customer service representative

compliance officer

case worker

delivery manager

business analyst

HM Revenue & Customs

1) A very highly disorganised department. The interview process was conducted in 2019 and appointments were made in 2021.

2) Members of staff are set up for failure from the beginning, due to not being provided with the required support & guidance but left to their own devices. As me and another colleague had no access to systems for 12 weeks! And we were given our login credentials on 

3. The training program is a constant bombardment of numerous PowerPointSlides. It’s delivered at a rushed pace and this is content you’re required to make use of throughout your daily role.

4. In 2019,  a detailed report entitled ‘Respect at Work Review’  was published whereby not a single individual had confidence in the grievance procedure. 

5. Also, the very same report found that people tolerate a significant amount of so-called “low level” poor behaviours that would not be acceptable in other environments. This creates a snowball effect where the environment may not be good for some colleagues, and more serious behaviours may emerge. Moreover the report found that colleagues experience both “abusive”and “abrasive” behaviours.

6. Abusive behaviours, where individuals realise they are causing negativity, have been seen in various parts of the organisation. These are often not dealt with.

7. Abrasive behaviours are even more prevalent, in which an individual does not realise the impact their behaviour has on others. Such as bullying or harassment, and are not dealt with formally but cause a ripple effect of disengagement and discontent across teams’.

8. Delegators will assign unofficial field agents, to gather intelligence regarding you and then they’ll report back to their delegators, who will then use probing questions to obtain the very same information from you. This is done to fuel the unconscious bias of such people as well to ascertain whether you have a flexible relationship with the truth, whilst disregarding the three fingers that point back at them!

9. Having BAME in senior positions doesn’t mean that the organisation is progressive, especially when the ethnic minorities in question, have less credibility with the people they claim to represent. Such people are employed by people from a predominant ethnicity who’ll use such people to fuel their unconscious bias towards BAME employees, so they can remain politically correct.

10. My line manager was an ethnic minority who adopted the persona & appearance of wearing a religious item but her conduct was a clear deviation from theological standards of behavior. However, she was used by her manager who was egoistic. He decided to use her to subjugate me to negative treatment primarily due to the fact that I made a formal request to work from home or to attend my local regional office. However, the focus was on considering the request, rather than accommodating the request, so I decided to give my resignation and he couldn’t accept the fact that I’m leaving on my own terms, rather than allow him to discipline me and have me sacked, just because such an egoistic person started to have issues, due the vendetta not going as he meticulously planned it out. As well as the fact that he decided to express negativity and undertake an interrogation regarding my individual circumstances which were already known to him via e-mail.

11. Therafter, he influenced my manager who is under his direct command to dish out conduct warnings, I responded to her  by stating that should you decide to discipline me I’ll be taking the matter to ACAS, who is independent from both of us. During this meeting she was receiving coaching from her manager, who would tell her what to say and thats why there were many prolonged silences within the meeting as the script provided to her had ran out.

12. However, since I gave me resignation I was subjugated to a campaign of negative treatment and a vendetta was initiated against me as I refused to tow the line with such oppressors.

13. There is a culture of avoiding the messages from members of staff, when a message is sent on MS Teams and MS Outlook, you’ll be left on unread for a long period of time.

14. Members of staff will change their Team status from green (available) to appear offline (white) whilst they are still online. This will be done to ensure that you do not contact the member of staff, assuming they are offline, and to ensure that once you go offline, they can now appear online.

My advice is too avoid at all cost, awful place to work, monitored and watched constantly.Awful management who couldn't give a monkeys about you. you are a number, whilst you take call after call. Your team leaders usually newly promoted will take great pleasure in not having to take any calls other than the odd one where they want to speak with a manger and as they weren't on the phones themselves that long usually can't answer and have to ask a more experienced member of staff/team leader. 

Culture of being treated like a child and ''Im better than you'' as i'm a grade or two above you culture, everyone's obsessed with there grade lol. To be honest i left 6 10 months ago after a year and i know that pretty much everyone i worked with has left, gone on the sick, with a view to handing there notice in, or have just plain left. some with jobs lined up others without. We had reasonably good training but i understand now the training period is very short and people are being chucked in the deep end with a few weeks training, 

We had 4 weeks and two on the phone buddying and it was still daunting. You may be trained in web chat and post but YOU WILL NOT GET TOO DO THIS OR DO IT ONCE EVERY FEW MONTHS FOR  MAYBE AN HOUR.  DO NOT BELIEVE THEM!!!

Some centres have priority for calls and others for post/web chat etc. So anyone working in one of the new centres for example Cardiff city centre... your stuffed, it'll be non stop calls. you'll also be working 2 weekends minimum out of Four either a sat or Sunday and if your reliant on public transport to get in on a Sunday they really couldn't care less even though buses and trains start later on a Sunday they'll still want you in at 8am,9am etc. 

All in all it's pony you'll be working crazy shift patterns where one week it's 12am-8pm another 9am -6pm etc etc.Each week is different and flexi time is extremely limited ie you can make up an hour and a half a day.

All in all why do you think this role is constantly being recruited for and has had it's deadline extended?

Because quite simply its a call centre. money looks good but you'll take home roughly just under 1200 quid a month after tax, Ni pension etc. Best thing myself and others did was leave so many better jobs out there. Hope this helps. and if you think it's sour grapes it's not! it really is like this join up and see and let me know in a year if i was wrong!!!! :) I so happy I left!!!

The job advert for ‘customer service consultants’ is quite vague and ambiguous, but don’t be fooled, it’s a call centre! 
They will tell you that you have to communicate through various channels, but the reality is that you will use the other channels (web chat, post) in very rare occasions. As a demonstration of that, I have never been trained in one of those other channels in 10 months. 

The job is basically being over the phone for the whole day, trying to repeatedly explain complicated things to people who, in most cases, will not understand and will shout at you. 

Depending on where you are allocated, you might be required to work on Saturdays and Sundays as well. The feeling is that sooner rather later everybody will be required to work on bank holidays too.

HMRC closed all of its face-to-face offices because of austerity measures of the central government. The idea has been to replace the knowledgeable people of those offices with an easily interchangeable and less “pretentious” workforce. 
In fact, the training offered is so poor that when you start the actual job you know how to deal with less than 10% of the queries. For the remaining queries you will learn through embarrassment and blunders.

HMRC treats people in the contact centre like numbers, or even less. They are only concerned (‘obsessed’ would be more accurate) by stats and waiting times, and can’t care less about you. 
The management does not trust employees doing their job AT ALL. Because of that, they have in place DRACONIAN AND OPPRESSIVE systems of control, and every second (yes, second!) of your working day is monitored and controlled.

They will tell you that this is for the greater good, “the customer” (pathetic attempt at applying a private concept to a public service). The reality being, instead, that they only want to prevent attention from the media about long waiting times. The “customer” gets an utterly appalling service, provided by an army of poorly skilled stressed employees, who run away from this job as soon as they can, and not so competent management. 

Ask yourself why they are recruiting hundreds of new people for this role every 6-12 months. 

My advice is: STAY AWAY!

Typical day: Minimum 12 cases. Usually exceed, but sometimes difficult cases where previous admins have not worked cases properly. Other cases where higher grades have not worked cases properly. Calls are easier than working worklists properly, but management don't always see it that way. You're instructed to do casework by guidance and senior management but junior management's agenda is to make stats glowing in how much their team collects, sets up for collection, and cases worked. Basically conflicting interests in that admin are pressured by senior powers to work all cases perfectly, and junior management are pressured to pressurise admin into working cases expediently. Results in unspoken rules around which cases can be referred (deflected) to other departments. If there was less red tape and colleagues could use initiative, more work would likely get done, and more tax collected, but this would require trust and risk assessment. Trust is an issue, as colleagues are expected to write detailed justifications on cases that creep towards an hour. It's understandable management have a large team to monitor, but where there are trust issues about efficiency the admin are expected to have answers because some  management are monitoring the quantity with statistics rather than quality of work through shadowing or holistic conversations. I would say others struggle with the fear motivators more than me. I've learned to be indifferent and do as much work as i can, but some say the pressure is making them feel under-appreciated and they are talking about leaving. They are having performance issues, but I think it's the pressure that's distracting them rather than the duties.


Used to be a good employer, however 
Keep well away from HMRC these days. Almost minimum wage due to wage cap for last 8 years. Hard to believe this is a Government establishment. Working in freezing cold office with no screening to the work area to block ice cold draughts. People sit with overcoats, hats and fingerless gloves. Upper Management refuse to provide temporary heaters. Everybody complains but the ignorant upper management ignore it till summer comes along. Creates a lot of sickness and then you get disciplined for being off!. 
Age discrimination exists and over the last 2 years, people in my area (B&C) are becoming victims of what appears to be a constructive dismissal programme. 
Since tax credits is to become part of Universal Credit and moved to DWP. (a good chunk of HMRC business) the people are surplus to requirement. Plus Washington Waterview is set close and all staff planned to be moved to Benton Park Regional Centre where there is without doubt no space for everybody and no available car parking. They are trying to force weekend work on us , stopping us from parking on site,ignoring thermal comfort, moving people onto call centre “total business” work without adequate training (1 week!) and forcing people to work Christmas holidays when it was never reqd previously. To top it all they have brought in a big mouthed Bully G7 and his puppet to do the dirty work. A G7 who states the “days of training are gone” and “if you don’t like it you know where the door is” !!!!!.No management skills whatsoever. To think as a tax payer I pay income tax to support this incompetent regime.. Keep well away.
 PS -  current job adverts lead you to believe it is Admin work on offer then on your first day at work they tell you it is a call centre job. A lot of people that recently started left their call centre jobs to get away from that environment and now find themselves doing the same for less money and managed by bullies

Working for HMRC has it's plus points, but also many negatives. 

Being employed within HMRC gives a huge amount of job security, and if you (like me) have a contract including flexi-time, then it can become all too comfortable. You can guarantee that 1 in 5 people joined HMRC as a stepping stone until they found something better, and, 5, 10, 20 years later, they're still there, institutionalised. The accomodating nature of HMRC, and the benefits of flexible working hours are the main players in that, however, the comforts come at a cost. There is very little job satisfaction around HMRC on the whole. If you strike lucky, you can land one of the more enjoyable and engaging roles, but if you are unlucky, you can find yourself on one of the life-sucking telephony teams, or enduring the monotony of one of the processing teams. Sometimes you will be in one of these roles by choice, trying to use it to progress through the ranks, other times it will be through no choice of your own, with the well worn company line of "business needs" being used to sweep you into the darkest depths of hmrc's less glamorous departments. 

Career progression is a minefield, the dog-eat-dog nature of countless applications from countless departments duking it out for the same positions, however, with some patience, putting your face in the right places and impressing the right people at the right time, it is possible to progress, either upwards, even side-stepping into more selective roles.

As jobs go, it certainly isn't the best, but, it isn't anywhere near the worst either. If you're specifically looking for office work, then, i'd probably go for it, and hope for the best. 

However, if you're young, vibrant, have life in your eyes and dreams to fulfil, then I would STRONGLY advise against it, even if you are only planning to stay there for 6 months to a year. Don't run the risk of becoming the next wave of institutionalised civil servants.

Positioned to highlight, solve and escalate calls for employees within allocated team.  Furthermore, I was responsible for the administration and facilitation of ICT related requests within the Service Desk mailbox. Responsible for providing 1st/2nd Line ICT Support for end users, Able to give step by step excellent service to end users and manage service requests to set resolution times. Within the Department of Work and Pensions I was able to prioritise workload and manage all service requests to agreed resolution times.  Able to respond to and manage ICT queries raised by end users for over 50 machines, maintain and update helpdesk software with developments consistently. Positioned to highlight, solve and escalate calls for employees within allocated team whilst providing system Analyst advice, Responsible for the administration and facilitation of ICT related requests within the Service Desk mailbox, Able to change and manage user accounts, add and remove permissions and refresh profiles, Providing desktop and server support For a short period of time I was also trained to deal with tax and tax credit queries because of the influx of incoming calls, this involved dealing with incoming tax credit queries.  Able to handle and manage issues for clients based on step by step problem solving, responsible for making changes to client tax credit awards. Calculating tax code based on client’s circumstances in regards to Paye and Self-assessment files. Good use of Mathematical problem solving formulas to calculate tax payments and deductions. Responsible in dealing with co-operate and inheritance tax. Provide consistent professional support and solutions to other analysts within the department team, undertaking necessary training courses, Able to work well under pressure and deliver fix time fixes at 87%.

Positioned to highlight, solve and escalate calls for employees within allocated team.  Furthermore, I was responsible for the administration and facilitation of ICT related requests within the Service Desk mailbox. Responsible for providing 1st/2nd Line ICT Support for end users, Able to give step by step excellent service to end users and manage service requests to set resolution times. Within the Department of Work and Pensions I was able to prioritise workload and manage all service requests to agreed resolution times.  Able to respond to and manage ICT queries raised by end users for over 50 machines, maintain and update helpdesk software with developments consistently. Positioned to highlight, solve and escalate calls for employees within allocated team whilst providing system Analyst advice, Responsible for the administration and facilitation of ICT related requests within the Service Desk mailbox, Able to change and manage user accounts, add and remove permissions and refresh profiles, Providing desktop and server support For a short period of time I was also trained to deal with tax and tax credit queries because of the influx of incoming calls. Able to handle and manage issues for clients based on step by step problem solving, responsible for making changes to client tax credit awards. Calculating tax code based on client’s circumstances in regards to Paye and Self-assessment files. Good use of Mathematical problem solving formulas to calculate tax payments and deductions. Responsible in dealing with co-operate and inheritance tax. Provide consistent professional support and solutions to other analysts within the department team, undertaking necessary training courses, Able to work well under pressure and deliver fix time fixes at 87%.

A typical day at work would be greeting everyone upon arrival, such is the norm, then boot up your workstation PC, which is updated every 4 -5 yrs and always out of date when first installed. Open a multitude of computer programs to help with the differing daily queries then commence your shift answering as many calls as possible and answering the questions posed by the unsuspecting populace. Instructed from on high not to add anything further to the query for fear of extending the call length.
Initially, I learned to accept & complete Tax Credits applications & queries progressing from Tax Credits to Income Tax and the subsequent intense training & application of the varying & numerous Income Taxes processes.
Management were infrequently people who'd risen through the ranks & few and far between. The remainder were, sadly, self-orientated & self-opinionated who invariably concern themselves with junior but like minded staff members.
The majority of co-workers are sincere, hardworking individuals daily given increasing workloads with unattainable goals to achieve by their equally overworked & stressed masters.
The hardest part of the job is the ever increasing minefield of daily changing & updating guidance which is changed, updated & driven by other staff members who have no experience or idea of face-to-face customer contact they too are driven by irrepressible superiors who appear solely interested in appeasing their irrepressible superiors and so it continues
The most enjoyable part of the job are your genuine, everyday colleagues, the majority of whom are sincere, hardworking individuals daily given increasing workloads with unattainable goals to achieve by their equally overworked & stressed superiors.

A typical day as a Face To Face advisor would include meeting customers (taxpayers) as they come into the office, questioning then to find the root of their query, and direct them to the most appropriate channel to resolve their query. This also involved taking on interviews with the customer, accessing and updating their records, addressing their issue and where necessary handling complaints.  In between meeting customers, back office work is undertaken - cleansing and updating records, reviewing cases etc.

For me the most enjoyable aspect of this role is the people contact. It is an honest interaction.  It is incredibly satisfying to see the expression of gratitude on the customer's face, or to see that although they may not be happy with the answers they got, they at least understand the answer, whereas before they may not have.  On the flip side to that, this type of contact is also the hardest, especially when giving bad news or dealing with particularly sensitive situations, bereavement for example.

The whole experience of working on a small team of 5, has taught me how important it  is to get along with colleagues, as we rely on each other to support decisions, and be there when extra support is needed.Colleagues for me, were almost always supportive and helpful.  We were mostly self managed as our manager was based in another office, visiting us once a week.  

Working for HMRC as a whole has given me a wealth of knowledge in taxes, taught me customer service skills, taught me how to be more assertive without being aggressive and taught me to be more understanding to other people's concerns.  Alot of these skills, having come straight from school into this job, are invaluable.

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