‘Take my break at this time no matter what.’ Customer Service Rep Proves A Point By Having Her Boss Take Over A Call

If you’ve never worked in a call center, count yourself lucky. Sure, there are some good parts, like there are with any job, but talking to people on the phone for 8-9 hours a day is training in a whole different way.

One of the more frustrating aspects can be how you are scheduled down to the minute, including breaks and lunches.

I used to work at a call center where we would get flooded with calls constantly. This is a story of how a busy body boss thought they understood everything since they were in charge.

At the work we were given two 15 minute breaks and one 45 minute lunch break. The breaks were scheduled into our day so you could see when they would be, but this would change day by day.

OP is working at a call center, and taking the harder, more involved calls.

My role was a bit different than the normal agents as I was specifically dealing with the higher issue calls.

These calls could take up to 1 hour to complete and the caller would need to stay on the line, unless they were fine with a call back later but this was rarely the case.

They want her to take her breaks at the time when they are scheduled. She tries, but with her calls typically running longer than typical, she’s often off.

Since I never knew when I would be getting these calls, my break times were a shot in the dark if I would or wouldn’t be on a call.

I would just take them as soon as the call was done if they ever intersected, which they did 99% of the time.

When she was called in and written up for her time management skills, she decided she would do exactly what they wanted.

Enter my boss. During a performance review I hit all the marks except for “Attendance”. I asked about this as I know I missed a few days but always with a reasonable update for time frame and never had a no show day (where there is no warning that I’m not coming in).

My boss stated that attendance also applies to break and lunch times and since I rarely took them at the requested time, I was getting written up.

I explained my role, that they hired me for, and the challenges involved. They did not care and stated I needed to take breaks when I was told to. I asked for them to send me an email so that I could print it out, put it on my desk and never forget again.

My boss smiled ear to ear, probably because they thought i was groveling at that point, and sure enough they did stating in the email “You must take the your breaks only when the schedule tells you to, no time else. There is no excuse.”

I saved it, printed it out, sent a copy to my own email and followed it to the letter.

So, the next time she was in the middle of a call when her break was scheduled, she transferred the call to her manager and logged off.

Next call that happened that same day of course, had the long call crossing over with a break issue. I asked the customer if it would be ok for a call back, they said no, I stated that unfortunately I cannot stay on the line as I am required to take my break.

They became enraged and demanded to speak with my boss. I told my boss, they said that I need to apologize and finish the call. I showed them the email they just sent to me and said “you told me to take my break at this time no matter what.

I’m just doing what you told me to do. I’m taking my break, would you like the customer transferred over? Or should I just hang up?”

Problem solved.

They took the call over and from that day on I never had a missed attendance mark.

God busy body bosses are the worse.

I bet that some people on Reddit are taking notes!

The thinking is just so stinking wrong.

Can there really be this many unqualified bosses out there?

And no, we’re not joking.

There has to be a better way. Seriously.

Bosses everywhere need to be on notice.