Holiday Extras Employee Reviews about "call centre"

Cons

Can be somewhat dry in the call centre

Cons

Call centre very separate to the rest of the company

Cons

The call centre is regarded as the bottom rung of the ladder. You get timed going to the toilet and if you take more than 4 minutes on of the female team leaders literally screams at you for taking to long and to get back to work in front of your entire colleagues
You get excluded from any of the bbq or fun stuff during your shift. You will rarely & in some cases never get to go to the weekly team briefings which is bizarre as you’re the only direct customer role so should know the changes to the websites before the customers?!!! However holiday extras rely on thier middle management too much to rely important information when this doesn’t in reality happen
If your face fits you will be fine but for most you just get bullied work long miserable shifts and lose your self belief
Don’t work there unless you’re not in a call centre role

Cons

Now for the not so goods, and there are a few I'm sad to say.

Firstly, there is an apparent divide between the majority of the company and the CC. There are many fun things that go on that often CC staff find ourselves the only ones that cant participate as we mustn't leave our post on the phones.

Almost all areas seem to have an hour lunch where they can partake once again in several activities, we are limited to just half an hour. I personally don't mind the half an hour lunch break, but fail to understand why there are different standards between different areas.

Working hours - now this really is an issue that I and 90% of CC staff I speak to are unhappy with. Up until recently we worked a standard 8 hour day 5 days per week as full time members which seems quite common in call centre work, no issues there, however now we are expected to work 8 hours and 45 mins for 4 days, whilst having one "half day" usually in the afternoon which throws a lot of peoples daily chores/plans after work out the window. Whilst 45 minutes may seem somewhat trivial, there was no real communication down to CC staff other than receiving our weekly rota with the new shifts in place. CC staff are the only ones expected to work these shifts whilst managers, the planning team and all other roles in the hierarchy remain on the same shifts as before, a classic case of expecting the bottom rung to do things that they wont themselves.
Finally I have seen MANY people leave recently, people who were long term fixtures in HX as a result of many of the points already stated, quite simply they had enough. Other members are actively looking to leave, with myself also looking down avenues away from HX. When I started at HX I was sold on the fact they pride themselves as a company on staff progression and work/life balance, but as far as progression goes, I see a LOT of "external appointments" over people who have given everything for the company because obviously externals better right? And the work/life balance, it was great but small things are slowly taking away from this and it saddens me to write this as I genuinely loved the workplace when I first started.

Cons

Full timers still work at least 1 day most weekends however we can work mobile so can work from home so this doesn't make this as bad

Cons

So being in the CC ( contact centre) you are bottom rung in HX, and they make you feel it! The CC miss out most of the " fun Hx experience" because the organ grinder won't let anyone have time off the phones.
HX have lost a shed load of fantastic talent within a year just because of poor management! I actually cannot count how many good team players who have been at HX for a number of years all jacked it in. The travel consultants are over worked and under valued. The targets are a joke and customer service has slipped.
 HX are very good at training you up to go for a job thats coming up, then going with a complete outsider, many people have fallen for this! Leaving people feeling deflated and unappreciated.
It used to be such a lovely place to work and I used to love it; but no one seems to be questioning why they are losing staff?
Why are they losing key players and big personalities?
Because CC management changing has made people hate coming to work...
Why would you get rid of whole team from the call centre? One minute they saying we should really push car hire and transfer, the next the whole team has been disbanded! Its safe to say they all left the company rather then go back to airport.
The CC now feels tired, lifeless, its a sad place,where people are constantly worried about the safety of their jobs, forced to work ridiculous hours for an average pay. Where favouritism and bullying are rife!! Its very sad.
Lets just say that the HX values and ideals are a fairytale, nothing more. Apart from the villians because they are quite a few of those!

Cons

If you work in the call centre your treated horrifically in every way... if you have an angry customer there is a department trained to take those calls yet they tell you to deal with it yourself! Clearly don’t do they’re job properly... unrealistic targets and awful one to one training. ( if you actually got the once a week/ once a month training they say your meant to) They don’t care about you as long as they’re making money. Very unsociable hours. Had the worst time working there and would not recommend it in the slightest

Cons

Working on the phones can sometimes be repetitive but that is the nature of the work.

Cons

Bullyin in the call centre and favouritism is rife

Cons

Equipment (computers etc) is sometimes not up to standard.