Raisia Williams at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

Allegra Martin

A sea of balloons tied to all the desks at work.

Speaking at the Call Center Summit

The door of the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

Student workers at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

Ben Kraan Architecten BNA

www.benkraan.nl

one of my new co-workers, Gabriel. I was showing him how the selective coloring worked on the camera.

Allegra Martin

Student workers at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

IBM's global call centers deliver superior customer service through a range of secure voice-based services.

Student workers at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

Positive Asian Female Customer Services Agent With Headset Working In A Call Center

Call Center de Santander Serfin en Queretaro por

Arup, Estudio Lamella y Springall

Call Center de Santander Serfin en Queretaro por

Arup, Estudio Lamella y Springall

Fire Department City of New York, look at the old box alarm assignment cards in the rotating file cabinet. taken May 1977.

Call Center de Santander Serfin en Queretaro por

Arup, Estudio Lamella y Springall

Allegra Martin

Allegra Martin

Student workers at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

a co-worker that used to sit in front of me would make random drawings on post-its and stick them on the divider between our desks every once in a while. these are just some of them.

Sometimes it feels like I work at a Chuck E Cheese.

Staff Training

Call Center de Santander Serfin en Queretaro por

Arup, Estudio Lamella y Springall

Ben Kraan Architecten BNA

www.benkraan.nl

Raisia Williams at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

Ben Kraan Architecten BNA

www.benkraan.nl

callcenter

my phone at work... this means it was a REALLY slow day

Rite Response Answering & Call Center Services. Rite Response Telemarketing

730 North Loop Houston, TX 77099-1043

(713) 868-7500

www.RiteResponse.com

Student workers at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)

All business entries in their database are on an annual verification cycle - meaning, a telephone operator calls each business once a year to confirm existing data and try to collect more. This, and the up-front quality assurance practices before the data even makes it into the database, is why ReferenceUSA can boast a 99% accuracy rate.

(Photo provided by ReferenceUSA)

Royalty-free people clipart picture of a blue customer service employee taking a call with a headset in a call center.

It was a slow Saturday at work, so Mikey blew up a plastic bag and tossed it around to keep himself entertained.

portrait of four business executives standing in an office

ZOETERMEER - Callcenter Teleperformance in Zoetermeer. ANP PHOTO XTRA LEX VAN LIESHOUT

Student workers at the Annual Fund Call Center located at 9th Street Hall on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois on October 6, 2011. (Jay Grabiec)