customer service representative

analyst

senior manager

software engineer

executive manager

Commonwealth Bank of Australia


When people describe a call centre as a terrible place to work , they are referring to places like the Commonwealth Bank. This bank will micro-manage you within an inch of your life. The advertisements for Customer Care Specialists gloss over the strict and very difficult to achieve KPI's that are part of your role in Direct Banking. 

The advertisements never mention that calls cannot be >180 seconds regardless of whether it’s necessary. You must adhere to your rostered break times down to the exact second. This can be very difficult to achieve when you have an argumentative customer on the line. 80-100 calls is the minimum expected amount of calls to be answered each shift. You must also get 9-10 rating from customers that appraise the quality of your calls (anything <9 is a fail). You have to "connect" with customers by asking the most contrived and disingenuous questions. Even when your calls are perfect, your power tripping Team Leader will always find something trivial to nit-pick about and berate you for it.

It’s also not uncommon to stay back after a shift so your manager can go over your KPI's with a fine tooth comb or force you to complete yet another test. This is all unpaid too.

If you’re a graduate/just starting out a career and think this is a good place to work at- think again. Avoid working in their call centre at all costs.  It’s a dead-end job and will not teach you any marketable skills beyond knowing how to quickly answer and disconnect a phone. The odds of progressing beyond a Team Leader position are slim and the competition to work in other departments is fierce. Nobody wants to work in their call centre. 

Remember, you are completely disposable as a call centre employee and management are constantly hiring because of the high employee attrition/employee dismissal. While other departments of the Commonwealth Bank maybe ok to work in, I strongly caution you to think twice before working in their call centre.  It’s the very essence of a toxic workplace. 


I originally applied for a part time position and was sure I had aced the interview. I got a call and was offered a casual position and looking back now I shouldn't have taken it. There are no permanent positions in my area and too many casuals so I get maybe 3 shifts a month. I don't get paid for shifts and always have to chase this up so that I actually get paid for what I work as branch managers don't really care for casual staff, they're just a fill in. I've been trying to get permanent work since I started in 2016 and I have been unsuccessful at every opportunity so I will be leaving the bank for another company. I'm told I don't have enough experience but how do I get the experience if you only give me no work to get the experience?
Training is okay and all paid for but I haven't been shown crucial things about foreign currency and opening accounts for when I'm thrown in a smaller agency branch with 2 staff.
Pay is good, when I DO get paid. I recently got a new boss who is now the branch support manager for the region who is very supportive and will try to get me into permanent work (but there are 11 other casuals in the same boat). 
With KPI's every branch has a different set up so I'm left looking like an idiot If I want to refer someone as I have to physically leave the tellers box to find someone available to see a customer. I don't know many CSS's or Lenders to refer to so I have no idea who to speak to half the time and customers want to always be served by the same person every time. That's another disadvantage. I can never see the same customer twice and be able to 'catch up' with them like they normally would with the person I'm filling in for..

What is the best part of working at the company?
Lovely coworkers who were kind and helped you along the way. Genuine people.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
High-pressure environment with a significant office politics culture and very high staff turnover. While I gained valuable institutional banking experience and worked with some genuinely supportive coworkers, my overall experience with management and team culture was disappointing.

In my experience, employee wellbeing and professional development were not prioritised, and concerns raised to management did not always feel appropriately supported or addressed. High-performing staff were often expected to manage heavy workloads with limited recognition or support.

The role provided strong exposure to institutional banking operations, however the leadership style and workplace culture made the environment difficult to sustain long term. Unfortunately, my experience did not align with the company values that were promoted internally.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fast-paced and high-pressure environment with a strong focus on performance and operational output. While there were some supportive coworkers and valuable learning opportunities, the overall culture in my experience was heavily impacted by office politics, high staff turnover and inconsistent management support. Employee wellbeing and professional development did not always feel prioritised, which made the environment challenging long term.

While I hope that things have changed since I left the bank about two years ago my experience there still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. 
They were constantly riding us about how many products we were selling. In reality, if a person doesn't need a credit card, I do not feel that we should be trying to sell one to them... even if they can afford it on paper. 
It was also extremely difficult to get leave as there was never enough staff to cover you when you were off. Just prior to leaving I requested ONE DAY off on a Friday over a year in advance. I was told that I would not be able to have this time off as a manager at a different branch in the area would already be off at the time (I was just a team member). 
It was also an expectation that you work OT without being paid for it pretty much every day. 
Last thing... while I was there they forced us to migrate all customers to service self service options. They achieved this and then hounded our branches for not achieving sales targets (which was due to significantly less foot traffic after migrating customers). Because of this we would make proactive outbound calls were we essentially trying to invite the same customers that we pushed out the door back in to 'review their banking' which essentially meant to try sell them more products. Quite ironic really. 
While working here I often felt down and really not myself. Quitting and moving to work for a company who truly values their employees and customers was the best thing I have ever done. 

I am sure there is a lot to like about this company but it is certainly not for everyone.

I work Saturday and Sundays 12.15 - 9pm with a great team of 20-25 year olds as part of the General Enquiry department. On any given day we take over 100 calls ranging from simple balance enquiries to very complicated and technical issues. Everyday our calls are reviewed to ensure that we are adhering to strict security procedures; maintaining and exceeding our high standard for the perfect customer experience through building rapport, offering additional assistance and/or providing helpful information; and to find ways to make calls more efficient (<186 seconds).  
My co workers are a great group of social and extremely bubbly young adults. The most challenging part of my job was to try and be less professional and to socialise at work, which goes against all my previous work experience working in professional restaurants.
Task related learning curves for me involved learning to be assertive towards customers and control calls by not letting conversation exceed 60 seconds so as to have 126 seconds to correctly ID, establish all enquiries and provide the customer with a benefit. For me the most enjoyable part of my job was educating customers, on how to bank more effectively, how to increase their credit interest and offering products most suited to their needs.

At typical day working on a project in the CBAs Institutional Banking & Markets is usually busy and can be confusing. For example your diary will be full of meetings and catch ups whilst the work-load stacks up. The best time to complete work in order to keep things moving is to WFH in the evening or come in a couple hours early. While managers will never directly tell you to work outside of business hours, there is still an unspoken, passive expectation to deliver. Personally found this uncomfortable. 

The reason behind this is the lack of a systematic execution guidelines (i.e., milestones, processes, documents, etc), unrealistically tight deadlines, and miniscule product expert involvement in the execution. This left consultants and technology experts in a position to learn areas of the business in a level of detail atypical of a projects of this level of complexity and timeframe. 

Having said that, as one of the said, it has been a tremendous opportunity to learn all aspects of the Institutional Lending business E2E in a level of detail most people would probably only gain in a 10+ career-span. The open dialogue culture allows one to engage other teams/individuals for knowledge on an adhoc basis which really helps to close issues and identify requirements, inefficiencies, areas to improve etc. That being said, there are often constraints wrt the right people being available.

What is the best part of working at the company?
CBA is all depts are not the same nor is all the management system, unfortunately mine was the worst than ever before in my 9 years exp in the same industry, mostly I felt like a child in a school and getting called out for just about anything if that's is not on the dot, too much politics, favoritism, micromanagement and consistent managers low performance have made the team and environment toxic, if you have a bad luck and get this kind of management then your life will be toxic in one word.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Stressing over trivial matter such as having lunch a bit earlier or later, coming to office 5-10 mins later getting called out and treated like a baby, also escalating this concern to higher up there is no outcome is extremely disappointing and stressful

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Office environment is excellent and all the facilities, however when management is not supportive and nitpick just over everything does make you feel like very little to nothing. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Workwise it is very less stress and since it is a large team so workload can be distributed all across and does not get burden for one individual. But management can impact a lot in order to have a healthy, productive and motivating environment.

show how enthusiastic I am by being professional and providing people skills 
speak out about team results and skills
Provide continues training to the staff to help continue great customer service.
Help the team work together by providing them with a tasks and coming up with an outcome.    EG:   new products, c/c  to help customers when being stuck whilst away or unable to withdrawal emergency funds ? 
Reduce Average Time monitoring whilst on the call center phones by making sure all staff are on the phones 
Help staff when needed 
what I learned was to listen 
Observe and then make a decision if it includes me
Cross training, which helped my learn different procedures and systems
 I also learned on how to manage my time more effectively 
Focus on what i was doing at the time 
Management , I released that every one is different and have different ways on how to deal with things 
follow the manager on and embrace their new ideas
Sometimes it was hard when there was low staff , but I learned to just doing one thing at a time and encourage the team to work together.
The most enjoyable part was the people. 
I am a people person.

My typical day at work. Urgent customer files to be done for the day, attending  telephone calls and maintaining  a high level of customer service in a polite and accurate manner. Closing and opening accounts, Recording information, data entry,filling.

I enjoyed working at the bank because I had the opportunity to learn so many jobs/skills, such as filing, validating information, being a team player, listening to the needs of others when someone needed help. To ask questions when not sure how to do a task was significant.  I learnt so much in the bank, staff training  was something I ejoyed doing always. The ability to work with accuracy with attention to details,, made me feel I could do my job in a very efficientl and accurate manner.


I had excellent team leaders who were very supportive and very friendly. My co-workers were so friendly and so supportive. Excellent team environment to work in.
The hardest part of the job was when I had a rude customer over the phone demanding something to be done straight away.  But I assisted that person in  a professional and calmly manner.

The most enjoyable partof the job was when you feel confident you are doing and putting a 100% of your effort and of course getting recognition for excellent job done. Like rewards from my team Leaders.

A great culture within the workplace amidst a demanding environment, A thoroughly enjoyable and passionate atmosphere from a team perspective. I personally had a great rapport with colleagues and business units alike, and also took pride in being a constant point of reference whenever assistance was required, being reliable, dependable and conscientious, whilst upholding the organisation's commitment to customer service excellence. Communication and collaboration were imperative to sustain customer satisfaction, professionally maintained as a daily priority. Managing a reasonable work/life balance was definitely a highlight, fitting in outdoor lunchtime exercise whether it would be running, bike riding or playing social touch footy and basketball, or else regular indoor activities such as table tennis in the recreation room, reading newspapers/magazines/books in the office library during occasional standard breaks. I learned a great deal of resilience, perseverance and adaptability throughout the complexities of my specific role and tasks, gaining confidence and knowledgeable skills as per self-development, hence my longevity and experience being a personal achievement in itself despite my minimal qualifications having never obtained a degree/diploma, beforehand.

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