Pros
I have no pros at all!
Cons
DO NOT WORK for Service Canada Employment Insurance – you WILL get very sick! This was for the call center for employment insurance. If you think that this job is glamourous, worth the day, benefits, etc, think again! The training, oh man! This was the main issue, it’s horrible! Virtual or not, the training program is very bad! They make you “read” a bunch of stuff and give you a bad paper workbook full of blanks. I don’t get why they can’t make it like taking an actual course? You know, a FULL workbook and actually doing it like a lecture? You know, go over the material and then do problems and case studies? That would have made more sense. Instead, they make you read for a few hours and then they go over it, which makes no sense at all! Just get into the material and that’s it! What a waste of time. There are also exams you need to pass – 3 our of 5. However, they did NOT tell us this when they hired us! That’s NOT acceptable. People failed and were terminated because of this. You also need 75% on each one and if you fail, they bust your chops and ask you “why” did you fail it. Gee, I wonder why. – the training was bad! The training was supposed to be for 9 weeks initially, but it went for 11 weeks. Then there’s further training and mentoring for when you get on the phones. It was so fast passed and it seems like a long time. That’s because it is, and they can terminate you at anytime, which is a lot of pressure on you. They also keep bringing it up that “if you do or don’t do this, you’ll be terminated.” Leave us be! In some cases, it was virtual, as in a few trainings (2-3) training dozens of people. That’s very hard, I get it, but they go super fast, or they’re very boring, and they don’t show us what we consider to be important. If you get critical, they ignore you. The “bible” that you use, is called a common reference tool. This is what you use to assist with EI clients on the phone – and it’s atrocious. Trying to learn this thing is practically impossible and it will cause you a lot of anxiety and illness – no joke. Just take a lot of copies of the Income Tax Act, rip every page out, and then put them in a random order – it’s just like that. It’s not very good and it should be organized better. The software programs are very out of date. You’re using several programs and sites to do one thing – it should all be under ONE system. Of course, being in government, it takes FOREVER to update things. It’s so bad, it’s sad. Issues of mental health, stress leave, sickness, foul language, breakdowns, panic attacks, sleepless nights, nausea/vomiting, shaking, have been reported within the class I was in. It’s so funny because while they promote work life balance and the importance of mental health, nothing can be further from the truth. You have a union, but it’s hard to say how much they can do. The deductions are high, but of course, why should this place have a union? The pay isn’t that great at all. Yes the benefits are ok but it’s not worth it if you’ll be using those services like crazy. You’ll get so sick you’ll max out your extended health, massage, psychologist allowances because of how lousy this job is. The leadership team members are very incompetent and it’s like talking to a wall of thorns. They don’t listen, they go back and forth, and will accuse you of stuff you didn’t do. While I personally didn’t lash out, I was literally walked away from them a few times (or hung up the phone) and stopped working that day. I regret taking this job in the slightest. I gave up a relaxing/peaceful job and it was a mistake. The only reason I did so was because that job was only part time and temporary. I would never recommend Service Canada to anybody, I hope you read this and think twice. I’ll never work for the government again!