ACS

My goal is to be honest and objective as to my experience with the call center. In two weeks of training I've met several people and am amazed at the vast number of quality individuals working in a call center. Bright people with college degrees, many without college, those that dress for success and the generation of tattoos ......... all with skill in public speaking (class presentations), a high degree of computer skills, quick to grasp totally new concepts, great attitudes, understands customer service etc. Put a lot of these people in decent paying jobs within a real corporate world and they'd be deserving of $35,000 at the entry level.
ACS is able to land these great folks at about 10 bucks an hour !! Yes, it's good times for this company! On the flip side, prior political policy and the great recession has driven the "new economy" in the U.S. - meaning our generation might be becoming a new "third world" country and our middle class may be possibly heading toward less than the "American Dream".
As far as what it's like to work at ACS - as we are in training the jury is still out. Training is intense, the client is doing all it can to have the best of the best taking care of its customers. So, after a few weeks on "the floor" I'll have a better understanding of this particular company in respect to this one particular client. I promise to write again and give an objective view.
As far as the folks I've talked with at length to date .... in this economy people appear to be thankful to be working at all. In the same breath I can say ACS (for the most part) appears to be a short term "lifeline" while qualified employees continue to look for higher paying jobs and/or careers.
Stay tuned ..... after I've been "on the floor" a couple of weeks ...... I'll understand a bit more about this particular portion of a giant call center.

OK, now on "the floor" for 2 weeks. During the training phase (3 weeks), we get at least 5 computer software programs, each of which takes several steps to find 1 answer. Hey, but what about all those customer calls with several questions! It gives a whole new meaning to the word "multi-task" ! Take orders, resolve customer issues (a zillion scenerios). During training, basically it's as if they take a 3 hr. difficult college class and cram it into about 2 weeks of training. Oh, when ya "hit the floor" a zillionI noticed when training was nearing an end ......about 25% (rough estimate) of the class quit, including a couple of very bright individuals who were "getting it". Several in our group are very sharp and I have no idea as to why these bright individuals are at ACS ..... pretty much a "dead end" kinda job for about 90% of the employees (rough estimate). The goal is to take calls (of all kinds, from easy going customers to the most irate), remain calm, deal with their issues - all while trying to hit the scripted "key points" (lots). The Supervisor will listen to and score calls (proper scripted language, key points to say, correct answers, demeanor, etc.). After training one gets about 60 days to score 93% and above on each call the Supr pulls.....meaning you keep the job ! Less than perfect...... well, people disappear ! If one can deal with STRESS to the MAX - multi-tasking x 100, while speaking with a customer (happy/irate/confused/senile) , navigating thru the maze of programs, hearing the word "termed" (terminated) often, working for $10 bucks an hour, , knowing each call/between calls are are recorded/timed and stats are kept ... than take the job. Every other week I see a new class (new hires) in the lobby waiting for a training class...... if that tells you anything !The turnover I see and hear about is amazingly high. Personally, it seems to me one would "better" their situation IF they skipped ACS and utilized the time to find a career.

I had to laugh as I read this honest post in Lexington, Kentucky. It sounds like my last job(minus the $10 hour). Too freaking funny!
By the way, who is ACS, Affiliated Computer Services?

Objective and Honest has captured the ACS experience nearly completely. To their credit the training staff do a great job of making the work seem anything but what it turns out to be. Once you get out there it is exactly as Honest states. It may depend on your contract but the pay isn't exactly $10 an hour, it fluctuates wildly, seemingly based on whatever the supervisors want to rate you at. This makes it so the only way for one to make money at ACS is to work there 12 hours a day and on off days (as well as their mandatory overtime) which is to the benefit of the company in filling their quota of calls taken. It should also be mentioned you have to have permission to go to the bathroom or hold it till one of your minimum minutes allowed by the state breaks. Anther hit upon point, I was embarrassed to have had to work in this position with my degrees often using the economy as an excuse and the company does nothing to show they value anyone (individual supervisors aside). They even had me remove my degrees and college hours from the application before submitting it, I suppose that should have been clue enough. I start a new job in a month's time and am finding it very hard to go into ACS each day. If I didn't use some of my paid time off each month to stay sane you can believe I'd use it now. Heck, I may just miss a months pay and quit early, the student loans are already deferred since ACS didn't provide enough income in the first place.