I've been working on a network support team at a small IT company for 3 years now. Has been a good experience that is needed for upward movement in the industry, but there are 2 customers that work us so hard that I have to leave and find a new job for the sake of my sanity.
I work over 40hrs/week and am on a rotating on-call schedule. When I first started, on-call was great because I received a flat rate $550 no matter if any tickets were opened. Customers open support tickets via email, so I just check my email from 8-11pm and take any tickets during that time.
About a year ago, our owners landed 2 very large customers (will not say who, but very large retail outlets) and they have completely taken advantage of the on-call courtesy. This has resulted in me working the full 27hrs of on-call sitting on hold or escalating issues to providers for minor issues that are out of our control (ISP outages, delayed dispatches, etc). The customers are rude and their expectations are so out of this galaxy that they just end up berating me for not fixing something I can't possibly fix.
I've brought this up with my supervisor, my director, and the owners of the company. But the customer is always right and I'm supposed to just eat their shit at 11pm at night. The owners have no spine whatsoever and nobody comes to bat for our team. 3 people have already left, so the rotating after-hours schedule is going back and forth between me and one other colleague. One week on, one week off – on top of our regular support hours.
I'm so over this. These customer interactions keep me up at night with the stress. Then I wake up with anxiety knowing I have to face these clients alone with no support from my own company. I'll work odd-jobs until I get back on my feet, I don't care.
I feel bad for my colleague, but I doubt he'll stay any longer once I leave. I hope he doesn't blame me for any of this.
I will not care if this company folds because the entire support team left due to poor treatment. I'm mostly concerned I'll have minor PTSD dealing with customers in the future because of this, and the therapy it'll take to get back to normal.
If anyone has any experience with this, please discuss below. I hope you all take your lives back into your hands and stand up for yourself. Life is way too short to put up with this.