For me, I do my calls in my room alone. If there is anyone else doing calls in the same room it feels very stressful. I like working alone. I also do calls about ten hours a week, and have been doing the same for twenty years. This way I don’t burnout by doing too much of the same stressful work. My other work hours are spent doing other things.
But, for those working at call centers, you can’t chat with your co-workers because they are on a call when you are not. You have to learn sign language to communicate with them or pass notes.
The substitute for being able to chat with others is to be constantly monitored like a slave. People are always looking over your shoulders or listening in to your calls. Call center agents in Russia call this — business as usual. But, for the rest of the world we are not used to the fact that the walls have ears.
The lack of job security is yet another form of lack of social support. People get canned for light and transient reasons all the time at call centers and also quit. Workers feel they have to put up with difficult customers, yet get very little recognition for their talents and skills.
Feeling undervalued, stressed out, monitored, and not allowed to talk to anyone would drive anyone out of their minds. Can’t a call center engineer a healthier way to do business? Maybe a call center where everyone gets their own room with windows that open; Lots of time to go to the bathroom and take walks or breaks; Chat time where people could chat with others; and some way to relieve oneself from the night schedule that drives Filipinos crazy at call centers. I think doing four hours a day of call center work and then spending the other four hours doing some other type of task makes more sense. It is also a way to get daylight and see your family — another form of social support.