AAA Brings Jobs to OKC

[edcrunk]

AND I NEED MY TIRE CHANGED RIGHT @#$(*& NOW!!!

hah, i'm not the tire changing guy....
that work is beneath me. my IQ is in the triple digits! hahahahahah



ok, not really

[flintysooner]

I think it is funny that high IQ has become a benchmark of good and that people covet higher numbers. When I was young it was a benchmark for bad and no one would admit to it. Often it wasn't a very good predictor of later achievement either.

[BabyBoomerSooner]

Wasn't there a major push a few years ago to establish OKC, and maybe Oklahoma in general, as a call center mecca? Maybe I missed something because I was too busy hanging with my homies at BWW.....

[bretthexum]

I think there is a fine line between high IQ and psycho-ness

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

I think it is funny that high IQ has become a benchmark of good and that people covet higher numbers. When I was young it was a benchmark for bad and no one would admit to it. Often it wasn't a very good predictor of later achievement either.

Yeah, ever been around a group of Mensans? Not what you'd expect.

[Dave Cook]

I guess I´ll never understand the anger directed towards Indian call centers. Probably the same folks that dread dealing with such ´difficult´accents aren´t keen on foreign movies and having to READ for two hours as well. I don´t know.

I applaud these companies for bringing and keeping these jobs in the United States...but seems as if they´d prefer the college educated Indian workers at half the price vs. the job hoppers at $9 an hour. Tacky but true.

And what kind of a trade off is this? We´ve lost GM and Dayton type paying gigs for DELLs and Hertz´. I guess we´ll take what we can get.

[OU Adonis]

I guess I´ll never understand the anger directed towards Indian call centers. Probably the same folks that dread dealing with such ´difficult´accents aren´t keen on foreign movies and having to READ for two hours as well. I don´t know.

I applaud these companies for bringing and keeping these jobs in the United States...but seems as if they´d prefer the college educated Indian workers at half the price vs. the job hoppers at $9 an hour. Tacky but true.

And what kind of a trade off is this? We´ve lost GM and Dayton type paying gigs for DELLs and Hertz´. I guess we´ll take what we can get.

Dell pays well. Its not uncommon for a front line sales person there to be making in the upper 50s. Thats not a bad front line rate.

I have friends that are supervisors/trainers there and they make 55k starting.

[metro]

AAA Member Services breaks ground on new Oklahoma City facility
OKCBusiness Staff
8/20/2008

AAA Member Services broke ground today on their 198,000-square-foot customer contact center in Oklahoma City.
The building – expected to be complete in late 2009 – will house 825 employees and will be located on Quail Springs Parkway in north Oklahoma City.

Dallas-headquartered Koll Development Company has designed and will develop the building.

According to AAA Oklahoma officials, the facility’s employees who will assist AAA customers in northern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma and South Dakota, providing membership, travel, insurance and emergency road service assistance.

AAA Oklahoma’s Chuck Mai said in May between 85 and 90 percent will be new hires.

“It will be massive,” Mai said. “The largest in the AAA family.”

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce Natalie Shirley and Koll Development representatives attended the ceremonial groundbreaking.

AAA Member Services is a not-for-profit organization with 51 million members belonging to 50-55 clubs. The Oklahoma City center will serve millions of members, Mai said, and one site that can assist customers will help keep costs low. AAA Oklahoma has more than 300,000 members.

[jsibelius]

Gawd what a negative thread for something that is ONLY good news.

I suppose this would depend on your perspective. What if they were putting in a new federal prison? Those would be new jobs too? Would you want that? Would that also ONLY be good news? How about a garbage processing plant? A job is a job. Someone will be happy to have it, after all.

So you're implying that only fat lazy slobs work at call centers. You're hilarious. Many people start at call centers part time during college, etc. Many times they are hired onto a more professional role after graduation. As for the rest... at least they have jobs and aren't living off welfare. I am not going to knock ANYONE who is at least trying to better themselves or their families. Maybe that's the best they can get at this point in their life? Do you think they actually want to work there the rest of their life? Probably not... but at least they are doing SOMETHING.

If you don't like call centers, then don't work there.

Having never seen the insides of one, what's the pros and cons of call center employment beyond mundane work with limited advancement possibilities

I think I'm going to address these two together. They actually seem to go together.

Pros: part-time work to supplement the full-time sub-standard paycheck or school schedule
schedule is easy to work around the full-time schedule
Lots of time (sometimes) between calls (or on hold) to read, balance the checkbook, work on stuff from the other job, etc.
You learn a lot from the people who call, and not just about the business at hand or about human nature. Sometimes you learn about horses. Or property taxes. Or neighborhoods with inappropriate names (Morningwood? Who came up with that?)

Cons: When you're tethered to a computer/phone, you can't get up and run to the printer or run down the hall to talk to a co-worker or get up just because. The regular office activity is non-existent. Thus, the call-center-"fatty"
You probably have to work on holidays
You probably never get two days off in a row (just like retail, yay!)
It's very stressful when the calls suddenly start coming in on top of each other and you're understaffed. For months.
Part-time=no benefits and no time off
Full-time=even more boredom on the job and even less exercise during the day
Low pay - not minimum wage, but nothing to write home about
Other employees of call centers - have you worked with these people? Geez!

Very few call centers treat their employees as people. Most treat them as commodities which are easily replaced. And indeed, they are. I have seen one notable exception, and with positive results. They get good employees who stick around and do good work. The others often hire anyone who walks in the door because they need a voice on the phone, and know they will be able to replace them as soon as the next voice walks in the door. A few of the "voices" they hire turn out to be good employees who care about the job and work hard to do well. And way too many of them don't care, are on drugs, show up drunk, make inappropriate comments and jokes, violate policies that are in place for very good reason, etc.

I agree it's not the best job in the world, but for college kids, or people needing a second income, it's better than some of the alternatives out there.

I guess we could just tell AAA not to come and start passing out cardboard signs so people can stand on the corner and beg for change.

I suppose. But I'm not sure the actual phone answering jobs are being taken by very many college kids or second jobbers. I suppose even the druggies and alcomoholics are better off working than standing on a corner begging for my money (yeah, I guess I'd rather they earn their own money). But I wouldn't characterize this news as ONLY good news. And if they would do this right (and odds are, they won't), they'd turn out a good call center and a pretty nice place to work.

[bretthexum]

I wonder how many professional type jobs this will bring?

[jsibelius]

I wonder how many professional type jobs this will bring?

Frankly, off the top of my head, I'd guess no more than 10% at best, or about 120. I think I need to eat a cookie. I'm being quite the pessimist today.

[bretthexum]

FYI... they have started work on this.

[hoya]

Well, I've worked at a call center before. When I got out of law school and was looking for a real job (and no one was hiring), I ended up working at one for about 8 months or so (I got kinda lazy and didn't look for a job as hard as I could have). The work is blah, the pay is blah, the whole environment is blah. It certainly is nothing I want to go back to, but it's better than working at McDonalds.

Someone who is motivated and desires to improve his or her station in life can turn what begins as a call center job into something better. Any degree of competence and drive is quickly recognized and rewarded. If I'd decided to stay longer, I could have been making a decent salary and would be on track to move up the corporate chain. I just didn't want to stay longer.

Every community needs jobs like this. It's not the job I want, but it's the job some people need. It's good that we're getting another 1,000 jobs, though I do wish companies would move more than just a call center here. To fix that, we need to start making our city more attractive for businesses. We need to keep more of our college graduates here. We may need to whore ourselves out like Texas does. It's a gradual process. While I certainly won't turn down a place like this, we want to be in a position where companies are sending more than just another call center.

[scotplum]

..also, with Dobson being purchased, is that site going to continue or maybe these guys could just move in there?

Considering that I work in the Dobson building at the moment, I can say that it will definitely continue to be used for AT&T employees for the next year or two at the very least.