Pros
There is a lucrative bonus program based of your Units of Business (this is one of two things depending on what exact kind of agent you are, called Enrollment and then Admissions. Enrollment is basically where a brief overview of programs and schools is given and Admissions is helping parents with said enrollment process after their application is submitted (different states have different guidelines and documentation you are required to submit). It's also based on your Quality Assurance scores. All in all when you do what you're supposed there is definitely the potential to bonus big. It all just depends on how much you're willing to put it in! Which is a definite plus Benefits; benefits such as Health Insurance, Dental, Vision, 401k. The dental and vision programs are super cheap especially the vision, health insurance is a little more on the expensive but the actual programs are offered are pretty decent. If you have ongoing medical conditions itll come in handy but if you're in good health like myself it'll probably be a boon. Good coworkers, overall there is a lot of decent people working there from the agent level to mid level management level. Beyond that I can't really. There is a serious effort put forth to keep us engaged in off site activities as well on site ones such potlucks, contests, picnics, etc. etc. and recently some teams have started team building exercise. This is good and creates a more positive work environment. Good families...mostly. MOST Of the people you will talk to a generally pretty easy to deal with. You do have your fair share of people who by nature rude or even just plain ignorant, but that comes with any job. One should be advised this is not any regular call center job despite what it said. Overtime opportunities as well as opportunities to work on the weekends (optional) during peak season times
Cons
The pay itself is pretty decent starting at 12.50 an hour. However, take away the bonus potential which is certainly easy to lose due to a failing QA score and then look at the job itself and you will see that is very stressful for what the base pay is. This may hold especially true if you have trouble with doing specific tasks in a computer. If it weren't for the bonus program myself including many other would definitely not stay. Micromanaged mania, There is a massive, overwhelming amount of micromanagement that goes on. For one you only have 15 seconds between each call before you go back to receiving calls. So that's 15 seconds to complete whatever notes you working on in which they expect us to be pretty detailed with them as well and to "keep the parent on the phone" while we complete them. There is definitely a dial dial dial attitude even if this means calling people literally every day to go over the same things over and over again. Management tends to stay obsessed with this notion of being team "green" which basically means no ones go over on breaks, lunches, etc. etc. or else the world falls apart. With all this emphasis on getting as many dials, and such as units of business in, this notion that it's a "family support center" is complete ludicrous. It's a cal center with a high stress sales environment plain and simple, and this can be further backed by simple googling "K12 in Media". Time Off Policy leaves a lot to be desired, if you leave work unplanned you may accrue "points" in which if you accrue too many you are at risk of termination. There's ways to work off points, get them turned over etc. But the very concept of this is middle school. They are also very stingy on vacation time in the summer, as this when we are most busiest. Paid time off needs some work as well, they recently updated the policy to where we lose 5 full days of sick. There are more specifics surrounding this but ultimately we lost 5 full days of what could have been used as Planned Time Off Payroll Problems, payroll problems are common, such as the bonuses coming late (they are supposed to be paid on the 2nd paycheck of each month). Whenever this happens they conveniently say "don't rely on the bonuses" but the bonus is what they shove in our face to encourage us to get more Units of Business. A coworker was missing a chunk of their bonus entirely and even months later they were still "working" on it. A common phrase is "Things are always changing at K12". I don't know if this is some pathetic attempt at comic relief but a company constantly changes the way it operates and it's policies is NOT a positive thing. It creates stress, problems, etc. etc. A need to constantly change things just shows their is a problem with mid-level or high-level management due to their inability to do things that make sense in the first place The computer we use are know to frequent lock ups, crashes etc. etc. Technical issues are aplenty from the agents end of the business, to the supervisors, to the parents who are trying to use our products. Not everyone knows what their doing and this can be frustrating for those who do as this can sometimes involve a lot of different sometimes opposing things to be told to a parent. Sometimes sheer laziness and lack of accountability is the main issue. Most people put in the best effort but there's also another portion which a pretty good chunk who are simply lazy, or incompetent. Work life balance is non existent, especially if get locked into one of their later shifts. There are supposed to be opportunities to where you can move into earlier shifts but so far this has not happened. The call center itself may have the illusion that K12 is out there to help families with their education but if some research is done you will clearly see that their goal is enrollments to profit. So the notion again, that we are a Family Support Center, is a bold faced lie and this can be validated with a little bit of research.
