State of the Market

[edison]

The last time I had one of those cubicles was 1992. Do any organisations still have them? Call centres maybe?

[Smoggy]

I worked in Aviva (then Norwich Union) call centres back in the day and they were all open plan. Doubt they've changed much since then. The managers like to keep a close eye on you.

[gables]

The last time I had one of those cubicles was 1992. Do any organisations still have them? Call centres maybe?

Indeed and probably not, but school dining hall layouts aren't much better even with the small partitions

[cojak]

Indeed and probably not, but school dining hall layouts aren't much better even with the small partitions

That is a very familiar layout! (Although I suspect that management will get four seats on those desks after 6 months.)

[edison]

I worked in Aviva (then Norwich Union) call centres back in the day and they were all open plan. Doubt they've changed much since then. The managers like to keep a close eye on you.

Is there a real need to physically keep an eye on call centre staff any more?

Don't most call centre systems have real time monitoring of queues, time to taken to answer a call, average call length etc as well as facility to listen in on calls or join in (the aptly named 'barge in' feature)?

Plus all calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes blah blah blah.

[edison]

Looking at Jobserve just now and number of jobs is below 20,000. Think it's been a while since it went that low?

[Smoggy]

Is there a real need to physically keep an eye on call centre staff any more?

Don't most call centre systems have real time monitoring of queues, time to taken to answer a call, average call length etc as well as facility to listen in on calls or join in (the aptly named 'barge in' feature)?

Plus all calls may be recorded for training and quality purposes blah blah blah.

True, but occasionally there was a legitimate reason to not be ready for a call such as writing notes, sending a fax (remember them?) processing more complicated cases etc. So being able to see people weren't just fancying around was useful.

[avonleigh]

Looking at Jobserve just now and number of jobs is below 20,000. Think it's been a while since it went that low?

Didn't think it could get any lower but seems that the market has cooled even more since the election announcement.

[dsc]

Didn't think it could get any lower but seems that the market has cooled even more since the election announcement.

Kind of makes sense, no one knows what the new gov will announce and it's just around the corner, plus it's summer time anyway, so I wouldn't expect a massive uptick till September maybe.

[Fraidycat]

As bad as things are now, they could get even worse, we could get a hung parliament and no interest rate cuts this year either..