Micromanagement in an Admin Centre, and when it doesn’t work

It’s been an eventful last few weeks about work that’s for sure as I recently left a role working in Ashton Under Lyne after the contract finished and the work dried up buggering up any chance of it going permanent. I have something lined up to replace before you ask, I think, but an opportunity came up as a stopgap working for a famous posh chocolate firm in their admin team in Sale (Cheshire) which would take me close to Xmas through an agency that I won’t name.

The description was vague from the agency about the duties of the role apart from it being admin-based (Not Call Centre their words) and it was in Sale in South Manchester (Cheshire) which drew some concerns from my mother about it being too far.

The money was terrible, but the hours were quite short, 9.30 am to 4.30 pm, I decided to give it a punt as I would be able to avoid most of the rush hour traffic and it would last me for the rest of the year.

However, the reality was after three days I have now resigned from the role because part of it was taking me two and a half hours of travelling each way which is crazy as I could get close to London on that kind of journey and has caused a minor Diabetic crash just before getting home.

The role was terrible I must be honest, even though it didn’t involve constant phone calls that you would find in Customer Service / Contact Centres, it was full of the same Micromanagement you find in call centres, with me getting messages off remote managers am I okay as I haven’t been on a certain system for ten minutes?

I won’t go into great detail about the complete lack of training for this role (That is another article in itself), but the problems started on our first day on the system today when we were left alone to stumble our way around the system with no trainers/floorwalkers in sight and the effect that it had on the five people who started alongside me was massive.

By lunchtime, we were given the minimum lunch we could be given (just half an hour which in this high-stress job should be an hour) resulting in massive?Reduced Morale and Motivation?for everybody when we all returned when I know several members of the team were remote messaging managers/trainers for support only to not get an answer for at least half an hour.

I was also left with?Increased Stress and Anxiety?after just three days and felt that it?stifled my Creativity and Initiative, and watched fellow members of staff who were unable to find the set scripts to respond to emails have to make up their own, only to get told off afterwards for not being positive enough to their customers with our emails.

I was also left very uncertain about trying to take on the most complex tasks and constantly nervous about not making the figures they wanted me and the rest of the team to be doing after only a week.

We all were struggling by Friday last week and then Monday today when the two ladies in the team for example managed just one or two cases each in the afternoon not 50 like what they wanted us to do each day which with a little thought-out support could have easily been resolved.

As stated elsewhere, I worked in a Home Insurance Call Centre at the Co-Operative from 2006 to 2007, and that was a difficult role, but we had six weeks of training not two days and I knew by today, the micro-management I was already facing (“Andy, you have not been on ******* for five minutes, are you okay) would force the staff to be overly focused on meeting metrics and avoiding disciplinary action, rather than providing genuine customer care and resolving issues effectively.

I’m glad to have left and know I will be back at work shortly elsewhere but a lesson manager at this company should bear in mind, is that a badly run micromanagement culture like this will lead to?increased turnover?as dissatisfied and disengaged employees seek out more supportive and empowering work environments.

It's important to find a balance between providing guidance and support and allowing employees the autonomy to perform their jobs effectively.

Whether they will, I very much doubt it and that is a major concern of mine in the employment industry.

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