Where to begin.. I have had a lot of jobs in my relatively short 23 years of life and never have I experienced such agony and dread going into work than I did working in the reservations department of Alaska Airlines. The job is incredibly complex computer-wise with multiple programs that you learn over an excruciatingly long period of 3 weeks. These classes are taught at a snail's pace and anybody that excels at the work is either made fun of or told to slow down by classmates and the trainers.
As for when the work begins, the frustrations literally never end. The Seattle call center was absolutely disgusting when my class of about 30 people arrived which meant overflowing trash cans, a 40 year old "break room" with broken vending machines and moldy floors and toilets that were constantly out of toilet paper and smelled endlessly of urine. Beyond the actual dreariness of the call center and their lack of nice desks, chairs or computers, the work is miserable.
You literally sit at a desk for minimum 8 hours and talk to mostly angry, rude and disrespectful customers all day long. Meanwhile, every single move you make on the computer is being closely watched by corporate supervisors and any call can be monitored and strictly critiqued by your "team leaders". If you have to use the bathroom or take a personal phone call for more than 8 minutes within your shift, you'll get in trouble and may not pass probation. If you tell them you cannot work an additional 3 hours of "mandatory" overtime at the end of your shift because your baby is sick, you may not pass probation. If you have to leave work because you're throwing up with morning sickness, you may not pass probation. Corporate (aka the non union supervisors that are paid a heck of a lot more than the measly $11.56 you make) constantly hold over your head the fact that if you "misbehave" AT ALL, you may not pass probation.
I also had a schedule called "relief" which means that I would never know my schedule until 5 days before it started and it only lasted for 5 days and then it would switch to something else. Not only my schedule but also my days off changed every 5 days. I finally quit after I received my 3 am - 11 am shift and was asked for probably the 10th time since I had started working on the actual phones 2 months before to work another 3 hours after my shift was over at 11am. I told them no. That the company did not take care of me, that if they didn't respect my time in the slightest, that I didn't respect them at all.
To wrap up, I just want to explain to someone that while the entire Alaska company is not necessarily awful, the reservations call center feels like it should honestly be happening in a country you typically expect call centers to be in, because that's the conditions and pay that we received. I now work for Nordstrom and have never been more happier however so I guess all things happen for a reason.
