Vantaggi
It's a source of income in a down-turned economy and competitive job market. I also had amazing co-workers (not including the insufferable supervisors).
Svantaggi
1) Performance goals that are nonsensical, outdated, and seemingly designed to weed out seasonal sales and customer services agents, but more so the sales agents, once the "busy season" is over. 2) Supervisors have absolutely no leadership skills and seem to only be there to enforce trivial rules. They are annoyed when you have a question and generally are not concerned with good customer service. 3) Amazingly strict dress-code for a call-center (excluding the supervisors because they seem to be able to wear whatever they want). 4) Amazingly strict attendance policy that does not allow you to visit a doctor or tend to a sick child without disciplinary action and a "write-up" (even when you plan ahead and get a doctor's note). 5) Trainers do not give enough information about the job. You're told PODS agents do not follow a phone script, but find later that you must verbatim use scripted lines in order to pass amazingly strict phone quality score. There's no consistency in grading quality scores. The script consists of talking customers to death. 6) Work environment was garbage until they finally renovated, which makes me feel sorry for all the people before me. 7) No latitude for independent judgement, including contacting customers back with important information, sending customers documents or e-mail (generally good customer communication). You MUST stay chained to your desk and only receive incoming calls, and don't think about getting up to pee...or the supervisors will question why you're up. You must stay seated and raise your hand when you need something...sound familiar...grade school?