21+ Pros and Cons of Being a Call Center Agent (Explained)

A call center is an office that receives and transmits large amounts of phone calls. Call centers are hired by companies for telemarketing and product services as well as debt collections.

He is a person who handles incoming or outgoing customer calls for an organization. He might handle account inquiries, customer complaints, or support issues.

Advantages of being a call center agent	Disadvantages of being a call center agent
Transferable skills	Work schedule
Communication skills	Lack job security
Higher Pay & No Discrimination	Low social status
Perks	Old age poverty
No physical work	Get bored pretty soon
Work indoors	May become overweight
Not that stressful	Non-existent promotion opportunities
Have regular workweeks

Advantages of being a call center agent

Transferable skills

Call center agents get the chance to learn everything from product training, company culture to customer service to program and computer skills.

Whether one wants to move up in the world of customer service or is a recent graduate looking to gain some entry-level knowledge, the skills developed within a call center will help him in every job that comes their way.

Communication skills

Customers are expecting to have a world-class customer experience whenever they call a company’s hotline.

Call center agents need to master the art of communication styles, engaging listening skills, and asking quality probing questions to get to the root of the problem.

Communication is the key to personal and career success. While hitting their goals, they are also becoming pro at communication in every sense.

Higher Pay & No Discrimination

The lowest basic salary that call centers will give is dollars two thousand. However, call centers also give allowances such as rice, meal, clothing, and transportation allowance aside from the basic pay.

Thus, on average, a call center agent will receive two thousand dollars every month after taxes that is take-home pay.

Perks

As call centers also have outsourced work of multinational companies like Microsoft, IBM, HSBC, JP Morgan, American Express, etc.

Call center offices are equipped with gyms, game rooms, sleeping quarters, and recreation rooms for employees to blow some steam and relax and pantries in these offices would come with drinks such as coffee, and chocolate.

No physical work

Call center agents do not do heavy physical work. Whereas in many other professions people have to lift heavy things that can seriously hurt their backs in the long run, call center agents just sit in an office chair and answer calls all day long.

Consequently, while people who have to do physical work have to quit their jobs once they get older due to those health problems, call center agents will be able to work for quite a long time.

Work indoors

Most people still have to work outdoors under harsh conditions. It will not matter whether it rains or snows. if anything needs to be fixed, construction workers and other people have to be there to fix those issues, no matter whether outdoor conditions are good or bad.

Whereas, call center agents will not have to care about those issues that much since they will be able to work indoors and will not be exposed to bad weather during their workday.

Not that stressful

It will simply not be that stressful. Though there will be parts of the year where many people will need help at the same time and it can be quite demanding to help all of those people out.

However, if one has a rather calm attitude and doesn’t take things too seriously, they can have a pretty relaxed life as a call center agent if they understand how the game works.

Have regular workweeks

Depending on the call center one works for and also on the work contract, they will often be able to have regular workweeks and don’t have to work many extra hours. One may also be able to enjoy free holidays and weekends as a call center agent.

One will have more leisure time on weekends that they can use to make nice family trips or just to relax in the garden.

Disadvantages of being a call center agent

Work schedule

The night shift is the most difficult thing about working for a call center. Our bodies are made to function in the day and sleep at night.

While one works for a call center, they do have to adjust their schedule so that they work at night and sleep during the day. And sleeping in the day can become so difficult and frustrating when one has noisy neighbors.

Lack job security

Most call center agents have almost no job security at all. Anyone can do the job and there are no special educational requirements, barriers to entry are pretty low and this means that one will have to compete with many other people for jobs in this field.

Other people may just be willing to do the job for a lower wage and one may lose a job one day or another.

A call center has a low social status. Most people do not see a call center agent as a valuable member of society. Many people even make fun of this occupation.

As call centers are usually outsourced, the staff are mostly not on role of a company. Instead, they work on the role of Manpower Company.

Old age poverty

As most call center agents do not make much money, they tend to suffer from old-age poverty. Call center agents are often not able to save and invest enough money for retirement since they have to spend most of their income on basic things of daily life.

And when they get to retirement age, they don’t have sufficient financial measures and may even end up homeless in the worst case.

Get bored pretty soon

Working in a call center is usually not that exciting. Though in the beginning many call center agents really like what they are doing since everything is new.

But after a while, many of them get bored and secretly they would work in a different field that is more exciting.

May become overweight

Since most will not have to work in a physical manner as a call center agent, they suffer from serious overweight or even obesity in the long run.

Non-existent promotion opportunities

If one is good at what he is doing, he will still not have any viable promotion options. But will have to work in the same job for decades and this can be really annoying since he will not see any progress in his career.

It will be hard to switch fields and to work in a different industry. It may lead to being stuck in the call center industry with no hope to get out anytime soon.