Customer Service Rep.

[princessmer81]

I graduated last may with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications (I majored in advertising) - by the time I got married in July I still hadn't found a job but I didn't stress because I figured I would find something after the honeymoon. Needless to say I didn't find anything so when I was offered a position as a customer service rep. in the home mortgage division of a large company I took it.
I sit attached to a phone from 10am to 7pm taking call after call from home owners who are upset and pissed off and yell at me. I was so dumb to take this job - I am very sensitive and I get so stressed out over being yelled at - I feel sick and nervous whenever I am at work or thinking about work. I was just put on a prescription medication for migraine headaches that are a result of my job. The job environment is so micromanaged - I feel like I am in Jr. High. Actually, the girl who sits next to me just graduated from HIGH SCHOOL last May - talk about feeling under-employed. I am so lucky that my parents saved and paid for me to go to college because I am making about the same per year as a year of tuition at the college I went to.

Sorry to start complaining right off the bat but I am just so depressed and feel so trapped. I have been really trying hard to find something new but nothing has worked out yet.


Is anyone else a customer service rep?

[and1grad]

First off, sorry for your ongoing troubles. Is there any way to use this experience to your advantage? I only ask because I would think someone who is in advertising needs to be thick-skinned. But I'm not sure you should stay at this job if you are being overwhelmed. Maybe better management would help teach you how to deal with these people without letting what they say personally affect you. One thing I internalized from all my years in retail is to not give anybody control over MY emotions and that people who dont know you cant have a meaningful opinion about you. Dont take what these angry customers say to heart. They just want to vent and their attack is not aimed at you...even though it might feel like it is. I wish I can say its going to be easy to get used to letting these things roll off your back but its not, it just takes time. Can you afford to shorten your hours?

[princessmer81]

andgrad1 -
Thanks for your your reply. As far as needing a thick skin in the advertising world you are right - I am more intersted in the research/strategic planning side so I wouldn't be pitching ideas and having them rejected time after time like the people who work on the creative end do.
I am working to try to keep others from affecting my emotions but unfortunatley I am not having much sucess. I think that I will feel better once I find a new job but your post made me realize that as long as I let others affect my emotions I will only be happy when every one around me is being nice - and that is not going to happen very often!
I wish that I could shorten my hours but I can't - if I wasn't married I would honestly just quit and move back home until I found a new job.

[and1grad]

Just want to wish you the best of luck with your situation. I can sympathize a little bit because my job sometimes requires a little "customer relations" and since I represent a regulatory agency, I'm not always met with the friendliest of tone. I think I'm more met with fear than anger, well at least more often. Attitude-wise, to help with people bithchin & hollerin at you...let them feel like they're smarter than you. People LOVE to accommodate you if you make them feel intelligent. Also, pretend to sympathize, if you need to pretend, with the customer. Misery loves company. They say "I can't believe they...yackety yack yack" and you give the "I know"; maybe throw in something about "the pcoess takes time" or whatever comes to you that applies.

Hope this helps

[KL122]

Yup, I was a CSR for about 9 months ...and hated almost every minute of it. Everything you said about being micromanaged and watched like a hawk...hit the nail on the head...I finally cracked and quit. :-(.

[Layback]

Princessmer - I graduated with a B.S. in marketing - I wanted a job in advertising like you. As you know they are very hard to come by. So, I did as you did and took a job as a CSR. I hated it, but one thing led to another and now I am in sales, I make good $, and I get to travel and see the country and I come and go as I please at work. I know how it feels to be micromanaged and to have to hit a button when you want to poop. Is anything more degrading?

Anyway, you can parlay what you are doing into something else. For me it was being in the right place at the right time. They announced that the TPA I was working for was going out of business. I was committted to one year as a CSR, but becuase they were closing the doors, it allowed me to explore other options at my employer. After 6 months of b.s. I landed a job as a Marketing Analyst - the job title is more glorified than the work - and now I am an assistant sales rep. It's still not what I want to do, but it works for now and I am going back for my MBA so I can land the real gig that I want.

Take your time and move slow.

[cheshrcarol]

Princessmer - I can totally identify with your situation. I graduated in 2000, with a degree in journalism/mass communication. I had planned to work in PR or advertising when I graduated, but the tech boom had just collapsed and suddenly there were no jobs.

So, like you, I took a job as a CSR working for an insurance company. I absolutely hated spending hours on the phone listening to people yell at me and feeling like I was wasting my education, so I made myself useful to my department in other ways. I volunteered for projects or to help my supervisors with anything that took me off the phones. Eventually they created a new position for me so that I barely spent any time on the phones.

A year later, the company decided to close the entire service center and lay everyone off. Which I can now say was the best thing that could've happened. My job search led me to my current job, which is perfect for me. I work for a company that produces marketing/communications materials for insurance companies, so I'm able to use what I learned in school as well as what I learned as a CSR.

So anyways, Layback is right, use whatever you can to parlay that into a different job. And keep up hope, all experience is valuable. And btw, I also have migraines, and I found that Topamax as a daily preventive works like nothing else. Good Luck!