Burnout Rant

Image: Stressed call center agent

Call center work is burning me out. For the past year I’ve been working in a strictly sales position (and I am not a salesperson by profession) with no break in my work routine. There is also no work-life balance to speak of and it’s wearing me down.

Several times throughout my tenure there I have tried to go into other positions to get out of the aggressive and often dirty sales tactics we’re forced to use. Twice I’ve applied for a position in Quality Assurance and been denied, another time I applied for just customer service and they wanted me for that however before I was able to make the move, they shut down that department! The only position for me to go into at this point would be a downgrade, both in position and pay, which I just can’t afford.

My shift, which I have no say in, takes up the portion of the day where I don’t have time before or after work to get anything done. As I’m leaving for work, things have just opened and after work, most things are already closed. I get home usually around 9pm, try to decompress from the day, eat, and pass out for a bit, then I’m awake for several hours because it’s screwed up my sleep schedule so bad. I try to be asleep again by 2am so I can be up by 9:30 to do it all again.

My health is legitimately suffering. My mental health is deteriorating. My stress levels are through the roof. Management is on us constantly, pushing us for more and bigger results at everyone’s expense. With the exception of the rare nice and civil person who calls in, most of the people on the other end of the phone are utter asshats who feel they can be abusive to a stranger with zero accountability. I take it from all angles. My anxiety over walking in on Monday mornings begins in my stomach on Sunday and I dread thinking of what I’ll be walking into. On the drive in, a 45 minute commute, I get heart palpitations that terrify me because often I feel like I’m going to pass out at the wheel while driving. That Monday morning meeting is always about how terrible we’ve done and how much harder we have to push. Stop pushing me!

So, for the almighty dollar, I keep plugging. I go in every morning only to hear how bad I am at my job, to get pushed harder and watched under the microscope, afraid to stop to breathe. I’ve had medical issues this year between COVID and heart issues brought on by the stress so I don’t have time off to use for a break. Plus, we are heading into the busy season where all time off requests are in the blackout period for most of the rest of the year. I need to be in therapy for C-PTSD and stress but I have no PTO with which to schedule it. I need 2 weeks off to breathe and reset but I can’t get to a doctor to recommend a short-term for mental health. I can’t afford to just leave because I’m already living paycheck to paycheck and I am the only income in my family. This job is gonna kill me.

F-Bombs

Have you ever had a memo come out at work as a “friendly reminder” about what is not to be done? Reiterating some obvious rule from the company code of conduct or a recent meeting topic that hasn’t had a chance to make it into the books yet? Every time one comes out, which is a couple times a month for us at Call Center X, we can’t help but wonder who did something so gastly that the rule beared repeating.


We get the usual:


“Please do not take food from the break room that isn’t yours.”
“Please do not bring your cell phone onto the call floor.”
“Please remember all cups must have lids.”


We get the unusual:


“Please do not deposit feces in the bathroom trash cans.”
“Please refrain from engaging in public intimacy.”
“Please do not approach, feed, or touch the alligators.” (That was me.)


Another one that was me:


“Please refrain from using foul language in the group chat.”


Yep, it happened. Give me a break guys, I was having a stressful day and it slipped. All the systems were crashing, it was impossible to work, and someone asked if it was just them. I said nope, all my systems are completely fuckered. The silence after I hit Send was so deafening you could hear the collective gasp from workstations throughout the tri-county area. Oops. It was at that moment I realized how many managers I actually answer to. They all immediately appeared in my private messages.


I apologized dozens of times, after which I got tired of trying to make amends and just landed in the, “you know what, fuck it, I’m only human and we all have bad days” mindset. That afternoon, the memo came out. Everyone knew who the impetus was for this one. They were all there. I didn’t hear any more about it though I’m certain it will be in my annual review. All I can do is move forward and maybe take a little more CBD before I log in for the day. It does make me a nicer person 😉