It’s become clearer to me to that not everyone had the same “office education” that I did which is interesting. I mentioned once before that people have a really low opinion of the call center which is why I thought it was interesting that I picked up so life education there. Here are some of the biggest lessons I learned:

1. Work Ethic

I was lucky that from my very first day, I was paired up with people who were excellent at their jobs. So I strove for that same level of excellence. When I realised that not every workplace operates like that, it was a culture shock. Why would you not want to perform at your best???

2. Punctuality is Non-Negotiable

In a call center, being late wasn’t an option. Logging in on time wasn’t just about personal discipline—it directly impacted performance metrics and team workflows. I quickly learned that punctuality wasn’t just about avoiding a late mark; it was about reliability and respect for my team.

3. Professionalism Starts with the Basics

One of the first things I learned was how to write a proper email. Clear, concise and professional communication set the tone for how colleagues and clients perceived me. Whether it was crafting a well-structured email, knowing when to CC someone or simply using the right greeting, these small details mattered.

4. How to Handle Different Perspective

This is a skill I’ve noticed not too many people have. Callers have different personalities, mood and expectations but beyond that so do your colleagues. A good call center (sorry, but not all call centers have this) has a mix of people and this mix respects each other. Different backgrounds, cultures, races, personalities all working together to achieve a team goal.

5. Financial Responsibility

One of the most unexpected but valuable lessons I learned was the importance of financial security. Conversations with colleagues made me realize I needed an emergency fund and a retirement savings plan- things I might not have considered so early in my career.

6. Resilience

You do not know resilience until you’ve worked a customer-facing job. There were days when the calls felt endless, the customers were frustrated, and the workload was overwhelming. But I learned how to handle stress, reset after a tough interaction, and keep going. The resilience I built in the call center has helped me handle challenges in every job I’ve had since.

7. Advocate for Yourself

I was lucky to work with a team that taught me to advocate for myself even when it seemed difficult. Whether it was asking for opportunities, voicing concerns or negotiating for a better workload, I learnt to speak up for myself.

Working in a call center was more than just a job-it was a masterclass in professionalism, resilience, and financial literacy. Not everyone had the same experience I did, but for me, it shaped how I approach work and life. The skills I developed there still serve me today, and I wouldn’t trade those lessons for anything.

When the layoff happened I had no intention of looking for another job. I was tired and mentally drained and knew I would not be able to perform at my best. I knew logically that I wasn’t to blame and I certainly wasn’t going to fight to work in an organisation that sent out 14 word subject lines in their emails, didn’t segment their email list or even know how to fill out documentation for a layoff properly (please take a minute to empathise with my frustrations).

But it didn’t change that I felt awful about the whole thing. I had left a stable job in a career that I loved- all for a title that I held for 6 months before being “promoted” (with no salary increase btw).

So when I saw the job posting on my LinkedIn, I thought what the heck? Let’s go for it. I had seen the job before and it was one of those jobs where you submitted your CV AND a ton of documents. At the time I didn’t want to fill out the form so I didn’t bother applying. This time I applied just so I could say that I applied. And then I got called in for an interview. I was NOT expecting that. I went into the interview not expecting much.

Imagine my surprise when I fell in love with the role. Sure it wasn’t something that I was used to but it seemed like such a fun challenge. I loved the brand. I loved Digital Marketing. It seemed like a good fit.

More than that, I loved getting to discuss Marketing with other people in the field. I feel like that doesn’t happen often enough for me. It was definitely something I never had in my old job. I went home feeling happy and empowered. It was just a nice way to connect with others in the field and served as a reminder that I wasn’t “bad”. I was just in the wrong place.

Walking out of that interview, I realised that sometimes what we need is a change in environment. Whether I got the job or not, the interview reminded me of what I loved about Marketing in the first place- t was the right space, with the right people, where I could actually see my potential. Sometimes the worst experiences lead us to the best opportunities, and I’m excited to see where this new chapter takes me

I found this really old post that I wrote waay back when and never published. I had just started working with a really toxic team leader and well…let’s just say that I didn’t know how to handle it:

So I’m typing this from work.

Work at 5:19PM where I should not be. Where I have already told my parents that I am not coming home. Honestly I do not remember my exact words. I just remember being consumed with anger and hate and so I wrote something to the effect of I will not be going home.

So I’m typing this from work in the hopes that eventually I am going to look back at this and laugh.

“Hey, Shanice. Remember when you had a crappy day at work and you decided not to go home because your parents wouldn’t let you quit your job.”

In the back of my mind, the rational responsible part of me is realising that I am probably creating a issue where they shouldn’t be. I cannot find it in me to care.

I have had the worst possible week in my life. We got a new manager at work. She is incompetent at best and at worst, she is hell personified. She expects ten million spreadsheets and she expects the impossible. She knows very little about the job- something that wouldn’t be an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that she is very fond of acting like she knows everything.

I keep saying how I can’t deal with stupid but this is another level. This is a woman who is controlling, demanding, unrealistic and rude. This is a woman that is slowly but surely driving me crazy.

So when she spoke down to me yesterday I begged my parents to let me leave. They refused.

Today I spent most of the day in meetings. One meeting with my ex-manager (who is now in a supervisory role for our team) where she clearly asked me what was going on with me. I denied her accusations that something had changed in me and that my work ethic was slowly but surely being eroded away.

The other meetings were with my new manager. One for her to go over the rules with us (gosh, years in this company and we don’t know the rules. Someone is obviously filled with her own self-importance). The other was for her to painstakingly go over every aspect of my job.

I discovered that I was missing parts of my work. That I didn’t update the system I used to(something I did because my new manager gave me spreadsheets to track the work). However after asking me if the spreadsheets were too much, she went ahead and gave me two additional ones (I swear that woman has something wrong with her).

So at half 4 as I was rounding off my work I realised I was the only one in the office. So I asked if I could go home since everyone else already did. Her reply was that I could go once the work was done.

“The work” was 30 callouts. 30 callouts that would have been done if not for her and her spreadsheets. When she asked me if I thought I “deserved to go home”, I snapped.

I went to the bathroom, crying and sent whatever message to my parents. I don’t even remember what. I just remember feeling the vindictive pleasure because yes, I will stay and do callouts. ALL 30 OF THEM. Lets see how the parents like not having a child at home.

I felt even better when I realised my parents had no way to contact my manager (both old and new). So I sat at my desk ready to prepare to work when my senior manager approached me with a phone. The look on her face told me everything. That phonecall was for me.

“Who?” I choked out, desperate not to start crying enough.

“Your delivery guy.” (This was an inside joke since I was always shopping online. I received deliveries so often that I was on a first name basis with most of the courier drivers).

I took the phone tentatively. “Hello?”

“Hi.”

The voice was of my friend, a co-worker who was off on maternity leave. With a sickeningly jolt, I remembered that my mother had her details. Damn me and my closeness with my mother.

“Hi,” I managed to spit out.

It felt like my throat was closing.

“Where are you?”

“At work.”

“What time are you leaving?”

“When I’m done,” a sob slipped out.

“I spoke to your mother.”

“I figured,” I said, struggling to swallow. In the back of my mind I thought of a coworker who, a few weeks earlier, had a very public panic attack and had to be hospitalised.

“What is going on?”

“Nothing.”

“She said you’re not going home.”

“I’m not.”

Now the tears came faster, accompanied by gasps of breath as I fought to control myself. My manager was two seats down.

What followed was possibly the worst ten minutes of my life. I struggled to speak through the tears while my manager watched from the corner of her seat. My friend, not knowing where she was, complained about her freely.

“I told you she’s a bitch. Don’t let her affect you. You need to go home. Promise me you’ll go home. You know its dangerous.”

I remained silent.

“Shanice, I mean it.”

“Fine.”

“Say you’re going home.”

“Alright fine.”

I stood in the corner hiccuping in silence, waiting to calm down. Once I was sure I had control of myself I handed the cellphone back to my senior manager before resuming my work. I had 30 callouts to do.

Typing that story only makes me sadder. I still do not feel like I should go home but honestly where else can I go?

I don’t remember too much of that day. I know it was October 5th. I know the senior manager managed to talk me into going home. But that day changed my perspective on my job and the company itself. When I returned to work the next week, I no longer cared about my job. Instead I focused on getting out of the department. I would go on to leave the business while my toxic manager ended up a department head. I cried when I heard that news. Among the staff it was no secret that she was awful. But since she was close to her manager, he was able to promote her when the opportunity arose.

I chalk alot of that horrible period in my life to a lack of working experience. I thought that because she was a bad manager, it would even come out and management would think of the staff first. I was wrong. But working with her was a catalyst for me deciding that was it and I would not tolerate such behaviour. The second a position opened up in a new team, I took it. And that changed my career for the better…for a while. Then I got another toxic manager and the pattern repeated itself. But it was okay- NOW I knew how to handle it!

I had worked in Customer Care for a little over 3 years. It was not the best of environments but- I was going to quickly learn this- it wasn’t the worst either.

I was burnt out in my first Marketing role so when I was contacted by another company for a possible role, I took the interview.

But in my haste for change it appeared that I ignored several red flags.

1. I was warned that there wasn’t any real processes in place in the environment. I had no idea to what extent they meant it. Any attempt to put in a process was ignored and so we always went back to scratch- no process. Fast forward a year later and it was still the same.
2. The hiring manager was not an HR manager- it was the person hiring for the role. I thought he was picky and looking for someone who could do his role. Turns out the company never had an HR department. I had heard that they outsourced their HR function but whenever I needed HR there was never anyone there. When my role was made redundant I was provided with little to no support- and even my last salary seemed suspiciously low. I also didn’t get severance pay- something I had to follow up about for weeks before they finally paid me. Apparently they weren’t sure if severance pay applied to me- an issue that could have been easily resolved if they had an HR department to begin with.
3. The hiring manager disappeared for days on end. This was something that followed me into the job. The manager would disappear and then come up with a list of instructions or a list of reasons why the work I did was incorrect (even though there were never any proper instructions or marketing briefs to begin with).
4. I asked for a sample payslip but they were unable to provide one. Turns out that the company didn’t give regular payslips. I only learnt this two months in because everytime I asked for one, I got the run-around instead.
5. The contract said that staff weren’t allowed to refuse overtime work on weekends on public holidays. I raised this and they said they didn’t work on public holidays or weekends but that was just their standard contract. Holding them in good faith, I signed anyway…only to later learn that other things on the contract was incorrect such as the date we get paid and the tasks I was responsible for.

Unfortunately all of this happened during a horrible job market. So no matter how hard I tried (and I started trying six months into the job), it was difficult for me to get a new job. Eventually I was made redundant and I cannot explain to you how happy it made me. Yeah, I may not have had a source of income but I had my mental health. And that is infinitely more valuable.