The frustrations of working in a call centre have increased
tenfold this last couple of weeks as the company has seen fit to introduce a
new rota of working hours with little under two weeks’ notice. It is an eleven week rolling rota that seems
to have no redeeming qualities and lacks any form of worker friendliness. There
is little uniformity or even normality within its schedule of shifts, some of
which have increased in length by three or so hours and I’ve yet to hear any of
my colleagues utter positive words about it.
One of the key things I detest about this new schedule is a 30% increase
in the number of late shifts, another aspect is the varying start times
expected during the working week, thus rendering routine redundant. For
example, one such week rolls along like this,
Monday 0900 – 1730, Tuesday 0800 – 1700, Wednesday 0800 – 1630, Thursday
0830 – 1700, Friday 0830 – 1700. Another week sees me doing 1230 – 2100 on a Monday,
1030 – 2100 on the Tuesday, 1230 – 2100 on Wednesday, a later start on the Thursday
whilst still working till 2100 and another 1230 – 2100 to round the week off.
It’ll also mean I’ll be working three complete weekends and an additional three
part (Saturday only) weekends. On top of timing frustrations is the revelation
that bonus payments have come down, by £50 per month if individual targets are
reach. It may not sound a lot, but when you’re working a minimum wage job, 50
quid is two weeks’ worth of groceries and money I can ill afford to lose. I could pontificate further of my
dissatisfaction over a number of other work related issues, yet it’ll only bore
you silly and cloud my happy mood whilst also give the impression that I’m
noting but a stinky whinger, so I’ll
stop here.
I suppose there is always a general sense of despondency
when you realise you’ve made yet another mistake along life’s troubled
highway, still we learn from our
mistakes, don’t we?
© 2013 Copyright to Jason Shaw
