No Privacy

It’s quite a big call centre where I work. When it’s full there’s about 400 people on our floor alone, and we only take the inbound coming calls. So there’s no privacy whatsoever. It’s quite a big place, although I would not go so far as to say it’s the biggest call centre. Definitely not. Of course it’s all open plan.

There’s no privacy whatsoever. I’m based in roughly the centre of the room Very roughly. I have a good view of most of the floor and get to see and hear quite a lot.

I’ve heard enough gossip to sink the Titanic. Again. I’ve heard farts, sneezes, coughs, belching, and all sorts of bodily noises, voice tones, and whispers.

I’ve seen the guys walking around scratching their balls and their backsides, or pulling their flies up. I’ve seen the women pulling their bra straps up, pulling the knickers out their arse, pulling their skirts out their knickers, and loo paper off their shoes. I’ve seen people picking their nose on many occasions, some even wiping their bogeys on the underside of the desk! Gross.

I’ve seen people sitting at their desk and doing their makeup – they obviously don’t believe in getting ready for work until they actually get to work. I’ve seen the people who leave getting up until the very last second and end up with their clothes inside out. And I’ve seen people wearing clothes with holes that have been very rapidly sown using the wrong colour thread.

I’ve seen the women wearing the see-through clothes, and the extremely short skirts. They often have a male retinue following them up the stairs, but there always seems to be four or five steps between them. Wonder why?

I’ve smelt the farts, the body odour, the perfume – not all nice. I’ve smelt the food items that are brought into work, and the food from the canteen. I’ve also known the times when the air conditioning has gone alter-cock and smelt decidedly like rotten fish. Not pleasant.

With so many people you get to see and hear a lot of what you don’t or shouldn’t see and hear. Thing is many people seem to think it’s funny making fun about someone who’s just walked out the loos with sheets of toilet paper on the foot, when they sit there reeking of body odour or extremely cheap perfume themselves.

When you get so many people of varying ages, genders, cultures, and nationalities together, you also get the stereotypical personality types – timid, independent, intellectual, adventurous, to name a few, and of course the bullying type. Those idiots who take the mick out of other people and are actually far worse than those they laugh about.

Those of us who are bit more mature just sit back and watch the goings on with varying degrees of cynicism, disgust, revulsion, disbelief, or amusement. The lack of privacy has definitely been an eye opener.