Let me walk you through my time at Sykes. I worked there for almost 2 years, unfortunately. When I first got the job, I felt pretty positive. I went into training, liked the trainer and most of my classmates pretty well, and did very well in the class, according to everyone above me, including my trainer and the other managers. I was told multiple times that "once I was out on the floor taking calls, I would be able to advance very quickly." Things were looking pretty positive for me.
Once I got on the floor, I worked my butt off to do well at the job. I was focused on providing great customer service and things went nice for a little while. The pay was pretty pathetic, but it was better than minimum wage, which is what I was making at my old job.
When I applied for the job, I asked plenty of questions about what it would consist of. I even asked if any sales would be required. I was told that all it consisted of was helping customers troubleshoot problems with their phones and answering billing questions for them, and that there were no sales involved. Of course, a few weeks after I get onto the floor I find out that not only are sales involved, they are required. You have a quota of sales to make per day, and if you don't make that quota two things happen. One: You get disciplinary action against you, which scales up according to how many days you miss the quota. Two: You have to write a statement on why you didn't make sales goals, as if you were a third grader bein
ProsThere is a ceiling, so you won't get wet when it rains.
Customer Care Specialist | Chavies, KY | Apr 11, 2019
Worst place to work ever.
. Makeup hours required but not given if you have an emergeancy.
. Written up even if you have hard proof to the contrary.
.Force you to make sales but then scrutinize and repremand you.
.Contract to Frontier Communications Support/Sales written so Sykes employees have no rights or perks.
.5 minutes of time per shift to make it to and from all breaks or bathroom emergencies per 8 or 10 hour shift.
.Constant scrutiny, beratement, and belittling publicly for metrics.
.Daily manual editing of your time sheet based on being seconds late on a clock in that do not add up.
.Pay deduction if you have PC issues and cannot get on PC, Phone, or client calls fast enough.
.Expensive healthcare packages that employee pays the entirety of if you really want it.
.Soul sucking environment constantly fixing issues created by peer idiots.
.Every single call automatically escalated to at least angry being cursed and treated badly by clients.
.Highly scripted call flow written by Frontier Communications that also escalates every call.
.Graded on script adherence impossible (Has never been accomplished) to get 100% on a call review.
.Script deviance welcomed and we'll received by actual customers yet reprimanded by Sykes management.
.Constant full queue of inbound angry callers with no breath or rest between calls.
.Management and floor walking peers are little to no help if you have questions or need assistance.
.No real IT personnel on staff on site. They have one guy who is in
Pros6 weeks of relatively low stress pay (training)
Over the years, Sitel has drastically evolved into a rather dreadful place of employment. Back in 2013, they started making changes in the on-site HR Department that resulted in in the loss of about 3-4 integral employees. Then, in 2014, they hired a new HR Director, who, from her start at Sitel Augusta, showed a vivid appearance of nonchalance and passiveness. The main operations of the HR Department was converted into a hotline - you have to call now to speak with foreign representatives to have issues resolved such as payroll disputes, benefits discrepancies and LOA matters.
It was also in 2013-2014 that several, I mean several Coaches (Supervisors) and Agents of Sitel Augusta resigned and began employment at other major call centers in the area - those individuals now report better treatment, appreciation and greater advancement in their new workplaces.
The Staff of Operations Managers consists of maybe 2 or 3 individuals who actually have a compassion or concern for the employees of Sitel Augusta. The Senior Operations Manager (present-day) is nonchalant, arrogant, rude, discourteous and has a callas heart. He shows no genuine concern or care for the employees of Sitel Augusta, only those who he directly works with (like the Operations Managers or Supervisors or his superiors). He will see you in passing, look at you eye-to-eye and say absolutely nothing. If you greet him, he will ignore you, even look at you and ignore you.
In 2014, after the previous Senior Op
ProsIf there are any, they've been overshadowed by the cons.
ConsWhere do I start...where would I ever end?
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Remote | Apr 5, 2023
Most unorganized company I had no pleasure in doing business with.
I want to start with the most obvious first thing that you will experience; the onboarding process.
This process wasn't the most organized and was split between about 5 separate emails and then you'll be sent an SMS with no idea of who it is. (Thankfully they introduce themselves but I think it'd be nice to include in the email if you will be needing to contact by SMS.) Lots of last second communication about where you will be and there will be a false promise from recruiters that you will be moved to another campaign once the current one you are on is over. Apparently only some of them decide to actually disclose that this choice is based on your stats. (Later on this won't even matter actually because if apparently you are considered contract (seasonal) then you will simply be let go after being told for months that you are permanent.)
Next, let us address training. The campaign I was on for Cash App Taxes actually had a pretty okay training module. I at least felt informed enough to make slightly confident decisions. Trainers themselves from Foundever were also okay. Simply okay. I personally found it difficult to feel comfortable with my trainer and asking questions didn't feel good as the response was always more on the side of "Why am I doing your work". There was also an obscene amount of off topic talking during the training about personal things that made it a lot harder to concentrate. (This carries into production.)
Trainers preached that we are considered per
ProsYou can mute the google meets or zoom calls.
ConsBreaks change randomly each day, lack of communication, LOTS of misinformation, too much 'I don't know' from management and coaches etc, lack of consideration of your disabilities, nearly impossible to move up if you don't want to be a coach and aren't being referred.
I wouldn't recommend Sitel as a satisfactory nor a professional workplace
I started at Sitel as a way to build skills for myself, and to offset some of my time in retirement. They seemed to have a great mission statement and customer oriented goals which intrigued me. Unfortunately, the management I've encountered to this point doesn't even remotely resemble the heart of their creed. They want you to care, but taking a bite out of that apple can be deceiving.
I've been in training for approximately five weeks. The rules for the class were to
*be positive, specifically - no negative personal feelings because that energy is contagious.
*no outside noises such as kids and animals in the background
*no question is a stupid question - or -the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.
So, just starting with these let me explain a day working at home with Sitel.
You clock in and the trainer spends the entire first 30 minutes of class telling you how tired they are because they didn't get enough sleep the night before. You clock in from lunch and the trainer spends the next 30 minutes telling you what they ate for lunch and how tired they are from eating too much at lunch. The lack of professionalism is palpable. The trainer isn't feeling what they're teaching, yet simply reading mindlessly through the materials which makes it harder to follow along which results in questions....and, instead of a more targeted answer to the question, you get the eye roll, ridiculed, and singled out as to make sure that nobody else has the audacity to
Proswork from home - mediocre wage
Conslack of quality training - undertrained to incompetent tyrannical managament - lousy schedule
I worked for Sykes for over 3 years. When we were first hired, we were told that it is no commission and that you only have to sell phones if the customer wants it. Now we are required to sell UVerse and if you do not then they tell you that by doing so you are resigning and try to get you to sign a resignation statement, which they CAN NOT MAKE you sign or resign. No one can get a raise right now and if you are not someone's favorite pet, you will not advance, EVER!!!!!!!!!! They have forced overtime that will even make you work 6-7 days straight.
Their Medical is a joke. If you just get the free one they give you then it is a $500 MAXIMUM which even the co-pay counts against. It restarts in January, does not cover chiropractors, vision, or dental. You can BUY more but you will not have much of a pay check left, God forbid you have children or a spouse covered. You have to buy vision and dental and dental is so high that it would cost you less to pay for the office visits yourself then have it count against your deductible. You can only get glasses frames once every two years unless you can see without them for 2 weeks while your frames are sent off to have the new lenses put in them once a year. Or you can alternate getting glasses one year and contacts the next. Be prepared to pay for them unless you like Granny/Grandpa frames. I just want them to fit and look decent, I don't want or need designer frames.
I have been dealing with major stress, health issues that ha
Pros401K and Vacation pay
ConsEVERYTHING ELSE AND MORE
2.0
Work from Home Advisor | Knoxville, TN | Nov 24, 2021
High turnover, poor employee retention, poor leadership
On the surface, Sitel Group appears to be a forward-thinking, well-organized, and technologically advanced company. Less than three weeks into training I discovered that the recruiters are trained to "sell" the company. In the first three months I had no less than 5 different managers. Styling themselves as a "bring your own computer" company what they mean is that they are attempting to use employees in a way that should really be reserved for contracted employees that would receive a 1099 at the end of the year. They offer no compensation for work from home positions for internet access and electricity. Normally, electricity wouldn't even be a consideration for me - but, Sitel wanted me to keep the provided computer on 24/7 and never disconnected from my home network / wifi. Aside from the obvious personal privacy and security concerns this causes - they, additionally, required several apps be installed for use on my personal cell phone and management used this as a regular means of communication (also no compensation for the use of my personal equipment or concern for privacy and being "off the clock" when off the clock. Scheduling normally isn't a concern for me (I consider myself pretty flexible here for availability) - however, waiting 7 hours before I could eat a next meal was an issue. When I approached management about this I was told I would need to apply for ADA accommodation. It was policy not to eat or drink at your desk but was told by leadership that I could ea
Proswork from home
Conssee my review - the entire experience was a "con"
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Lindsay, CA | Jan 7, 2014
THE WORST PLACE I'VE EVER WORKED
They tell you in initial contact before starting that it's a customer service position looking after billing questions when customers call in and that it's a rotating shift work hours with every 2nd weekend off. Ends up when you're hired and in the first week of training, nothing they told you is anything near the truth. The job ended up being high pressure for sales (they kick in the high impact sales training sessions starting in the middle of the 2nd week of training). Train for 4 weeks in class to learn approx. 6-12 computer program applications along with trying to learn extensive product details for a very large corporation. After 4 weeks, out into the training bay on phones right away, taking calls where customers scream and swear at you and call you an idiot or worse and the trainers are behind you insisting you 'turn the call around' and make a sale. A sale is expected in each call. Quotas are established almost immediately, although in training they tell you no quota until out of training. Were advised in first week of training that it was a shift job working 12noon-9pm everyday and every second weekend and if you don't like that, don't come back tomorrow. Within just 8 weeks, the way the shifts looked and what hours we were to work changed at least 5 - 6 times and sometimes daily. Changes were made with less than 24 hours notice for work days/shifts. Most of the training staff that walk the floor and listen to your calls are rude and condescending and are,
ProsNot having to flip hamburgers or wash tables
ConsToo many to list
1.0
Customer Service Representative | DeLand, FL | Jul 3, 2020
Dumpster fire with trash pay but a game room? Read all.
So lets start this off nicely. Sykes on the outside looks like an awesome company. They have a game room, drink coolers, some pretty cool coworkers, and a pretty decent social atmosphere. About once a week, they'll come around with a candy, slushies, and the occasional pancakes! Also in the game room once a month there's a super smash bros tournament after work. All cool stuff right? So here's where they destroy ya.
Number one is the commission structure. The commission structure is purely a joke. You will be graded on how customers feel about a corporate entity caring of them as a customer. Another problem; you will be graded based on 3 departments that you will be trained for with no way of opting out of doing so. This company will force-feed things down your throat with no explanation as to why, and without proper training. Don't expect to feel heard. You never will be. Any time you bring up anything that disgruntles you, prepare to be shut down and sometimes even threatened with repercussive action. Another issue: Expect inconsistency. You will get swapped around teams with little to no regard for your opinion or learning style. Agents will be swapped to teams for less than a month before Sykes decide they need coaches elsewhere and just take them away from your department. You will be given expectations from intuit corporate and then given contradicting expectations by Sykes and be expected to follow both sets of rules. For example things like average call times, brande
ProsGame room, full snack bar, nice coworkers.
ConsTerrible pay, inconsistent management, more work same pay.
The AARP program is pretty good out of all the Sykes programs. Sometimes it can be laid back and sometimes it can be fast paced depending on the season. The people who work there are pretty great and the program has a family like feel to it 😊. Also this program is off on Sundays.
Now with that being said, this program has been through many changes. After “training” for 2 weeks which consist of looking at video modules, you will be going straight to calls. They are constantly wanting higher conversion rates without raising the pay. There are people there who have been in the program for years and still are not meeting the metrics. The pay is $10.00 an hour and it doesn’t go up. You can be a web, care giving, chat or fraud watch network agent for AARP and you will be paid the same thing.
Most of the team leads were cool except for this one lady who always had mood swings, especially when it was “her” Saturday to work. Saturday’s are so slow, that they shouldn’t even have anyone working on the 📞 s. They are always loosing call volume and hours due to other Work at home competitors that the client choose to hire.
They raised the conversion rates up and they expect you to get all of these renewals and join payments for memberships, just to reward your hard work with a Sykes T-shirt and a water bottle. (No bonuses since they over hired too many people in the program) they always want you to offer the gold star ⭐️ mandatory question on every call, but they don’t count
The only thing I don't quite remember about Sitel was how much Holiday they gave.
The entire experience there was a roller coaster ride heading to a broken track.
I worked in the Exeter area & first heard of the place at the local Job Centre. One of their HR employees was there holding a small session to recruit anyone who was interested to work at Sitel. He was specifically looking to hire people for a "Technical Support" role. It was described as the typical Tech job helping anyone with issues with devices, etc. I quickly expressed my interest in Coding, Programming, Computer Science, etc. Both He & the Job Centre Rep agreed I'd be perfect for the role with those skills.
I ended up going to a short 6 person group interview a few days later. We took pictures of the inside & were there around 2 hours before we were done. We were made to take a short & easy "speed test" where we just copy & pasted some information between Word & Excel. About 20-minutes after leaving I was told we'd be put on a short 1-2 week long "Training Course" to refresh our skills. The Course was simple things like "How do you turn on the computer", etc. I was however, quite turned away by the fact one segment was to make a social media presence & then write a review of the Company.
Once the Course was done I was offered the Job for the over the phone. I accepted & was given 2 dates to pick from to start. Except, 3 days later I got another call offering me the Job for a 2nd time. Apparently th
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Remote | Aug 16, 2021
T&T campaign
I started working with SITEL in December 2020 on the test and trace campaign, the recruitment process was pretty quick, and I was started within two weeks of the initial contact with them. When I began, they sent us in for ‘training’ which I was under the impression would be quite detailed considering we were to be gathering information from people in relation to covid-19. However, to my surprise the training lasted a whole 2 days and consisted of a few poorly done PowerPoints and a tonne of reading from a training board (arguably filled with out-of-date screen grabs and information). I later came to learn that the PowerPoint information was out of date as well and didn’t represent accurately the screens we would be seeing when starting to actively trace contacts. After this training we were then thrown into a group team chat and told we were going live, to my shock the next day when I logged in for my first official day of tracing the screens and information that was coming up was not like the stuff we had to be taught and there was little or no support about how to deal with this. After a couple days I got the hang of it (largely due to the help of a friend who had been on the T&T campaign longer than myself). The next few days I was randomly placed into a separate team chat with no explanation as to why and a new training session was formed (later I came to learn that this was the training for more advanced and complicated calls in Tier 2 isolation calls) This training las
ProsWhen it worked the holiday booking system was good
Conslong hours, short breaks, poor management, lack of communication, poor support from senior staff
Säljare, savedesk, support Larnaca, Sitel, Foundever
Kan börja med att berätta, var anställd på detta företag i 4 år. Min första 2 år var bäst. Bra miljö, kultur, kollegor, team leader, chef.
Sedan började de komma konstigt folk som kom i en kultur med fulsälj och klicka kunder för att nå fram till sälj samtalen.
Tänk på dig själv och ditt välmående.
1. Kom flera personer som hade problem med att sälja, tls lova att hjälpa till och visa hur man kan förbättra sig. Skulle ha sidebyside men hände aldrig. Slutade med att de skickade hem dessa personer. Kan du inte sälja eller har den förmågan så kommer du bli utfryst samt att de skickar hem dig. Vad de lovar i intervjun med utbildning osv får du men den kommer inte hjälpa dig något. Utbildarna är inte erfarna och har inte kompetens att förklara hur man går tillväga.
2. De är jätte hårda med raster, tider osv. Du har ett schema du ska följa och har en % hur du har följt dina raster. Kundservice jobb? Låter bra? Jag hamna på låg % då jag skötte om mina kunder och klicka aldrig och gav den bästa servicen. Men jag fick skit pga detta. Fick inte pissa även av tls… Sen fastnade jag i en hiss och fick varning pga detta. ( skulle ha ringt, men fanns ingen f täckning?). Fick en ytterligare varning, kom in 08.45 och loggar in och det blir kl 9.05 och min data uppdateras och tuggar allt i vår arbetsbox.
3. TeamLeader samt chef pratar skit om anställda, som ovan. Säljer du inte kommer du bli utfryst och kommer vara på dig som hökar om att du inte säljer. Fulsälj går bra så länge du når din
Informations- und Kommunikationskultur wurde während meiner Anwesenheit mit wenig Augenmerk bedacht. Vorgesetzte halten sich nicht an Absprachen, was ebenfalls zu einer Erschwernis in der Arbeit führt. Es besteht keinerlei Arbeitsschhutzmaßnahmen. Auch nach jahrelangen Bestehen des Betriebes lagen Kabel und Anschlüsse frei. Es gab keine Lärmdämmung, noch gab es eine vernünftige Arbeitsplatzverteilung. Selbst nach mehrmaligen Hinweisen, die Arbeitsplätze entsprechend der Belegung vorzunehmen, wurde nichts getan. Durch die flache Hierachie im Betrieb kam es zu Unstimmigkeiten im Weisungsrecht. Jeder war Vorgesetzt, aber keine mochte die Verantwortung tragen. Illoyalität war ein verbreitetes Thema im Betrieb. Die Computertechnik wies Schwächen auf, was zu langen Rüstzeiten führten, die nur anteilig vergütet wurden. Die Sozialleistungen waren ein Witz. Einmal alle zwei Wochen gab es für die wirtschaftende Belegschaft 2 Obstkörbe, die sich dann ca. 100 Kollegen teilen durften. Im Ruheraum liefen ständig Kühlsysteme von Getränkeautomaten. Als Kantine diente lediglich ein kleines Backwarenangebot der Verköstigung im Betriebsgebäude, aber ohne Preisnachlässe. Zudem gab es noch einen 20% Nachlass für die Zeitkarte der Verkehrsgesellschaft Berlin, was wohl das Jobticket darstellen sollte.
Positiv zu halten war die Vergütung, da selbst bei wenig Verkaufstalent bei Abschlüssen von höherwertigen Telefonverträgen eine Provision anfiel. Der monatliche Verdienst erreichte so bei einer 40h A
Questions And Answers about Sitel
What is the best part of working at the company?
Asked Nov 23, 2019
Working from home
Answered Jul 1, 2022
Work from home
Answered Jul 1, 2022
How often do you get a raise at Foundever?
Asked Oct 22, 2020
Yearly
Answered Mar 6, 2023
No set schedule. Raises are typically very small.
Answered Feb 26, 2023
What is the promotion process like at Foundever?
Asked Sep 21, 2020
It was horrible. It was over a year before they had any openings for promotions.
Answered Feb 7, 2023
It’s biased and nepotism plays a major role in it too.
Answered Feb 2, 2023
What is the interview process like at Foundever?
Asked Sep 22, 2017
They did a zoom informational meeting. Then you replied that you were interested. Then you were set up for a start date.
Answered Oct 12, 2022
Record your answers via video reply
Answered Jul 26, 2022
What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Asked Mar 15, 2020
I would come in greet my team check emails and respond pull up stats for the team along with words of encouragement sent stats to the team. Set-up coaching for the day. Prepare for all meetings giving details on agents not meeting goals and what's to game plan to get them their. Assist anyone who may have a question or take escalated calls from agents etc...
Answered Feb 27, 2023
I love Sykes it’s a beautiful place to work understand and fully trained
