably unethical with an extra dose of sadism involved. This is just an average call center in a well-regarded city in a well-regarded country...most people have no idea how disgusting a place this is.