You’ve seen the types of call centre jobs, average pay and hours worked.
So now let’s take an even deeper look at them.
Let’s find out how stressful call centre jobs are.
Here’s what call centre workers shared about how stressful their jobs are:
| % workers who are stressed |
Yes | 73% |
No | 27% |
As you can see, almost three quarters of call centre workers are stressed.
Let’s look into the reasons why.
Do you get breaks on call centre jobs?
A big cause of stress can be overworking. So let’s see if call centre workers are taking proper breaks.
| % workers who get proper breaks |
Yes | 62% |
No | 38% |
It’s good to see that the majority of call centre workers get to take proper breaks.
It’s really important to have a proper rest break during work. This allows you to take time to relax and re-energise, ready for the rest of your shift.
Whilst the majority of call centre workers take proper breaks, are they paid for them? Let’s see.
| % workers who get paid breaks |
No | 57% |
Yes | 42% |
Sadly, most call centre workers don’t get paid when they take breaks.
Whilst it’s good that most are able to take breaks, they should be paid for them.
All workers should be paid for all the time they are at work.
What is the management like at call centres?
Most call centre workers are taking proper breaks (although most of them are not paid for), so let’s see what else could be contributing to their stress.
With any customer service job, there’s the potential to deal with tricky customers.
In fact, one call centre worker shared the following as the worst thing about their job:
“Taking abuse from customers and getting no support”
How well your manager supports you is important, especially when dealing with difficult customers.
This can make a huge impact on how you can take on the challenges of the job.
So let’s look at what call centre workers think about management.
Here’s what call centre workers shared about their managers:
| % workers who feel respected by their managers |
Yes | 63% |
No | 37% |
It’s good to see that the majority of call centre workers feel supported by their manager. As we discussed, this is really important for a job that involves working with the public.
Let’s go up the line a little bit. What do call centre workers think about senior management and head office?
| % workers who think head office understands what’s happening where they work? |
No | 60% |
Yes | 20% |
Unsure | 12% |
No answer given | 2% |
As you can see, the majority of call centre workers don’t think that head office understands what’s happening and what call centre jobs are really like.
Here’s some examples of what call centre workers have shared around this:
“Continually changing the commission structure”
“Stretch targets, as only 60 percent of the workforce will ever make bonus”
“Unnecessary pressure from higher management”
“Some managerial decisions baffle me!”
“No leadership, a place-the-blame mentality”
“Micromanaged times, including toilet breaks”
From this, you can see that there can be a lot of confusion, pressure and strictness on call centre jobs that come from senior leadership.
All this can lead to a very stressful environment to work in.
So although line managers can be okay to work with, the decisions of head office and senior management have a big impact on how stressed call centre workers are.