What the fuck is up with the government giving another fucking call centre more fucking money?!? There has to be a better way to use $2 million! Call centre jobs are not the solution to employment issues in Nova Scotia! They’re shitty low-paying jobs with few benefits and zero room for advancement. And they offer no experience for a decent job. I only ever hear horror stories of working in stressful call centre hells. No wonder people hate work, and are completely stressed out and tired in Nova Scotia.
They all work in call centres!
—Refusing to Work at Another Call Centre
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.
Amen. What a waste. A city full of university educated 20-somethings and this is the business that the province/city want to attract. How about trying to get a return on your student loan investments and attracting some industry that pays higher wages? Then, the former students can get paid what they are worth, repay their loans and stay here and pay taxes on incomes over 50K rather than the <30K or whatever you make at a call centre. Dumb.
No one who just graduated university is entitled to a 50k salary. I am fucking tired of hearing recent grads whining that they deserve more because they just spent four years doing nothing in university (see “Damn Undergrads” bitch).
Work your way up!
Bitch, Please! there is no where to work up to @ a call centre.
PS lots of people spend their undergrads working and doing all kinds of shit to better themselves and their resumes and still can’t find anything better than a call centre after graduation.
I didn’t say they were entitled to the job, it’s just poor planning on the gov’t part to not try and attract jobs for all the university trained people they are graduating. It’s a missed opportunity in my opinion. Overall, people with more education earn more. This means they pay more in taxes. For a province with the most universities per capita and some of the highest taxes you would think that you would want to attract business and industry that made use of your assets (educated workers) and that could potentially solve your problem (revenue generation). The OP is right. Call centres are not the right solution to the province’s employment problems. There are lots of industries that could thrive in NS. We already have the seeds for a biomedical industry with Dal producing quality research and researchers. I’m sure we could support things like IT, marketing etc where our geographical isolation isn’t too much of a hindrance to business. This province lacks vision and leadership. I don’t think it believes in its people. We are losing all of our talent because we refuse to invest in it. Call centres indeed.
but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there….
I started @ > 35K straight out of school and have stuck with it and through raises and doing the most undesirable shifts/accepting more responsibility have worked it up to a decent wage now…
you have to find one and stick with it through the crappy days.
Remember, I hate every single day of my job but being able to make it on my own and affording a car is just appealing enough. JUST.
Useless. The Gov’t is turning Nova Scotia into a third-world employment call centre. Close ALL the call centres. These are NOT real jobs. I wouldn’t even dare to call a call center job a career. Put the $2mil into better use.
Call centers are good for one thing- taking advantage of their long, paid training programs while you search for something better. Which is exactly what I’m doing now.
Depending on what kinds of call centres we are talking about here (Support? Good. Surveys? OK. Telemarketing? Yikes.), I wonder how much NS might be coming out for the worse by more of its citizens in that kind of job. Especially with telemarketing, playing that role (unwanted intruder, with insults to match, no doubt) must have some negative impact on mental health.
Does anyone know what the proportion is of the different kinds of call centres in Nova Scotia? …call-in (support), call-out (surveys), and call-out (sales)?
I can’t get hired by call centres because they say I’m not “qualified” despite having over 10 years of customer service experience. I also have a degree essentially *in* customer service.
But I’m not qualified, apparently.
And by “not qualified” they mean “you have two degrees so we’re not going to hire you because you’ll just leave when you find something else”…I mean I saw the people being hired on the spot at an open house at a particular call centre in an old volvo plant….I don’t think they were looking for people like me.
Nah, I’m just under-qualified….I mean with my 10 years of customer service experience and my degree in customer service….surely THAT isn’t enough! Maybe a PhD would’ve made me qualified to work for *gasp* 10 bucks an hour.
I started working at minimum wage in high school, and had crappy jobs through university. When I graduated, I realised I was not going to be making 50k right off the bat. I worked at several call centres before landing a career. Even then, the pay was entry level, but, like zZz, I worked my way to a wage that is more than comfortable. Unlike zZz, I am fortunate to love my job.
PK, if all you need for a job is a high school diploma if even that, just leave out your education.
Miles said: “Amen. What a waste. A city full of university educated 20-somethings and this is the business that the province/city want to attract. How about trying to get a return on your student loan investments and attracting some industry that pays higher wages? Then, the former students can get paid what they are worth, repay their loans and stay here and pay taxes on incomes over 50K rather than the <30K or whatever you make at a call centre. Dumb."
That’s the thing, Miles: if you’re too educated, call centres won’t touch you.
They’re looking for people who have no other options, who think 10 bucks an hour is the holy grail of wages.
Let’s look at the $10/hr and see what it really boils down to:
10*40hrs/week (for sake of argument) = $400/wk.
$400*52= $20800/yr.
Take off tax (as calculated by an online canadian tax calculator) net (not including CPP/EI/etc…) = $18101 (for province of NS)
Given the fact that the poverty line for a single parent with one child in NS, for example (in 2001, according to stats can) is $20209 (and probably more now with the CPI rising every year), take home pay is below the poverty line for a call centre worker…if we look at gross, sure you’re just hitting it, but…is that really any way to live? And what exactly WOULD take home pay be after child care expenses (and if you have to work overnight, that expense is going to be more than day time daycare and aren’t most call centres 24 hours?) and CPP and EI is all sucked out?
And that’s just with one child! God forbid a single parent have more than one child.
It’s no wonder people stay on welfare around here — I mean why go work at a shitty ass call centre that pays crappy wages when you can sit on your ass at home and watch talk shows all day and STILL have your shit paid (assisted housing, extra cash for booze/smokes, cheap wieners and big 8 pop for the kids…).
Bitch, Please! what’s that like?
to wake up every day and be happy and eager to go to work?
I’m certain you are of the fortunate, scant few who could say that and mean it.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Halifax was inundated with “IT schools” – everyone wanted in on the IT boom, and guess what happened? I got an IT degree. Then, after i had 2 years of experience under my belt, I had to go out and re-educate, and move away because nobody wanted to pay a slightly higher wage for my education and (little) experience when they could get someone with NO experience, and a (what they thought was) similar education for less money. Welcome to “Economics 101” as it was taught to the morons in HR. I am sadly happy to say most of those schools, jobs, and companies no longer exist here…
Pretty Kitty got it dead on.
I worked at two call centers after getting a business degree (around a decade ago) and working next to kids with only their high school, made me a little barfy. I had a tad more work experience than them having gone through a marketing co-op program, but couldn’t find anything decent in the province that would be entry-level for a university grad and still pay the bills. Obviously the call centers didn’t pay enough either since I only stayed at the first one through the training and then quit for a better job (as mentioned by a few of you). Unfortunately that company closed, so I was out on my ass and back at looking at the 2nd call center at this time. Can you say depressing? The province never did a lot for me in my life so I left. I’m happier now in Ontario and at least working somewhere with a lot of long-term potential for advancement, for those willing to work for it.
Gidget, that’s the same problem. Train too many people and not provide the jobs for people with that training. The Gov’t keeps talking about Canada’s future being in service and innovation, not manufacturing but instead of funding research, they bail out auto manufacturers. They push to train more PhD’s but don’t provide the environment for them to work. It’s silly.
PK: that’s still my point. They encourage people to go to university and post-secondary education, they brag about how educated our workforce is and then they give the tax breaks to call centres. There’s a disconnect somewhere between our education policies and our business strategies. Why waste money training people you can’t retain? Why invest in them through the student loans program and funding to universities and then not do something to get a return on that investment?
Like you said, even the work they are attracting and supporting puts people below the poverty line. The government will get some tax dollars out of the business but not a whole lot from the workers in the form of income tax. Let’s say someone is making 20K/year. They are paying income tax on about 1/2 of that at 9%..so about $900/worker. They will get another 10% of the 20K in provincial sales tax so about $2000/worker for a total of $2900 per worker per year. Not much, and since they are below the poverty line, they are likely to be using more of the government funded support programs which only eats away at the government’s total revenues. There are lots of jobs that don’t require university educations that pay a whole lot more than $20K/year too (i.e. manufacturing). Why not invest in recruiting some of those? We import and export a lot of goods out of this city, why not make some of them here too?
Anyway, sorry to rant. anyone know the upside to investing in call centres?
there’s symcore, cgi, rim, keane….
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the present government when they were in opposition bitch and complain when the government of that day offered tax breaks and incentives to bring in call centers? Just asking.
Teletech tried telling me that I’m unqualified to work for them earlier this year. It boggled me how someone with two degrees wasn’t qualified but a 40+ year old who wore white socks with black pants/shoes got an offer on-the-spot at the job fair.
NGF you aren’t qualified for the job. You are over qualified. They don’t want people with your qualifications because you won’t stick around. If you need a call centre job, do as someone else suggested and dumb down your resume a bit…and slap on those tube socks for the interview too.
At one time we had 17 IT training programs in Halifax alone. We also had approximately 375 IT-based businesses, (not counting businesses using IT people, but not IT-focused companies). So Zzz’s list of 4 less than 15 years later gives you an idea of how well the government’s attempts to make us a tech-town worked. Oh, wait, probably becuase one party started the initiative, and another beat it down when they got into power…
So, not really a problem with the tech town idea, just a problem with implementing a plan that will survive the next election.
That’s just my opinion, Miles, but I think there were other factors as well, it just seems to me that if one party can start a plan for economic growht or renewal, the subsequent parties should at least see what’s good about it before giving it the ole heave-ho…
Hey – ho-heaving… that might be what happened to all the girls you used to find downtown… they appear to have landed in North End Dartmouth…
Well as much as call centres are low wage slave drivers – Atleast the government gave “some” money to “some kind of ” employment oppurtunities. Better then nothing and atleast creates shitty jobs at the minimum rather then spend it on some political fuckers retirement fund and a cadilac. I reside in alberta 10 months out of the year and live in NS which is home when i’m off times in the summer – shitty as it sounds – I couldn’t for the life of me find any decent paying employment in my field. Theres no way with my certifications and qualifications work at a call centre or a minimum rate wage at a job i make 4 times the amount doing the same thing elsewhere . I never would suggest anyone diss Nova Scotia – but fuck – if you can’t find employment satisfactory to your qualifications and expectations – leave to another province and make your money and come back and spend it in NS . Nuff said
When I graduated university I had three options for employment: an unpaid internship in the field of my degree, working in a call centre at $8.50/hr (wages then), or going to South Korea for about $20/hr. I chose South Korea for the obvious advantage of income. Sadly, it didn’t give me any experience at all for a job back in the “real world” and now I’m working part-time (they don’t offer full-time anymore) at what basically amounts to a call centre (data entry operator) for $12/hr. There are still those unpaid internships in my field out there that could possibly lead to a real job, but how am I supposed to feed and house myself for that 6 months I’m unpaid?
Hmm… $2 million spent to create 300, $20K per year jobs. That is a little over $60 K per job created. What a horrible return on investment…
As someone who works at a call centre… I’m sorry
I agree with some of the comments on here.
I specially agree with university and college graduates deserving more pay simply because they can get it else where in Canada.
I absolutely agree that it’s a waste of money to give a call centre $2 mil to operate here, they make more than that a year (I worked in a call centre while in College).
Pretty Kitty, I highly doubt your qualifications count as they don’t give a crap what they are at call centres. They provide their own testing, and their own training. I was laid off at one centre (remember the mass Minacs Layoff back in 2001) and applied to another in Dartmouth. They never called me back until I dropped off a 3rd resume. I hated working in call centres, but some of the co-workers made it easy, and it sure beats having to deal with idiots at a drive-thru somewhere or at the post office (dated someone that did it and couldn’t stand it, only if you knew how stupid people can be).
I’m a recent graduate. I started out making $42K a year. I started making that 2 years before graduation. Because I wanted it, I looked for it and I did it.
I attended college for 3 years, took various courses in addition to my trade.
I saw an opportunity and I jumped on it. It wasn’t in NS either.
I left to be able to do that. I left for another province. I knew someone that lived there whom offered me a place to stay. Within a week I was able to start a job at $42k doing what I love, and it wasn’t due to my graduation. In fact, that employer knew I didn’t finish yet and I explained my situation to him and he hired me. This was all back in 2006. I just graduated summer of 2009 and now I’m at $48k a year. You think it’s great? not until you see the $1000+ being deducted out of your pay cheque for no good reason! You end up taking half of what you made home! I know someone who makes $15k a year less than what I make and she takes home $400 a month less than what I take. A bit messed up don’t you think?!
Don’t get me wrong, I thank god everyday for it and I thank God for his continued blessings. All you have to do is believe in yourself and take that step.
I think HRM is the only one in this province that starts out office employees at $45 or a bit higher, whatever $29.30 an hours works out to! I think that’s $61k a year roughly!
don’t thank some flying manicotti monster in the sky, thank your prowess and foresight into getting to do what you want.
I agree on the taxing though… net pay is 73% of my gross.
hurt until they stopped giving me a paycheque and kept them all online.
now I don’t have to see the horror if I don’t want to, though I know it’s still there lurking in the shadows of the interweb.
I’ll be the first to jump up and down on top of call centres with spiked shoes, but I feel compelled to toss this out there:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1156…
“Ms. Currie said the average annual salary of these jobs will be about $28,000. Roughly 10 per cent of the positions will be on the call centre floor, and the company is set to begin hiring immediately, she said”
Not great, but not bad either. I agree that there are other businesses it could be investing in that reflect what we know.
Ha you think that is bad, I was working for an IT company here in Halifax and they recieved +1.5 Million from a provicial governement incentive program to create 150-200 jobs here. So far they have laid off 4-5 Nova Scotian’s and hired several Bermudian employee’s (here and in their head office in Bermuda). I unfortunately was one of the people laid off, I took it like a man a left with my head held high rather than accepting their offer to slink out the back…but let me tell you it was not easy seeing people that didn’t even have Canadian Citizenship sitting in various seats that were once occupied by friendscoworkers that wereare Canadian citizens.
I have been enjoying the paid vacation (severance at full salary) but it burns me to know there are tax dollars that I paid…invariably paying for the wages of someone that technically has taken my job. Oh well…I was intending on making a career change anyway…but they can still suck on the smelly end of a poop stick.
I work at the call center in question, and while I don’t enjoy the work, the work environment is actually pretty good. I’m a student, and this employer is extremely flexible about working around my class schedule. The wage isn’t great, but it’s above minimum, and when it’s slow I can work on assignments etc. Part time employees are eligible for benefits, even people who only work one shift a week. The company offers bursaries and scholarships, bonuses, prizes, and various other perks. It’s not the worst job I’ve ever had, by a long stretch.
Working in a call center isn’t a career, for sure. But it’s a pretty good gig for students. And most of the employees where I work are students.
It’s also not true that you can’t learn anything of value working in a call center. I’ve learned a lot, about negotiating, solving problems within a limiting framework, exploiting loopholes in policy to benefit clients, and not least, standing my ground and remaining calm in the face of intense hostility 😉