Vantaggi
I received a promotion to the position of Quality Assurance Auditor after two years on the phones. I attended staff meetings; participated in client calibration sessions; monitored and coached Customer Account Executives; wrote detailed performance reports and acted as a substitute floor supervisor. I acquired an insider's knowledge of call center operations. I participated in the Aegis Achieving Continuous Excellence silver level program for Quality Assurance Auditors and Supervisors. I graduated with honors from Customer Operations Performance Center's High Performance Management Techniques training seminar led by the Vice President of Learning at Aegis. My employment prospects were expanded because I demonstrated leadership abilities at Aegis.
Svantaggi
Hard work wasn't financially rewarded. I received a raise of less than $1 with my promotion. Customer Account Executives had bonus and overtime opportunities, so some earned more per hour than Quality Assurance Auditors and Supervisors. The Quality Assurance department for the project I was assigned to threatened to strike if our wages weren't raised to match the Customer Account Executives' wages. Our wages were raised slightly above the Customer Account Executives' wages when corporate management became involved. Direct deposits and paychecks weren't available on scheduled paydays. Automatic bank withdrawls caused unintentional overdraft fees for many employees. Management had unrealistic performance goals. Quality Assurance Auditors monitored every second or third call twice a week for assigned teams of 40-60 phone agents. The calls averaged in length from 6-10 minutes, with many in the 20 to 40 minute range. A report was made after each monitored call and coached on the floor. We worked as a team to meet our weekly goals. When Quality Assurance departments at other locations couldn't fulfill their duties, our team stepped in and completed their contracted monitorings. Our local management decided to disguise the mistakes phone agents made in randomly monitored calls, so we searched for "mistake-free" calls in violation of the client's contracted terms for randomly monitored calls. We worked from 8AM until 11PM for weeks on end to meet our local management's demands. We ended this practice when an observation from the client caused our local management to change our practices. Class action lawsuits are feared and respected. All staff members were pulled into a meeting with corporate HR about an overtime lawsuit. Employees weren't being paid for time spent booting up or closing systems. We were told it was our fault. Corporate HR said the lawsuit was settled out of court for a "seven-figure sum" Aegis couldn't afford to pay. Aegis's parent company paid the settlement, but our jobs were threatened "if this happens in the future."