anyone here work for a call centre, but take calls from your home?

[MelindaKiah]

I have been offered a job from a call centre and I would be able to take calls from the comfort of my own home. It sounds wonderful to me....I have many years experience in call centers and am very comfortable on the phone, I do have a quiet place to take the calls, and I do have an active social life outside the home so wouldn't necessarily miss too much in term of the socialization. I love the thought of saving gas money, vehicle wear and tear, not having to travel in bad weather and being with my family from the minute I am done work.

All that being said, I'd love to hear from people who actually are doing it or have done it....did you like it, pros, cons, etc.

Thanks!

 

[southernbohemian]

I did this for about 9 months. The perks were very nice - I was able to make my own schedule and went to work in my pjs - no commute. If you like working in a call center environment then you will probably be fine. I became completely burned out, but I think that would have happened anyway - I can't do the same thing every 4 minutes without going crazy and that was what was expected of me.

I do think it is important to schedule social time for yourself, because sitting in a room by yourself 8 hours a day does get to you.

For the company I worked for, there was a big difference between the call center environment and the work-at-home environment. Once a month we had to go to the office and work - those people got to get off the phones all of the time because their supervisors were sitting right next of them and could pull them off for whatever. When you were working at home it was really steady phone calls the entire shift. I think you also have to work a little harder at getting your supervisors to know you because they won't see you all the time and therefore you won't be the first one they think of when it comes to promotions, etc. Ultimately, I was too burned out with my current position and could not advance without losing all of the perks of working from home (and technically taking a paycut since I would have to factor in gas/etc. for a very minimal pay increase) - so I left. But it was nice while it lasted.

 

[browneyes106]

My friend did work like this for a year. This was back in 2007. My friend was also finishing up her bachelor's degree in communications and journalism at the time so working at home did help. The call center she had been working for had to downsize and my friend had been there for three years and was had more experience than the others so she was a only a few who got the work at home offer. My friend had to go to meetings with her boss twice a week to review call logs and other things. My friend loved working at home. She was able to mulitask school work and she worked a schedule of 7:30 am-2:30 pm. She took evening classes and online classes during that year.

My friend said she did feel bit a lonely somedays since she had no coworkers or anyone to talk if there was downtime.