project manager

shift leader

engineer

customer service representative

associate project manager

I absolutely could not fault the salary and benefits that came with being a 'customer service adviser' at EDF Energy's customer contact center, which is why I stuck with it for so long... but I am honestly not joking when I say that working there for as long as I did caused serious mental health issues up to/including anxiety attacks and suicidal ideation - there's a reason call centres like this experience an extremely high staff turnover!

If you genuinely care about providing good customer service, this is not the company for you. The work is managed and evaluated on a purely statistical basis with *very* high pressure on advisers to deal with as many calls per hour as possible and with as many energy plan products or direct debit commitments sold as possible. This can prove tricky as outwardly the call center is promoted as the main customer point of contact for problems surrounding their energy supply/billing; *not* as a sales center. 

Those who are deemed to be effective workers are the advisers with a knack for finding ways of 'dumping' customers with more complex problems on to other advisers who have previously dealt with a customer's query/complaint or those able to transfer them through to other departments on the flimsiest of excuses. This allows them to take more calls per hour and increase their chances of promoting sales products to receptive callers (not to mention justify more breaks than just the minimum 36 minute lunch within an eight hour shift). Unfortunatley it also results in many customers going round in circles without actually being helped and often elongates the process of dealing with the original problem if you genuinely wish to help. 

Along with these justifiably angry customers who may be making their fifth call with a 40 minute call queue by the time they speak to you, advisers have to deal with records riddled with corrupt or incorrect data (promises to clean up inaccuracies were completely jettisoned at the 11th hour in order to meet seemingly arbitrary deadlines for converting data from an old system to the latest), an operating system that frequently crashes or behaves in inexplicable ways; and a complex bureaucratic system that means 'simple' amendments are outsourced to various non-customer-contact departments who take weeks or months to process requests with no option for gaining updates on work in progress.

While the salary is excellent, paid maternity leave available and sick leave covered on full pay (up to a certain extent), people facing health/injury issues often face insidious coercion tactics to return to work prematurely and the hours can be unpredictable. Using public transport to commute is not recommended - a call taken 5 minutes before your contracted shift end may force you to stay dealing with a customer/working at your post for up to an hour if you are unlucky or stuck with uncooperative managerial cover. This extra work is not compensated for either financially or via time off in lieu.

If you want to genuinely help people facing distressing problems, EDF's call centres will crush your soul and constantly threaten you with disciplinary action for spending too long on problem solving versus call turnover and sales. If you rate highly on scales of autism, sociopathy, psychopathy or otherwise have a low level of empathy, you will likely make it to a senior managerial position in no time at all.

A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK WOULD BE...

FIRST THING IN MORNING TO CHECK WHAT URGENT ( IF ANY) WORK NEEDS DOING STRAIGHT AWAY AND GET AS MUCH DONE IN FIRST HOUR. ( SOMETIMES IF VERY BUSY AN HOUR WOULD BE ALLOCATED LATER IN THE DAY TO DO PENDING WORK) THEN EITHER CALL CUSTOMERS OR THEY WOULD CALL IN TO THE OFFICE AND I WOULD HELP THEM WITH ALL ASPECTS OF BILLING AND ANY OTHER QUERIES THEY HAD.. ALWAYS GIVING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ALSO I WAS USED TO DEALING WITH ALL TYPES OF PEOPLE.
THIS JOB HAS MADE ME REALISE A LOT ABOUT PEOPLE AND THEIR SITUATIONS AND HAS MADE ME LISTEN MORE TO PEOPLES NEEDS. ALSO TAUGHT ME TO BE VERY CALM UNDER ANY AMOUNT OF STRESS THE CUSTOMERS MAY PUT ON YOU WHEN DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS. CUSTOMERS LIKED ME VERY MUCH AS I WAS CALM BUT ASSERTIVE WHEN DEALING WITH STRESSFUL SITUATIONS, WHICH HELPED THE CUSTOMER IF THEY WERE UPSET OR ANGRY, I HAD BEEN PRAISED FOR BEING PROFFESTIONAL WHEN DEALING WITH THESE TYPE OF SITUATIONS.
THE MANAGEMENT  AT EDF LISTENED TO THE EMPLOYEES AND MADE EFFORTS TO CHANGE THINGS FOR THE BETTER IF THEY WERE ABLE. THEY LIKE TO KEEP THEIR EMPLOYEES HAPPY AND WERE CONCERNED FOR THEIR WELFARE.IT WAS ALWAYS SAID THAT IT WAS THE PEOPLE YOU WORKED WITH WHICH KEPT PEOPLE WORKING AT EDF, ALL THE TIME I HAD BEEN THERE I NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH ANY OF THE STAFF, EDF MADE SURE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO EMPLOY THE RIGHT PEOPLE, IT ALWAYS FELT TO BE AS A BIG HAPPY TEAM WHO WOULD HELP OUT IF YOU NEEDED THEM EVEN THOUGH MAYBE ANOTHER DEPARTMENT ( I THINK THIS IS WHAT ALL COMPANIES SHOULD BE LIKE AS IN MY EYES IF YOU WORK FOR THE COMPANY YOU ARE ALL ONE TEAM AND SHOULD HELP OUT YOUR OTHER WORKMATES REGARDLESS OF WHAT OFFICE THEY ARE IN) I ALWAYS HAD OTHERS HELP ME IF I NEEDED IT, WHAT YOU PUT IN IS WHAT YOU GET BACK I THINK. THEY WERE VERY GOOD TO ME WHEN I LEFT I HAD A LOVELY LEAVING DAY, AND HAVE BEEN TOLD I AM STILL REALLY MISSED BY MY X BOSS.
THE HARDEST PART OF WORKING AT EDF WAS HAVING ENOUGH TIME TO DO ALL THE WORK AND THE NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM THAT WAS INSTALLED, IT WAS REALLY HARD TO GET TO GRIPS WITH, MANY PEOPLE LEFT AS IT WAS VERY STRESSFUL AT TIMES AS NOT ALWAYS WORKING: THIS COMBINED WITH ANGRY CUSTOMERS SOMETIMES WAS VERY TOUGH ( IT WAS REPORTED IN THE PAPERS ABOUT THIS, IT WAS THAT BAD FOR A TIME)
THE THINGS I LIKED BEST ABOUT MY JOB WAS, MY MANAGER AND MY FRIENDS, WE SUPPORTED EACH OTHER. ALSO THE CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARDS, I WENT TO LONDON, P[LANET HOLLYWOOD AND WON £1000.00 WORTH OF THOMAS COOK HOLIDAY VOUCHERS. ON A ADAY TO DAY BASIS I ENJOYED THE FACT EACH DAY WAS NEVER THE SAME, AS WORKING WITH THE PUBLIC IS ALWAYS INTERESTING AND CHALLENGING BUT I REALLY LOVE IT.
I AM WANTING TO GET BACK TO  A CUSTOMER FACING ROLE  NOW IF POSSIBLE. AND FEEL VERY EXCITED THAT I CAN AGAIN GIVE GREAT CUSTOMER SEVICE IN A NEW CHALLENGING ROLE IN A NEW IINVIROMENT.

I am currently in a management role but completed 8 years as a Customer Sevice Advisor and 4 years as a Team Performance Coach. 

A typical day for a CSA would be to deal with various different customer queries, take payments, explain bills, take meter readings, manage complaints and agree new contracts. Depending on the area of the business you are placed in you may deal with specialist activities such as appointments, smart metering or prepayment. 

The role is challenging and no 2 days are the same. The company has set KPI's as do all CSA's. Each month a 121 is held with your manager to discuss performance, development and set objectives. 

There is a lot of opportunity to progress or side step into the business and often there are roles advertised on the company's internal job page. Alot of CSA's are happy in their role and some are long standing members of staff who find doing their role very rewarding.   

The work place is very diverse and there is a strong sense of community in Doxford. We have seen many changes over the past few years, some of which have been very challenging with system changes and restructures. We are working in a fast paced environment for change and and we have all learned to embraced those changes which have led to a much better way of working.

The challenges for me were that you are dealing with pretty much every type of call with little need to speak to other departments, almost making you a 'super user'. To complete your duties effectively you have to be switch on, prepared and willing to put the graft in. You are targeted and on call handling time as well as sales, payments etc. It can be difficult to find the right balance but the support is there to help you.

The most enjoyable part of the role was meeting some fantastic people who will be life long friends throughout the business. Also, the fact that you can help customers in different situations to find a positive outcome makes the job so rewarding. The wage, pension and other benefits are something you don't usually get with other companies. 

A truly great place to work which has shaped my career from 2004.

I joined EDF  Hove in November 2021 as a customer service advisor, in training they sold us a lie. Training itself was not any use in real life as we spent most of the day watching power point slides and didn't actually do any training like (meter reversal, bill reversal, re billing etc). In training promised to have support throughout probation but they quickly removed face to face support and replaced it with email. Now, when you have queries you have to email “support team” and they come back to you with an answer that makes you more confused than you were to start with. Half of the time answer they email you it makes no sense and they assume you know all the “industry jargons”. 
Out of my entire group I was only one left and now Im done with EDF too. 

They took away breaks and whole day you only get 36min. 

You are expected to meet unrealistic KPI targets, sell boiler care and do the work without proper support. 
Sometimes I would get help  from coaches when they had time but most of the times you couldn’t approach anyone and pretty much you were on your own!!!!! 

System they use is not user friendly either, they train you in one operating system and (in real life scenarios most of the time it dose not work) and you have to use really dated system which is hard to navigate. 

This is worst company I worked for and I had few bad jobs before this one. 

I didn’t like them as my energy provider and I didn't like them as my employer. 

Coaches were super friendly and supportive, when they wanted to help us, order would come from above management not help us. They wanted to help us but their hands were tied up. 

Was not all bad though , I made good friends there. 

My advise would be to avoid this job and find something where you be more happy as I can guarantee you, you will not be happy in this job. There is  more to write but whoever is reading this gets the idea what to expect. 

Im planning to email CEO about treatment we (new starters) received. 



I covered internal and external phone lines, dealing with queries from simple customer billing problems to complex industry flow related issues. I also worked back office dealing with said queries and other system exceptions and work files. My days were usually varied and interesting and I was able to progress throughout my department having shown the interest and desire to learn. 
As a result I managed to learn every job within the department. I learned how to deal with customers, internal agents and agents from other suppliers in a professional and calm manner. How to prioritize and deal with high work loads to tight schedules and how to gain the knowledge I needed when my own knowledge was lacking.
My Co workers were friendly and professional and I've found several good friends during my time there. 
The management is what lets this company down, I found some of them to be unprofessional, lacking in system knowledge and some were outright corrupt. Many were merely ignorant of the requirements of their positions and failed to live up to the company's stated aims. 
the hardest part of my job was without doubt trying to reconcile the contradictions between the company aims of customer service and transparency and the management's day to day demands for higher productivity and "that'll do" attitude. 
I greatly enjoyed much of my time at EDF and found the greatest reward when i actively engaged with senior managers to bring about actual measurable gains in productivity. I have hopes that the issues with mid level management will be resolved and that the company will truly thrive as a result.

A typical day at the London Eye is never the same. During one summer's hot day I was approached with a family group who were celebrating a relative's 100th birthday. To mark this occasion, I had personally taken them to the faster entry point for them to gain quicker access and also provided them with their own personal private capsule.

Management wise I feel that I do have one of the best senior management teams within the attraction. This is because I have been able to compromise with many shifts, when sudden appointments tend to pop up. But even more so the co-workers on my department get along extremely well to the point that we are happy swap shifts with each other. This is also due to certain events that tend to occur in our everyday life.

Hardest part at times most definitely has to be during the summer seasons. As this is our busiest time of the year, we often tend to get a lot of bitter customers that are unhappy with long queue formation. But we as a team have often managed to still keep calm and be able to work alongside each other to get the job done professionally.

The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to make a difference to someone's day on certain occasion's. I was once approached by a male who wished to propose to his girlfriend one evening. He had asked if I could provide them both with their own capsule but due to a minimum of" three people per capsule policy", I was unable to. However, I said that I was able to give them a small capsule with other couples for which he was very grateful for. In the end, he did propose and had got a yes and as a result, I was thanked personally for my help.

A typical day would include fixing accounts, talking through and calculating bills, some back office work including submitting meter reads completing reports and chasing up unresolved queries also multi skilled so dealt with sales and prepayment queries. Some of my tasks included manager call backs to do on behalf of my manager and floorwalking which is supporting those new to the system. I learned a great deal about the energy industry, the laws that govern it and where Ofgem comes into play. I learned the importance of identifying vulnerable customers, and how bills are calculated. I was also trained in multiple systems, including seibel and sap as we as using internet explorer to access ecoes and xoserve the gas and electricity database. My managers were always helpful often going above and beyond their role as manager. I worked as part of a close knit team working together to meet team targets and improve each others knowledge. I really enjoyed the team I worked in and am still in contact with some members. The job entailed explaining energy bills and often customers wouldn't understand the maths behind the bill. This was difficult to explain to someone where maths isnt their strong point. Also I dealt with customers who had large outstanding bills and had many difficult conversations about energy use and reduction, along with payment plans that would cover the energy bill. The variety of tasks was good and you often came across something new which you hadn't seen even though my knowledge was considered quite strong even against those who had worked there for some time.

i found working here below my expectations of what i expected from a company, no body seemed bothered about things that were bothering me or other colleagues. we were given 7 weeks training at the start of the job and then put straight into the call center straight after the training, 7 weeks training may seem a lot but considering the nature of the job and the clients, 7 weeks still does not prepare you enough for the amount of problems you face.

the hardest part of the job was dealing with the amount of problems the customers had, mostly through no fault of their own but the company's fault and we as the advisors had to deal with this day in, day out. you have to be very thick skinned to deal with a job like this and the strain of being verbally abused constantly.

the most enjoyable part of the day i would say was the half hour you got for lunch and the end of the day when you pack up to go home.

colleagues on my team were great and very helpful no matter how big the problem may be, colleagues from my team and other teams were always there to help out.

my manager was new to the job of manager and it showed, although she seemed to be there when you needed help etc, most of the time she was always to busy and would often say 'can you get (name) to help you' which at times made you feel like a burden to your colleagues and sometimes people just would not ask others for help because of this.

i learned that i would never work in a job of this type ever again and would not recommend to anyone who does not have a very thick skin as this job may seem easy to some but to others will be the most daunting, depressive job they could do.

A contract covering a secondment from the HRBP team, matrix reporting in cross-functional EDF and NNB work-streams; supporting Directors and HoFs.  Acting as broker between Centres of Excellence into the business (Recruitment, Reward, Employee Services, L&D, Talent, Internships, OH, Graduate Scheme, etc); as well as feeding into Corporate and Steering functions (Finance and Business Architecture) for the wider EDF Group regarding succession, talent, career progression, mobility and headcount reporting.  Pro-activity and responses to client groups have included facilitation of corporate initiatives such as succession planning; scoping career and leadership development; ambassador for values; supporting Directors and HoFs with performance management, salary negotiation and management of sustainable differentials; identification of talent; in-team restructuring and line manager coaching for managing performance/ER cases.  Projects have included leading on successful design, delivery and implementation of a toolkit for Managing Working Time and Wellbeing at NNB including the roll out of a compulsory Annual Stress Risk Assessment to meet EDF Energy’s high level Safety agenda item on mental wellbeing.    Other project work includes building technical competencies for one of the core job families identified for a new personal development pathways structure and facilitating workshop to implement the new model.

Call centre work in an energy company was very busy and pressurised.  I dealt with queries and complaints, mainly by telephone, and saw them through to their resolution. Customer service was paramount and each caller was treated as an individual, but I always had to be aware of targets that had to be achieved ,e.g number of calls, call duration, promotion of products and services. My calls were audited by the Team Manager on a regular basis and feedback given in 1-2-1's.  I was a Team Performance Coach for a while which meant I was the point of contact for the team when they needed guidance. This role also entailed working with the manager,  reviewing advisor calls and discussing any performance issues.

Working on a team had the benefit of the co-workers being able to give or receive assistance as they would have knowledge in different areas of the business.  I also sometimes dealt with customer correspondence which had to be attended to in the same manner as if I was speaking to them.

When I first started to work with the company the call centre was only a small part of it. There were various other departments in which I worked and gained a lot of experience in the business.
  . Collections
  . Billing
  . Correspondence
  . Customer Liaison
Over the years the industry has changed dramatically and had to become more competitive

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Project manager 20 salaries reported	£49,032 per year
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