It wasn't always a bad job, but it steadily got worse and worse. This was not because of team members changing but due to the service offering tripling, other departments failing to do their tasks which got passed to the service team and a lack of strong management.
Major cons:
- High volume of calls (equivalent to a call centre)
- No respect from other departments.
- Pay is terrible compared to teachers.
- Management is unwilling to listen. Some of the Seniors were okay but most would just delegate work and prove to be incompetent when it came to escalations or tasks. Some more senior service management would palm off tasks that they themselves didn't know how to do or would try to lead the team but had done nothing to earn any respect or trust from their team.
- Head Office lied to the team during covid, claimed the systems couldn't be supported at home, but really they just didn't trust the team. When we went into lockdown, suddenly our systems could work from home.
- If you were good at your job you got more and more tasks, often the management team were unwilling to train newer members on all aspects of the job. More "trusted" or reliable team members were trained and as such had a lot of responsibilities, often taking escalations that were not in the job description.
- Had to take every single negative call that came in via the service line. Heads of departments and teachers refused to take accountability or responsibility for their teachers and their service delivery and would instead rely on the service team to take the brunt of it all. This is commonly acknowledged, yet nothing was done about it.
- Many team members left because their mental health could no longer deal with the job.
I would not recommend this job to anyone as you will be constantly abused by parents and forced to do work that isn't in the job description. You will be the only team with accountability and receive no respect from other departments.
There is no room for progression.