If you make enough money for the company... any breaking of the rules that apply to the employees, and sometimes even laws are brushed off Including yelling, taunting, and being down right RUDE to the consumer. (Which is violating a law), being excessively tardy (more days then not) and sometimes just not coming in, they’ll look past, having your phone out as well for the most part. (Again, breaking a LAW).
On the other hand, if you are an average employee or someone who struggles with reaching your bonus, be prepared to be nit picked, micro-managed, and receive more criticism then encouragement. You will be held to a stricter standard on tardiness, absences, talking too loudly, or taking to much time on a call, even if you do so to make sure the consumer receives the most accurate information, and the best experience they can.
Be very aware that they have a manager who currently will read messages between collectors and gossip and criticize things that are not breaking any rule, or that aren’t inappropriate for the workplace. Monitoring messages is a must when it is done to insure that we are protecting our consumers, and not violating any laws. Consistent snooping and commenting on simple back and forth between coworkers is unnecessary, and a complete waste of company resources.
Employees feel like we are expected to be drones. No laughing, no friendships formed. You come in and put your headset on, work, and get criticized on anything you’ve done wrong (though sometimes it is constructive) and you leave. They don’t take time to build a culture, we do no team bonding activities, that aren’t unpaid. Management takes no time to get to know you, and makes it very clear that you as a person (what’s going on in your personal life outside of work) does not matter in a sense of respecting you as a whole individual employee, instead YOU. ARE. STATS. I have never once been compliment or had my work acknowledged in a good way, without it being followed by a criticism, ever. You have a weekly review where they point out the mistakes you made and also what you are doing well performance wise... which is helpful. Not once have I, or those around me been pulled into a meeting where the purpose was to check in with us or to give praise on something well done.
You will be critiqued on your production, but if you ask how others stats seem similar, or even worse then your own, you will be told not to compare. Then you are told how much worse you are doing COMPARATIVELY to other employees. It’s an immense double standard that leaves MUCH confusion.
One member of management has a hobby of messaging the entire floor “reminders” on rules that she has seen one employee, or a few employees violating. AGAIN, leading to mass confusion, and time spent not earning towards your goal as you take time to clarify why the message was sent to you, and if possibly it applies to you. Same member of management will often send you messages commenting on your bathroom usage (highly inappropriate) even if it’s minimal time spent. Again, taking your time away from collecting.. instead addressing something that is not even within the scope of the managers job description.
Recently they passed around a list of vague information on a few consumers we currently have, explaining tragedies in their lives, and nominating them to receive a write off of their debt. (Violating the same laws we are critiqued on) and asking us to list “our top three” we thought deserved the write off. Again, all this time spent off of doing your job. Being asked to rate people’s pain, as to who you think deserves it the most, is truly dehumanizing. These are individuals who suffered tragedies including: deaths, suicide attempts, becoming a widow, cancer diagnosis’s etc... all information that shouldn’t be shared between collectors because of the law, Something that if you did as a collector, would be grounds for termination, again a double standard.
The actual job itself, collecting is very rewarding, and I wouldn’t say extremely difficult. The trainer is the saving grace when it comes to those in power, he motivates, encourages, and spends time explaining and breaking down any question you might have. His resources are limited though, as MANY of the things you are required to know as a collector happen to not be in the manual. How could you possibly know them, and how could he possibly train on them when they aren’t DOCUMENTED. This does not stop from you being held responsible when you make a mistake, or don’t do something according to policy, the fact you had no access to the information won’t save you from the negative reflection on your review.
All in all, if you can deal with these facts, you might be able to thrive here. The people are good people, with good intentions, that just highly lack in supplying certain areas of a workplace that supports growth, and wellbeing.