The day I became a hikikomori

V

I got fired.

Well, technically, they gave me the option to quit.

As you know, I was planning to quit for a long time, but I didn't because I wanted to milk ******* as much as I could.

Or maybe that was only an excuse I constantly gave myself. Maybe I refused to quit until the very end just because I didn't want to be unemployed again.

Back to square one.

Back to being a full-time hikikomori.

But why did they told me to quit? Why did I think about quitting for a long time?

Well, during the time I worked there, I learnt that success and failure at a call center depends on one single factor: luck.

And I just ran out of it.

But let's get back to where I was last time: I hated my job, I was alone and I had to wait months to get the chance to get back to my old department.

I was more and more stressed out.

At first I thought I just needed to get used to those calls, but that never happened. Those calls were more and more stressful as time passed by. I started feeling like I was having the same argument over and over again, for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. And some of those took more than an hour. I lost so many of my 15-minute breaks because of them. And sometimes I lost most part of my lunchtime.

This also happened to my coworkers, who were also mad about it. But ******** didn't care: when they told our supervisor about this issue in a meeting, he just told us: 1) our break time was paid so it was optional, and 2) if we lost part of our lunchtime that was because we didn't know how to handle calls well enough. So, in other words, it was our fault we weren't able to solve some customer's issues we weren't able to solve in the first place because the system didn't let us like 90% of the time. And also it was our fault the customer wanted to speak to a supervisor almost all the time because we weren't any helpful at all, so we had to try to convince them we could solve their issue even when we totally couldn't—I'm not kidding, when the customer asked for a supervisor we were literally supposed to tell them we could help them with their issue so a supervisor wasn't needed, even though that was a total lie (PRO TIP #1: if you're a customer in a situation like this, just ask for a supervisor 3 times, and the agent HAS TO escalate the call. PRO TIP #2: the supervisor will take an average of 90 to 120 minutes to answer, so prepare to wait. PRO TIP #3: the supervisor won't be at any help for 90% of the time, and he/she will end up telling you won't receive any help because of your lack of payments in the last 12 months, but don't worry, he/she will tell you you're eligible for immediate payment, and he/she'll explain you the benefits of paying. No kidding. They will do that. Even we were supposed to do that.)

Long story short: everything sucked. It sucked so much that I just stopped arguing with customers. I gave them everything they wanted, and if I couldn't I just lied about it.

"Hey, Mr. Customer, you want to get your services back and pay us some part of your past due next month or whenever you want? Sure. The system says no can't do, but, don't worry, I can schedule that payment and reconnect your services. They will be automatically disconnected by tomorrow and you will be charged for the reconnection and you won't get your services back until you pay ALL your past due and the other agents won't be as nice as me, but I simply don't care. So thanks for calling xxxxxxx. My name is Luis. Have a nice day."

"Hey, Mr. Customer, you say and want a $300 credit because of whatever? Sure thing, even though I can only give you $70 at most if your claim is valid but I don't know how to validate it because they never explained that to me on my training. They just told me what a credit was and how to give one but not the specific of whenever I could give it ot not. But don't you worry, I'll just give you the $70 and tell you I gave you the $300 credit and you only need to wait 24 hours to see it reflected in your account. So thanks for calling xxxxxxx. My name is Luis. Have a nice day."