Hey there! Pardon the rant. As the title says, I have a remote, part-time job at a small-ish financial tech company. I picked up the job a little more than 2 years ago, and the draw for me is that I can have really flexible work schedules were as long as I work the entire duration I'm signed up for, I can do it any time of the day, and the pay was similar to any waitressing work the college town has.
As a college student this was pretty enticing. But a few months in, they no longer allow employees to pick up overtime, or work whenever they need to throughout the day. A few more months in, not only did the company become way more strict on our customers, now the employees (specifically us bottom rung tier CS) are really scrutinized for our punch cards. The job content (because of the outwards, way stricter policy change as well) became pretty depressing as it's more of a f u to anyone who contacts us, instead of feeling like we're being helpful and empathetic.
Then they completely revamped performance metrics and made it so you have to be there on the dot, and added a monitoring plugins to our customer service platform. Doesn't sound so bad until you realize we have to punch in and out for 15 minute breaks when this is a remote job… I signed on because I was promised I can do 4 hour days and split them up as I see fit, and the policy just gets more and more unlike what I walked into. I also applied for internal promotions and other positions, which my supervisor promised to see to but all received no response in the end.
Now it's at the point where even if I take a break that's less than 10 minutes – bathroom, water, coffee, what have you – I'll get a message from my supervisor asking what I was doing. Along with screenshots of the Zendesk plugin that shows my activity down to a single minute. I feel like I'm being watched in my own home – I used to pull in a lot more numbers because I actually was passionate, and when the queue of a different channel than the one I was in built up, I literally would do nearly 100+ of those a day just to help keep the queue down (outside of what I'm paid for). I did this until it became blatant that the extra help just became something I was expected to do without appreciation. The charts my supervisor keeps on sending me are just downright insane – something as small as a 7 minute break will be clearly listed. I was threatened with termination last week over a 10-15 minute break, and today he listed three 7 or so minute breaks and sent me a complete break down of my workday. I get that they're paying for our time but it's downright invasive at this point.
On the other hand, I've been to the office headquarters where the salaried employees seem perfectly relaxed and happy, and environment is nice and friendly so it's most likely just the customer support section that's getting so scrutinized, some employees there recommended that I apply for other positions within the company as internal hires are more likely. However, I don't really see a way “up” the ladder since I'm still working on my degree… Is it worth staying for that slim hope of getting out of this constantly degrading micromanaged hell or should I just bail and look for a new job? Kind of need the scratch as I pay for my own rent, utilities, tuition, etc.