Imagine a large, commercial airplane stuffed full with policy, procedures, changes, and ever-evolving new product lines you need to push (when the expertise you were hired for couldn't be farther from a Sales position) was dropped on you from the sky. Your job is to catch all that paper before it hits the ground, read, absorb, and utilize it all while talking to customers and solving their problem--often while also reading and interpreting a complex tax law. Other than the initial training (for which they only allocate 1/2 the needed time to complete unless you play videos at double speed), they rarely provide training time to read (much less learn) all the new information they throw at us every single day. It is not possible to learn all the crap they constantly throw at us without working off the clock. We are also required to beg customers for surveys--Not enough surveys, no bonus. Survey less than rating of 8 sends you into negative rating and you lose 10 of your 10 star ratings. Not enough 10 star ratings--lose bonus. Tax experts spend 75+% of call time dealing with customers' computer problems--problems they did not train us for, or even hint at this expectation in the job interview. Compensation is very low for the expertise required (and nowhere near what a private practice accountant would charge). When you factor in the wage theft going on, the compensation drops below the stated wage rate. Hourly employees are to be paid for ALL hours worked--not just the hours you fantasize you'd like it to take to do the job while simultaneously training and juggling all the new crap you continuously fling.
