There are many benefits to working remotely. Remote workers spend loss money in commuting costs, and can generally get up just a few minutes before the official start of the work day before they log on and get cracking. Remote workers get to use their own private bathroom, don’t have to worry about packing lunch, and get to enjoy all of the amenities of home.
However, for some individuals, nailing down that first work from home job can be a challenge, and a lot of the entry level remote positions that people find themselves nabbing is that of a call center associate. Dealing with potentially irate customers or people looking for solutions to their problems and queries with an order or product or service may not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially if they’re inundated with back-to-back calls for the entirety of the shift.
But a TikTok user named Jaidah (@jai.duhh) is currently working in a position where she doesn’t appear to be subjected to a plethora of calls on a daily basis, which she demonstrates in a viral clip that has received over 4.6 million views since Dec. 5. The video shows that for 14 minutes and counting, no calls have come in through her line, and other folks on the app want to know exactly where she works so they can get themselves a piece of that sweet on-the-clock serenity.
“When you finally found a wfh job where calls aren’t back to back,” reads the video’s text overlay.
@jai.duhh love it here #wfh #wfhlife #customerservice #workathome #callcenter #wfhjobs #wfhcheck ♬ original sound – Austainnnn⸆⸉
In a follow-up video, she responded to commenters who asked where she works so they too could enjoy a job with downtime. While unwilling to write down in the comments section of her video, she did say that she had no problem telling users on the platform where she worked in her direct messages. Seeing as there are people getting fired, seemingly left and right, for sharing information about where they work on TikTok, and that Jaidah likes where she works, it’s understandable that the woman wouldn’t want to compromise such a sweet employment situation.
“I just don’t want to post a comment saying where I work for the entire world to see or to know, but if you message me privately I’ll be more than happy to let you know where I work,” she says in the clip. Jaidah also shared a website that she recommends for finding remote jobs, which users can check out here.
She says, “This is the link that y’all need to go to. So on this website or through this link the lady that runs it, she updates the link daily, it’s updated each day with new job listings, and it gives you the link like directly to the job application. It’s very easy and she also has it to where you can subscribe to emails where she emails you as soon as it’s updated. Things of that nature.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Jaidah via TikTok comment and TikTok direct message for comment.
@jai.duhh Here yall go, i dont gatekeep i promise…if yall wanna know anything else or need help let me know!! #wfh #wfhjobs #workathome #customerservice #callcenter #wfhlife #wfhjobtips ♬ original sound – jaidah
Jaidah is recommending the site, it seems, because she says it’s where she ultimately was able to secure the gig she currently has. “And that’s where I got this particular job from. Now me personally, I’ve been working at home since 2020 when the pandemic hit, but since then using this particular link or website I’ve had like two to three work at home jobs, including the one I’m at now. I know that sounds bad having so many jobs in between that time span, but I’m not the type of person that likes to stay at one job. But this job I do like it and I plan on staying there,” she says.
“But that just goes to show that she posts so many job listings I promise y’all if you just keep applying, keep applying, you’ll get one. And for me personally, I’ve had a lot of customer service experience in working in call centers, so that helped me a lot. So, if you tailor your resume to the specific job you’re applying to, like for example customer service rep, just make sure you’re explaining all the customer service experience that you’ve had in the past and you should be good to go,” she continues.
While she told TikTokers that they would have to contact her privately in order to find out the specific company that she was working for, there were plenty of other folks who listed some other work from home call center gigs that left them paid but not overwhelmed with customer service requests. One person penned that the theme park for a popular toy manufacturer was a relatively low-stress gig: “45 mins between calls, I’m loving it. Legoland call center for the girlies.”
Someone else said that they don’t receive any phone calls for the support job they work in, but that’s because the nature of their assistance is always in the form of emails and chat messages. “Squarespace customer support! All emails/chats. No phones! REMOTE too,” wrote the user.
And judging from some of the remarks from other folks in the comments section of the video, this type of support position was common. “State Farm underwriting assistant no phones,” a user wrote.
However, other TikTokers shared less relaxed experiences working at call centers from home. “Clock in at 7:10 first call 7:10 cant even breathe,” one individual wrote. Another talked about the mental fatigue that sets in after talking so much in one day: “No one talks about how exhausting it is to talk that much for so many hours.”
Someone else said that no matter what, they will never return to working in a call center again for work. “Yeah never working a call center job again. The anxiety I got from having to answer back to back calls still haunts me,” they wrote.
The anxieties of working in call centers are well documented across the internet in various online forums, like these folks who shared their woes in the field on a Reddit post in the r/callcentres sub—a web space dedicated to discussions about what it’s like being a professional phone service rep. One person who was thinking of dipping their toe into this particular line of work wanted to hear what it was like from other users and asked if being a call service rep was as stressful as they heard it was. Several commenters said it was. One user wrote, “Yes, it is very stressful. I have worked in two different call centers for a total of four years, and let me tell you: it will cause an extreme mental toll on you if you are not careful.”
Is working at a call center that hard and stressful?
byu/Wjess92 incallcentres
Jabra said call center jobs can be stressful due to a series of factors, including role ambiguity, poor quality phone equipment, excessive call monitoring, mundane responsibilities, and dealing with angry customers. Invoca wrote about a condition named “Call Center Stress Syndrome,” which lists a series of qualifiers employers may want to look out for to ensure that their workers aren’t adversely affected by a massive influx of daily calls. The outlet states that “lack of energy…decline in concentration and productivity…feeling isolated…negative attitude both in general and about work…[and] less interest in after-work hobbies” are all signs that their call center jobs are weighing down on them.
