The Idler

National Rail Enquiries

I work for National Rail Enquiries…yes, there is still a call centre in the UK (although only until next April…then it all moves to India where they pay them the equivalent of £1 an hour).

I’ve been there for 3 years. Everything you do is watched, taped, timed and recorded. You have to stick to a script - having an original thought or idea is very much frowned upon (we work in a call centre - we’re not supposed to have a brain!). Our “supervisors” are all younger than us (I’m 34), and at the end of every call you HAVE to say “have a nice day” or “have a nice journey”. If you don’t do it, you lose points on your “monitoring” record. If you lose too many points, you get taken to see the boss. If you have too much time off sick, they ask you if “there’s anything they can do to help” (like what?!)

We get all the abuse from the callers about trains being late, too expensive etc, not that there’s anything we can do about it, we’re just the managements abuse forcefield, protecting them from the public’s wrath. It’s like being a punchbag and the pay is shite.

Anon