Dont feel flattered when they want to employ you. - Customer Service Representative/Pensions Aegon Employee Review

Call centre work, high turnover of staff and high sickness rates because it is a stressful environment, highly target driven, inconsistent quality of call monitoring, call centre management treat you like a number and don't even acknowledge you, mostly decent staff ,some team managers have delusions that exceed their skills and abilities, some of them are devoid of any personality, Monthly performance reviews are pointless and universally hated by all call staff. back office functions are overloaded with work and resent when you have to query their errors that have impacted on poor customer experience. Internal promotion seems to be based on how well you can crawl up to the contact centre management, this went on constantly so competition with these types was comical. Promotion is not based on hard work or your ability, don't fall for this when you are told this is how to get on and up. If you assert yourself, call centre management will close ranks with Team managers and attempt to bully you to leave or one of the call centre managers will conveniently reposition their work station as to be within eyesight and hearing distance of the person they wish to intentionally intimidate, this did not happen to me but it did happen to others and it was quite depressing to witness especially as the colleagues they wanted to intimidate were some of the better employees. You will be bombarded with internal Emails during your working day which you are expected to understand and implement into your daily routine, whilst being bombarded by callers. Training is sporadic, trainers don't enjoy training and don't feel it is important to support your development, if you fail to understand what they are training you they will show no mercy, all they want is to tick the box that you have been trained. The buzz term when I worked here was TCF ( treating customers fairly) AEGON don't seem to have got the message that employees are Customers too. If you need time off to visit a GP or similar forget it, the company don't regard your personal life important, despite them saying they are flexible and forward thinking. You will start as a Temp through an Agency you will get paid by the hour, if they offer you a perm role your hourly rate will drop.to that below what you earned as a temp. If you refuse a Permanent role your services as a temp will end. Some staff have been there for years , this is simply because they have accrued a level of salary and benefits that they would be unable to attain if they went elsewhere, therefore many are jaded but plod on despite loathing the environment. Most of these people are very knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with but long suffering.