assistant

entry level customer service representative

supervisor

packer

customer service representative

Captel

CapTel is an absolutely TERRIBLE place to work.


PETTY TYRANT SUPERVISORS

The supervisors are young people who are petty tyrants.  They will write you up for things that are insignificant.  An example of this:  I was written up because my knee was touching my desktop.  The 19 year old supervisor wrote me up for having my foot on my work desk!  (My foot was NOT on the desk.)

Regarding this "supervisor," This was his FIRST JOB; he had been working for CapTel for only 9 months and had been a supervisor for 3 months of those 9!  What kind of company would allow someone so immature and with such poor judgement to be a supervisor?  A company that considers their workers as sub-human animals to be oppressed and abused!
  
This same "supervisor" creeped up behind me when I was actively captioning a call.  When I turned around I said “I’m sorry?” because I did not hear him.  30 minutes later he is writing me up for “voicing non-call content,” which could very well mean an immediate termination of employment!

He was writing me up for something HE CAUSED!  He was just LOOKING for something to write me up on!


UNPROFESSIONAL HR GENERALIST

I filed a harassment complaint against that supervisor.  HR called me into the office the next day, and the “HR Generalist” did NOT conduct herself professionally.  

The first thing she asked was; “Do you know how serious it is to file a harassment complaint?!”  I told her yes I did.  

Then she told me the supervisor did nothing wrong.  She had not even conducted a professional inquiry into my complaint and she had made up her mind!
  
At that point, I told her that I did NOT want to work for the company anymore.  She obviously did NOT understand me.  I got up to leave and she said “The meeting is not over!”  I told her; “Don’t you understand?  I think CapTel is terrible!  This company treats their employees like SLAVES and I will not tolerate it!  Let me make myself clear… I RESIGN.  THIS MEETING IS OVER BECAUSE I SAY IT IS!”

I logged out of my computer, clocked out, and returned my headset and pass.  As I was leaving the building this unprofessional HR Generalist was looking at me from her office window and CRYING with a shunned look on her face!  Well, too bad for her!  She’s not used to someone standing up for themselves.  She usually abuses people and I would not allow it.


SURVEILLANCE – GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 STYLE

You are tracked like an inmate in PRISON.  You have to get a “Shift Tracker” paper slip signed by your supervisor where ever you go. If you have to take a bathroom break and they feel it is too long, they pull you aside for a talk.


LOUSY PAY

The job at CapTel is subsidized by the U.S. Government through a General Fund, provided by law via the American with Disabilities Act of 1990.  The fund allows $3.00 per MINUTE for calls.  That’s $180.00 an hour that CapTel gets.  What does the captioner get?  $10.00 per hour!  (Of course, they don’t tell their employees this and keep them in the dark about EVERYTHING.)

I did this same job in 1986, but we did not have computers.  I operated a Teletype Model 32 teleprinter and we typed every word that was said by the person making a call to the deaf party.  (The deaf party had a teletype receiver at his location.)  In 1986, I was paid $12.00 per hour to do that job.  That is equal to $25.00 per hour today.  I see NO REASON why that job should not pay $25.00 per hour today.  Why?  Read on!


DEPRESSING AND TEDIOUS JOB

CapTel provides services to deaf people.  Consequently, the vast majority of the users are very old.
  
For a large part of every day, you will hear “death calls.”  These are calls informing friends and family that someone has just died.  You have to listen to the sadness, the crying, the wailing and it is horrible. 

Then there are the calls where someone has been diagnosed with cancer and has 3 months to live and is going into hospice to die.

Other disturbing calls are the ones where adult children abuse their elderly parents on the phone; the foul language used in many calls; and the SCAM calls where you have to listen to AND CAPTION scam artists from foreign countries empty the bank accounts of the elderly with various schemes.  You have to caption and there is nothing you can do to help the poor victims.  Another sad thing is that you cannot report this to the authorities.  (CapTel doesn’t care… they just want their money.)


WASTED EFFORT

I would estimate that 95% of the calls are made by people who are NOT HEARING IMPAIRED.  It could be the kids “using grand-dad’s phone,” or people who got these phones but do not really have SEVERE hearing loss.  So your effort captioning these calls is WASTED.

The entire system is the biggest waste of the General Fund and CapTel laughs all the way to the bank, while the employees don’t even make a living wage… which is $16.00 per hour in Orlando, Florida!


THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT

One of the most disturbing things to me was the lack of a decent dress code.  You had young people coming to work in PAJAMAS and BAREFOOT and this was just fine with CapTel.

There were women coming to work in latex fetish leggings and CapTel didn't care... but let your knee rest against your desk and it's a BIG DEAL!  

You had people working there who obviously did not know what a bar of soap is, and that is fine with CapTel.  Why?  They KNOW they’ve got these college kids working for nothing so they don’t care.


UNION NOW FOR CAPTEL

It really makes me wonder why those CapTel workers don’t get together and form a UNION.  That is what is needed to correct the low pay and the poor treatment of workers.  If ANY company in Orlando needs a Union, it is CapTel.

It is said that “you only get stepped on if you lay down and allow it.”

Here is a message for those CapTel workers who struggling every day, trying to make a living.  (I know you come here and read the reviews!)  I encourage you to ORGANIZE.  Form the “CAPTIONER'S UNION!” 

Remember, CapTel CA’s produce everything… NOT the petty tyrant supervisors and NOT the unprofessional HR people.  Stand up for yourselves… for your dignity… for a living wage TODAY!


CAPTEL SHILLS

CapTel actively monitors professional review websites, like this one, and conducts “damage control.”

The managers post favorable reviews, in an attempt to counter the folks who are exposing the truth about their horribly oppressive company!  Don’t believe the hype.


SUMMARY

Everything I have written here is 100% true.  If you are thinking of working at CapTel... DO NOT DO IT!  If you are stuck at CapTel now,  FORM A UNION.

This place has a huge turnover rate and for good reason. They're lucky I am even giving them two stars, and I only give them that because despite how awful it is most of the time, it does offer good hours and pay for easy work, provided you're willing to run the risk of getting fired for nonsense due to the company's absolutely maddening point system. It is very easy to accrue points for everything from call performance to attendance. Some of the points aren't warranted. Especially the health related ones. Got a doctor's note to cover your previously earned call-out point related to health reasons? Too bad. You still take the point. And it is easy to see why people call out even if it isn't health-related. This job is mind-numbing. Prepare to sit in a cubicle with zero human interaction (not even with people on a phone) for hours and hours on end. This is NOT a job for people who suffer from chronic insomnia, because you WILL fall asleep at your desk. And don't think you're going to be able to play your Nintendo Switch or sit on your phone to keep yourself awake, because CapTel doesn't allow anything with internet capabilities or recording capabilities to be used at your desk due to phone call privacy concerns. Prepare to have the absolute joy of listening to and captioning phone calls where old people complain about the President or make rude comments in between loud chewing noises. Want to hear couples arguing and rapid fire cuss at each other back and forth? You got it. All yours, and they'll pay you for it all! All you have to do is say exactly what the person you're hearing is saying and correct any errors as the captions appear on screen, which is an honest benefit of working here. The job is at least easy in theory, if not either incredibly boring or incredibly headache-inducing at any given moment in practice. With an 11 dollar pay minimum with easy opportunities for raises, you won't be hurting to pay your bills, especially since they're good with hours. I have to throw in some good things here so people don't think I'm just trying to make a revenge review to hurt the company's hiring rate. So back on track here, you're monitored once a day at most if you achieve high scores through supervisor call monitoring. But be prepared for the Supervisors to have completely different scoring ethics due to a mix of laziness and a lack of professionalism on their end! Supervisors and management are generally pleasant people in my experience. They're as nice to you as you are willing to be nice to them, as with most people in any job, but I have to be critical where it is deserved. Somebody in the reviews here said that Supervisors tend to talk obnoxiously and goof off at their desks while everyone else is trying to listen to calls, and they're 100% correct, which is especially annoying in the morning when the room is quiet, you're on a call, and then out of nowhere all you can hear in the room is the Supervisors talking back and forth with each other about Game of Thrones or some nonsense. Do Supervisors here really have that little to do to the point where they can afford to sit around talking with each other the majority of the day? The answer is yes, yes they do, so when you get this position, if you still want to by the end of my mostly-rant review, then go for Supervisor, so you can do almost nothing all day and get paid for it. Last but not least is finishing off on yet another good note, which is your work opportunity. CapTel stays open during holidays and pays double during the big ones, which is really good and gives you the opportunity to get paid a boat load of money just for skipping out on that family holiday dinner you probably didn't want to go to anyway. CapTel certainly isn't unique in this offer, but the fact they offer it is certainly worth mentioning, especially coupled with the already easy nature of the work you'll be doing. In addition, they've got very little down time, even having a generator on property, so you can rest assured knowing you'll VERY rarely be sent home, and if you do, it won't be due to facility power loss, and thus, very rarely will you miss out on those important hours you'll need to work to pay your bills. 

Closing statement: You're getting paid more than fairly for easy work, but the job will slowly destroy you mentally, and you're looking at an extremely regimented experience due with high threat of being let go for dumb things. Not for the faint of heart, yet also somehow the perfect job for lazy folks? It is very hard to describe the experience with this company. Despite my mainly complaining review, I say give it a shot, and you're either going to see what I mean, or be the extremely rare exception employee. And in that unlikely case, congratulations... I guess.

I have worked at Captel for almost a year come next month. I  would like to start by saying that this job was a blessing. It was my first office job that I have had in an office environment and that had decent pay from the go. During my time there I  saw why they were willing to give $11/hr from start. This job has also taught me that money is not worth your happiness.

When it comes to the atmosphere it is depressing. After your first day of training you never come through the front door again. You walk in all you see is gray. Gray lockers, gray walls, gray carpets, and gray cubilcles. Depression is easy to find at this job. The only social interaction you can possibly get is through strangers you meet in the break room. I am surprised that we dont have a high suicide rate, but I guess thats accounted for in the high turnover rate. 

When it comes to the job itself I would like to think of it as a job so easy its difficult. You have to listen to people of all different speech types and accents and provide flawless captioning, which in reality is not that hard, but as humans dealing with an imperfect voice recognition system, you may come across mistakes. If you are monitored during a call (which happens everyday to maintain call quality) you get points deducted for correcting these inevitable mistakes. If you get under an 85 you received a failed monitor (FM), which is followed by 2 hours of coaching, and 5 consecutive monitors. I  find this method not useful because my FMs happen to be because of a bad call, not my skills as a CA. I have found myself, in the matter of the last month, on FM status constantly, which I feel as a sign that this is no longer the place for me. This constant failure makes you feel hopeless at times. What makes it worse is that sometimes superviors will take off points just so that you get on FM. Its very frustrating.

Next is the policies. As you have probably seen on here there are strict policies. If you have a pen in your hand...PV. If you have your phone in your hand while walking off the call floor....PV. If you have reading materials open....PV. I try not to get mad at the supervisors because they were once in our position and I can tell that sometimes they are reluctant to give out PVs unless they have to because they know how ridiculous the rules can be. Other times you have the Supervisors that are fresh on the job and power hungry and can't wait to give out their first PV. It all depends on who you're dealing with.

One of the first things that attracted me to the job was the bonuses. You get a $50 for perfect attendance, which becomes $150 on the 3rd month and $350 on the sixth month. The trick is that it is slighty difficult to get. If you get sent home for an FM, that ruins your bonus and its difficult to get an LEA because scheduling usually won't budge, so most times if you need to leave early you're going to have to accrue a point. Also be wary that you must plan ahead if you want off. Scheduling can be a pain in the you know what so I would say start planning 72 hours prior. 

I will say that this work environment is the most diverse and most unproblematic when it comes to workplace drama, which is probably due to the fact that everyone working there are robots who clock in and out. This also eliminates underlying tensions and reasons why you might be fired. With the typical job you can be let go without warning by a manager that may have disliked you. At this job everything is so much by the book you will know when its your time to go based on the amount of points or levels of policy violations you get. I like how they keep things separate. In reality your supervisor has very limited power. They are basically document providers to HR, who ultimately decide what your punishment is. I enjoy the employee appreciation days and the little theme days they create that make the job slightly more bearable. 

If you have made it the bottom of this review, I just want to say Thank You for reading my opinion. This is not to deter you from applying because it was a good job for me but it does get old and I am currently looking elsewhere. Its perfect if you need a part time gig on the side or you are in college looking for something steady with relatively little effort. At the end of the day, its your decision and I hope I was of help to you...:)

Great place to work if you hate your life. 

They refuse to work with you when life happens, but expect you to jump when they say so. 

Lots of hypocrisy. Supervisors will rush down to your cubicle to reprimand you for speaking to your neighbor, but then laugh and talk so loud your headset picks it up just moments later. They'll send someone home for wearing ripped jeans, but then let other people slide with the same style. They tell you not to use the service elevator, but then don't say anything to head office staff when they do. 

They want you to work like a robot, and have the worst point-based system in existence. Sick to your stomach and took too long in the bathroom? Point. Running late because of an accident or construction? Point. Spouse rushed to the ER and you go there with them? Point. Point point point point point. Every little thing will get you one, so beware. 

God forbid you get on what they call, "hours restriction". This means you can only request a day off two weeks in advance. You can't ask for same week, even if you desperately need it. You can't leave early, in case of emergency. If your kid's school calls, you better hope you've got someone reliable to get them, because it won't be you. You can't use your PTO while you're on it either. It's extremely difficult to get off, so good luck with that.  

If you work here, keep in mind that YOU ARE REPLACEABLE. They have a huge turnover rate, with people coming and going all the time. 
Supervisors and front office staff included. If you manage to stay for a longer period of time, they will still fire you. Company loyalty doesn't exist here. 

You are expected to work at least one weekend day, no if, ands, or buts about it. However, HR, front office, and training staff doesn't. They also don't have to work holidays, but you do. 

This company doesn't care about you, your life, or anything you are going through. All they care about is if you are doing mind-numbing work, and keeping their pockets lined. Yours will barely have enough to make it paycheck-to-paycheck, however.

Your cubicle will be the only thing to keep you company day in and day out, save the interaction with supervisors for monitors. They're supposed to be done daily, but I know personally you can go for days before they remember you exist. 

Supervisors pick and choose who they will give a policy violation to. Your neighbor could get barely a head nod for having a book out and reading it DURING a call. You will get a write up if you have study materials out uncovered, even if you're not looking at it. 

If you are qualified for a better position in the company, they'll still pick someone else ahead of you. Doesn't matter how long you've been there or what your qualifications are. 

The bathrooms are always disgusting, with people leaving waste and toilet paper stuffed in them. The toilets are constantly clogged and there it always trash on the floors. 

It's freezing inside, even during the winter. You can take a blanket, but it won't do much. Might as well just wear your coat all day. 


Pros:
Sometimes they cater meals. 

Cons:
This place did the absolute worse for my mental health and quality of life

APPLICANT BEWARE.

Worked from August to February. I have a lot to say about this company, most of it not good. Let’s run through the pros and cons:

+ You never have to talk to anyone: If you wanted, you could go a whole workday only saying three words to other human beings.
+ Set hours: Once you get your schedule, you will never be asked to work outside of those times. But, picking up extra hours is pretty easy too.

– You never get to talk to anyone: The company culture in general is pretty poor. The break room, even when it’s full, is usually dead silent, one person to a table. This is so true that it’s been speculated that the company wants it this way to prevent people from socializing and ending up demanding more for themselves. Either way, it just adds to the dreary worker bee atmosphere.
– Pay isn’t great: The living wage in Orlando is $11.76/hr: Most call centers pay pretty well above that, but not Captel, they just insist that their pay is competitive. For every year you work there, you are eligible for a $0.50 raise. Woohoo. Oh, and good luck getting those great benefits, you have to work full time consecutively for one whole year before you see those.
– Work is too easy and repetitive, yet annoying: A human being is only designed to say the words “What did you eat today?” so many times in one day. This was the worst part of the job for me: feeling my brain melt repeating the same conversations over and over and over again. And, with the way you are scored, it doesn’t matter if you make one mistake or four mistakes. Essentially, you are not incentivized to do the best job possible, either make it perfect or not a terrible botch-up.
– Feel more robot than human: Every minute of your day is tracked and your adherence to schedule must be over 95%. Your speed is measured once per month, and accuracy measured once or more per day. Your computer does more work than you do. And even if you have been a CA for two years and your supervisor has worked there 8 months, they will still tell you how to do your job as if it’s your first day there.

In general, this is a good part time job for those in school or working another part time job where you get tired of talking to people. CSS takes anyone with decent English skills. I would NOT recommend doing it full time lest it slowly squeeze the soul from your body.

Alternatively, if you have experience in corporate training, recruiting, HR, management, or scheduling, you could caption for 3-6 months and try to get promoted. The other jobs all seem good, maybe even fulfilling.

Since Covid this job has become much more frustrating -- requesting time off has become hard, and managers working from home has created some confusion and laziness. Unfortunately captioning calls has become stressful because the quantity, difficulty, and number of speakers per phone call has all risen exponentially in the last year. Gone are the days of having a minute between calls to drink some water and collect yourself. They also eliminated the occasional free catered lunches for obvious reasons.

That said, if your manager isn't lazy and you like independent work, the job is pretty solid. And if they are lazy, you'll probably be given a new one in a few months anyways; I've been here 1.5 years and had 4 managers. Back then you had a lot of freedom to set your schedule as you needed it, but it can be very hard to change it once it's set. 

The expectations for your work are pretty clear,  and as long as you meet your metrics in accuracy, 1-2x weekly conversations with your sup is the only interruption you'll have. The training adequately prepares you -- it feels overwhelming at first but if you stick with it, it will click. They offer captioning from home or on-site. Opportunities for advancement are plentiful, if you are willing to work on-site. 

The pay is the biggest downside. They say you get health insurance but it takes a full year to kick in, and it's the bare minimum they can offer you while still being too expensive to afford and also kicking you off any subsidized insurance you might have previously qualified for. I lost my health insurance bc this company "offered" me something that would cost half my paycheck. Meanwhile after three 25¢ raises (the max amount) I'm still making <$12/hr. On weekends and overnights it's a little higher, but not much. 

All in all, I'm grateful to have stayed employed this year, and I like the independent nature of this work. Sometimes it's entertaining and amusing, and if I was only doing it part-time (or didn't have to stay afloat through rising rent and everything else) I probably wouldn't be so burnt out. But it can be very draining and the "benefits" are useless to anyone at the entry-level CA position. 

In short: I would only recommend being a Captioning Assistant as a first job or a last resort. Pay is low and growth opportunities will come mostly from HR or management. 

4 week part-time training leads into part-time or full-time (your choice) CA position. 

A typical day at work in the office is clock in, write down your break times, and sit in a cubicle. Stare at a screen where you work in bursts. Down time affords you the chance to read a book (it's considered "your time") or something else that adheres to their policy. While actively doing the job, you cannot be distracted, look away, twirl a pencil, or anything that isn't actively doing the job. Personally, after learning how to do the job effectively, it became quite monotonous. Most of my time working here was remote however, which opened up as a possibility after working 4 months in the office. If not for working remotely, I would have left the position sooner. To work remotely in this position is very nice. 

I learned how to be a Captioning Assistant and not much else. If you are unfamiliar with how to professionally interact with HR, supervisors, or a scheduling department, you may learn so here. However, I don't know how the skills learned here would translate to other roles elsewhere. You may gain proficiency in typing accurately and swiftly. 

Management is nice, helpful, and accommodating. This is a plus. The Scheduling department is very good. Time-off (albeit unpaid if you're part-time) is usually approved with 2-week advance notice. 

Workplace culture is good. People are nice around the office. Interaction with fellow CA's is minimal and unnecessary for working, but they are happy and kind. 

The hardest part of the job is motivating yourself to do more than is required. There are no incentives to work above or beyond what guidelines are set out for you. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is when you start working remotely. Having the ability to curate an office space to your own needs and wants is amazing. Having access to your own restroom, coffee maker, and other home amenities makes working really nice. Otherwise, if I was still working in the office, I would have been looking for other working opportunities.

What is the best part of working at the company?
They take very good care of their employees. I have a lot of extenuating circumstances with both mental and physical health, and they have been able to set up accommodations for my issues. Working from home is also a huge plus, and not having to actually interact with any customers is very nice. A very good job to do if you've got social anxiety. They also raised the minimum wage from $11 to $13 a few months ago, and give an extra $1 on top of that for COVID emergency pay making it $14/hr minimum right now, extended until at least December 2022 as I write this. And regarding COVID, if you have to take time off for it they will still pay you for that time. There are also premiums for working evening shifts (like $0.50 during hours worked from 6pm-12am I think, and an extra dollar for overnight shifts.) The supervisors also create a very positive work environment in my experience, and the company promotes from within.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The work can be very boring at times, not necessarily stressful though. The stressful part is all of the micromanaging as the supervisors can listen in to any call without your knowledge and grade your performance daily, but if you are at least putting forth effort to do the job and don't just AFK you should be fine. Another thing to note is that if you get hired on into the evening shift, it is basically impossible to change your hours to morning/daytime shift. They do not let us off for holidays unless you submit a time off request in advance, and it's not guaranteed, but if you submit it early enough you have a good chance of getting the time off approved. And you do get double pay for working on holidays. Regular days are very easy to ask off for and almost always approved in my experience. Also, every CA is required to work on either Saturday or Sunday, but you are able to choose other days you want off when being hired on. Just make sure going in that those are definitely the days you want off during your time working here because it can be hard to change them. 

But overall, the positives outweigh the negatives for me, especially the working from home part.

CapTel was an excellent place for me to be when I needed supplement income however as most reviewers have already stated , upper management ,the policies, and their "grading system" are highly unrealistic. You are monitored every day where they select random calls and each one must be over a 90 to be considered a passed monitor. Anything under 90 is considered a failing grade which in real life is actually not a failing grade but that's neither here nor there. If you received a monitor that they graded under ninety,  you would have to be coached for 2 hours and received 5 random monitors over a course of 5 hours. If any of those monitors were failed you would have to start completely over with five more monitors until all  are passed where u are considered on FM/IM status. Despite being highly conscious of quality and details during this status supes would find something to mark off points for and I would have to start back over. After 3 weeks of finding myself out of this never-ending loop I finally was back in good status. The next day I relieved someone off of their call to finish the call . took me an hour and a half to revoice and took me until the end of my shift. when revoicing ,nothing was coming out correctly and the software was misinterpreting my words and not captioning correctly. I could say "pizza" and the software would recognize it as "burger". Mind you, if u have to manually fix these errors you are still counted against because when you spoke it it did not come out correctly . how this is your fault I still have not gathered. Of course out of the 100 calls I took that night this call was pulled and monitored and I was placed back on a failed status  even after communicating that the software had issues interpreting my on content.  I understand that all workplaces have their policies and expectations on how things are done but it seems as if this company would actually set you up to fail when they know you produce quality work. Would only recommend to someone who needs a quick gig or supplement income.

If you like doing the same thing at work every single day and confined to your own gray wall cubicle then this is the job for you. This job has great flexibility just make sure , if you need to change your availability, you put the request in about 5-6 months ahead of time. Very strict and tight about rules, anytime your away from your computer and not on a break is counted against you, so go to the bathroom wisely. HR is a joke, they will never answer their phones, only way to talk to them is to sacrifice your adherence points and go to their office in person. Breaks are good, normal two 15 min breaks and a 30 min lunch if you're full time. Advancement is not great as you have to wait for a position at your location to open up which is not often at all. You can request to leave early on the computer, but its useless, those requests never ever get approved. Ive put in quite a few leave early requests in the year I've been here and not one had gotten approved. Any days you miss that are not previously requested are held against you no matter what the reason. So if you miss a day because your grandpa passed away, they dont care they take points from you. Finally, as for the job itself, coming into it u think your gonna be helping people so its fine, no. Seems like 98% of the calls you are just captioning for no reason. While on a call you can't do anything, you can't fiddle with your fingers or a pen, Just sit there and caption. You are allowed to read or color or anything not involving your phone in between calls, but that's not for long at all. Overall, very good starting job for experience, not ideal for long term and very tedious and lonely with no social interaction. 

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