Pros
Great for building basic office skills. You also get the chance to create a launching pad for your career. But you do need to be focused on what your own Professional goals are! Have them written down, and know where you want to go. Managers will help you achieve them while also making sure you are pushed to succeed in their goals for the CSR role. Admittedly, while you are able to grow, it is highly unlikely that they will acknowledge your achievements in your Quarterly Review or if you ask for a raise or promotion. If you are looking to work here: It really is great if you can figure out what you want and need from it. A lot of management is micro and controlling and overly aware of your actions even when you feel you are succeeding (especially when succeeding). This is where the opportunity is for you to let them help you grow. When this “opportunity” arises, be sure to know what ways you’d like to succeed. They will provide you with tools to do so and some fantastic insights into the corporate world. To be wise: Do what feels right to you and learn from what they can show you. But don’t spend too much time trying to achieve goals that feel disingenuous to any part of your true self.
Cons
Tldr; This role devalues independence, can be dehumanizing and consistently lacks positive reinforcement. Not valued as an employee. This is widespread in every facet. The pay is low, the acknowledgements are lacking, the pressure is immense. Expectations are to handle roughly 45 - 85 cases a day, if not more (and they push for more, always more). The tools they use to judge your work - like the Pillars of Excellence (aka QAs) and the average handle times - often make for asinine interactions and lose out on authenticity. When real authenticity is applied and the customer is retained by the interaction, the QA will still judge it as subpar or not judge it at all because of the length of the interaction (they judge the shortest calls for the most check boxes). This method dwindles the confidence of its employees while also make their working lives more difficult. When I voiced that some of their expectations are dehumanizing, it was met with the idea that I lacked accountability. This is not true. They laid out expectations (increasingly dehumanizing ones) and I applied every request. The issue was that I would use the restroom outside of the alotted 15 minute breaks (which are very strict, are specifically placed and cannot be broken up even for using the restroom). I strove to meet their requests and my own human needs in a number of ways and approaches. 3 ways, to be specific. Each way was not correct because the true expectation was for me to put my basic human needs aside and put forward the corporate ideal. Additionally, it was expected that I relay every time that I went to the restroom exactly what I was doing. When I voiced that this was dehumanizing, I was told I lacked accountability. (At this time I also held some of the highest KPIs on the floor and was a part of the top performing team)
