In today’s high – tech world, virtual jobs are very popular and sought after. Whether you are taking classes online, ordering pizza, making a reservation, etc., many times you will be speaking to someone working from the comfort of their home. While it may seem like the ideal job to work from your home, in your pajamas if you wanted to, however as with any job there are benefits as well as disadvantages. One of the biggest disadvantages that are encountered is communication, or lack thereof (http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/ltv.htm). In an environment where you cannot speak with someone face to face, communication is very important. Sending an email, or leaving a voicemail and not receiving an answer in a timely manner can be very frustrating. When you are trying to do your job and the information is not there, it can be quite a challenge. Another big concern is the virtual chat room, unfortunately what someone types may not always be perceived how they intended it to sound. It is also important for agents to be able to receive feedback on how they are performing. However, this is something that almost does not seem to exist within virtual environments. It is hard to understand as to why since call monitoring is done on a constant basis. If the evaluator scores the call under 100% you will receive feedback, but not if the call was scored at 100%. Interesting enough in an article composed by J. Lodge (http://www.jlodge.com/advantages-of-a-virtual-employee/) it actually states that virtual agents are generally more satisfied with their jobs and that the turnover rate is actually lower than those who work in a traditional work environment. In the virtual call center environment I have found that companies use a shift bid for their agents schedules (http://www.avaya.com/usa/resource/assets/brochures/workforce%20management%20brochure%20-%20gcc2990-01.pdf). Every 3 months agents are sent a list of schedules that are available. However the problem here is that it is based on seniority, which means many of the agents on the bottom of the totem pole are not guaranteed to get they want or need. Many agents have left their jobs because the shift they were assigned was not something that they could work because of other priorities. In speaking with a coworker, Freda Amihere-Otoo, she also stated that the communication issue was a huge problem. The call handle time should be lowered on the overnight shift due to the lack of call volume. Agents are expected to ask at least 3 or more questions in order to properly route the calls to the correct department within fifty-three seconds. This is not as easy as it seems when you have callers who ramble or who will not listen to what you are saying. It however is an improvement from 3 years ago, when calls were expected to be transferred within thirty-five seconds. Some of the other issues that Freda mentioned was the fact that they took away our bonuses, however they invested money so that they could record what we are doing on the computers. A monthly bonus was given if you were able to keep your calls within the allotted time. The company has also hired on agents for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and now they are overstaffed. In this instance they have been giving the agents mandatory time off, which is hard considering that agents only work 4 – 5 hours in a day. A huge problem that is also encountered is the lack of raises. Raises are not given for some reason in virtual call center environments.
Here is a list of a few more sites that I have found that address these issues, on either overcoming them or what the problems are that virtual teams face: http://www.bioteams.com/2005/06/27/virtual_teams.html http://www.christinemartell.com/2008/07/tips-for-avoiding-problems-on-virtual-team/ http://www.leadingvirtually.com/?p=25 http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6589/The-Dynamics-of-Virtual-Teams.html http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6589/The-Dynamics-of-Virtual-Teams.html http://www.allearnatives.com/Telework/Virtualteamservices.asp