customer service representative

developer

auditor

it analyst

collection agent

Canada Revenue Agency

CRA is a job with zero security until you have reached 3 consecutive years of employment without interruption. Even so, the closer you get to that 3 year mark the more likely you are to be laid off.
Each employee is given inadequate training before being thrown to the wolves on the phone lines. Resources for assistance lack availability, and to top it off CRA limits the amount of time you have per call to attempt to reach a resource line despite the calls not having any specific target length.

Agents will be given training for additional lines without warning or discussion, employees will have no say in what training they do and do not receive as it is entirely determined by the employees team leader. These extra trainings are genuinely a massive amount of information jammed into a dya or half days training session and employees are then immediately activated to perform duties in these additional lines of work after inadequate training. Additional lines come with no extra pay or benefit to the employee.

The employer may or may not issue an employee a contract extension ( extensions can be anywhere from a few weeks to multiple months) based on employees performance in the eyes of the employees team leader. Team leaders seem to vary based on personality with some being easy going and therefore easy to attain high marks from, while others are more technical and stern and therefore almost impossible to excel while working under.

Employee workload is extremely strenuous and repetitive. Agents can expect to answer anywhere from 20-40 calls a day. Many of the procedures to follow are inadequate, vague, or have a bulk of gray areas. Agents must also learn to manipulate taxpayers to get the information CRA requires while seldom providing information to the taxpayer that would make CRA look bad in any way.

The union is also horrendous. For example this past year the union moved for a strike after over 2 years without a new contract. This strike cost agents thousands in pay, and strike pay was delayed by weeks in being distributed which out multiple employees in financial hardship. On top of this the Phoenix pay system then mistakenly pays and recovers this pay from employees resulting in month long periods with income for employees. After all this, once the strike has ended, CRA initiated its first mass layoff in over 3 years. Conveniently prior to signing bonus ' being issued. CRA and the union both claimed this was entirely coincidence which we all know is BS.

All in all, CRA is a job where the employer expects everything from the employee and absolute dedication while offering nothing in return in terms of job security or anything to work towards besides what may be handed to you if you're lucky. The agency is run to ensure that Canadians are kept off the government's back, but kept in the dark and manipulated as CRA paints itself as " helping Canadians". Furthermore, CRA prioritizes ensuring that executives are fitted with bonus'  over ensuring public servants are employed in mass. CRA aims to operate at the minimum operational requirements, putting stress on employees and taxpayers alike to ensure that the executives can get a bigger bonus at the end of the year. A bonus paid entirely out of tax dollars.

Overall, as to be suspected CRA is a borderline criminal government run agency and anyone should think twice before making a deal with the devil and signing a contract with these scumbags. 

The co-workers are pleasant, team leaders tend to behave like bullies, and management doesn't give care what you like. The culture is very cliquey. Some employees can't do anything right, some can do no wrong. Typically the more people in your circle you have working there, the more you can get away with.

The pay is respectable, and benefits (once you've been there a number of months) are respectable. Hours tend to fluctuate from full time to part time (I had my days vary from 5 days a week down to 3 days a week). Emails are sent out, for employees to apply for additional hours, but are not a guarantee.

Job security is virtually non-existent, with employees contracts being renewed on an ongoing basis. Your contract renewal if you are out of favour, will be dangled over your head. This can be very stressful.

Training is decent, but I found myself in hot water for doing exactly what my training instructors told me to do. The standards seem to be anything but standard. Again, this is all depending on if you are "in" or "out" seems to make a big difference.

You pay for your own parking at the Calgary International Airport location it's $40.00/month for the "green" lot which is a pretty hefty walk if you follow the route your're SUPPOSED TO (not jay walking across airport trail) or if there is construction preventing you from jay walking across airport trail. Parking closer will cost you $120.00/month. Noteworthy here is that your employee i.d. will land you 10% off at the airport vendors, by the way.

Your day will start with clocking in and end with clocking out via your telephone. Every time you clock in and out (breaks, washrooms, etc.) is meticulously detailed and will be reviewed with you by team leaders who spend a good deal of their time chatting with other team leaders or their team members that are in their favour. I've seen team leaders have chat sessions of 30 minutes or longer, while you are constantly answering telephone calls from tax payers.

Your performance will be measured by listening sessions, of which there are two kinds. One involves a coworker listening on another headset, making notes of how you answer enquiries. Another involves a team leader listening without a headset, taking notes as you handle calls. The former is for quality measuring and the latter is for coaching, but both will directly impact your job security. These can be stressful. Often listeners are conditioned to find at least one fault with every call. If fall out of favour, you'll find yourself in an endless cycle of listening sessions, with increasing faults found in your.

Advancement means answering a wider variety of calls, and is handed out based on who is in and who is out. I've seen good agents get passed over for advancement, while incompetent ones are constantly given training and off phone activities.

The environment is fast paced and high conflict, I have been called every name in the book, it's not for thin skin. The pay is up and down, and the job security adds to the stress. Your union is good, but identify too closely with them, and you might find your team leader taking it as an insult to their authority.

Average demographic is middle-aged and caucasian. Most "lifer" workers are miserable, behave in a privileged manner, and are amazingly lazy. Management goes on 2-3 hour lunch breaks and some males will sexually harass female employees- nothing will be done about it, other than their eventual transfer to another office. The union is useless and you cannot opt out of paying union dues- they come off your paycheque automatically.
I was told by management that the reason for the high pay rate is to "keep your mouth shut about what goes on around here", i.e. poorly managed/stored classified taxpayer information, huge backlog of work (more than 4 months backdated), among other issues. No proper services for ESL/French-speaking taxpayers unless you reside in Quebec. 
You are required to do constant "competency" testing, which is done fortunately for you during work hours (unfortunately for the taxpayers). These are mandatory psychological tests issued to employees to basically ensure that the people they promote are of the same hegemonic mindset that has always existed there.
They say that overtime is voluntary, but if you don't sign up for it you will be shunned and mistreated by management.
Everyone is sleeping with everyone and many employees also show up smelling of liquor. It's really unsettling. There are also never any vegan/vegetarian options at the mandatory staff BBQ's, which alienates some staff members into not participating, for which they are reprimanded.
Employees are also not allowed to pursue any type of social justice activities outside of work. You will be reprimanded if you are caught participating in activities such as human rights marches or protests, regardless of their message/purpose. You are not allowed to talk to the press for any reason, ever.
Employees who are non-white immigrants, or who possess tattoos and piercings, are not outwardly shunned, but are ridiculed and harassed by other staff members with no repercussion.
If you are hired as a permanent employee automatically, you will have your job for life and can do whatever you want. If you are unfortunate enough to be hired as a contract employee or temp, God help you. They will wait until your permanency status comes up and they will lay you off. If you are hired again, your previous years worked will not be counted toward your permanent status. They have kept term employees on in this manner for literally YEARS with no hope of them ever becoming permanent employees (this is somehow legal). However, you cannot argue with the pay rate or benefits package. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Canada's economy is garbage. What is a little white girl to do?

It's been about 2 years that I have been with the CRA. I have lasted this long only because I was in university and wages are good if you are in school and want to make decent money. 

Apart from the pay and overtime oppurtunity, this is not a good organization to work for. You are on contract for the first 3 years and contract extensions are only for 6 months at a time. And they can terminate employment any time whilst you are on a contract. So if you are on a contract, forget about obtaining a mortgage from the bank  and if you're caught up in paying high rents in this current inflation, forget about feeling secure about your housing situation because guess what - you can be fired anytime in those 3 years. 

Other than contract situation, let's talk about management. If you are lucky, you will have a team lead who has been on the phones at the call centre and knows what you are dealing with day to day and what your life is like. So they will sympathize with you more. BUT if you are not so lucky, you may get a team lead who has never been on the phones and while they understand the phones is a difficult job, they will never empathize or will be able to support you as a call centre agent - the way you deserve. A lot of your experience depends on the type of team leader you get. If they are human, they will overlook some minor things and help you. If they are not so nice, well you'll be anxious about every single little thing you do. Everything you do is tracked, you phone time, your break time, log on time, log off time - e v e r y t h i n g. This management infrastructure works very well for machines but human beings - maybe not so much. And as years go on, you either become accustomed to this management style and change OR you increasingly hate the job just a little bit more each time. 

In my humble opinion, please go and work some place where you are seen as a human being and are valued and appreciated. 

Whilst maybe other job titles in this organization maybe rewarding - I can't comment on that. I know for a fact that Tax Services Agent work is extremely unrewarding. No appreciation of the staff and management is harsh on employees at the call centre. 

Lastly, the oppurtunity to advance your career at the call centre is next to none. They hire for higher level positions but you need accounting courses/degrees + experience for that. If you are just a High school or Uni grad with no accounting courses and in some job postings - experience at the call centre - it is impossible to get promoted. 

I have laid it all out for you. Choice is yours. 

A typical day at work was data entry, calling clients and collecting information.  I was however able to volunteer and take on the Women's Employment Equity leadership role.  This added variety to my everyday work.  Through this experience I was able to create a happier working environment within CRA.  I had approval from the Directors to put together programs/workshops/brown baggers for the employees.  I worked on some things with the EAP counsellors and was able to bring in my own materials. I was able to use my intuitive sense to bring a positive mindset (to some) by allowing them to see how honoring your values is important to your happiness (including your happiness in the workplace).  I was able to create the job I wanted through volunteering my services.  CRA saw the benefit to do.  

What did I learn?  I learned that CRA was only a stepping stone.  There was no place for me to go there.  I committed 12 years of my life there and did gained valuable work experience but had a lot of curve balls thrown my way throughout.  The work was generic and the same and sitting a computer all day was taking it's toll.  

Management - in my team was awesome, understanding and supportive.  Management did their best with what they had to work with.  I was able to be a brief part of seeing how things funnel down from the Director and VP's.

My co-workers - for the most part were great.  Again it is what you make it.  There is always gossip and negativity for many things that transpired with the government walls.  I think this is what made me step out to do my volunteer program within CRA.  The people/coworkers there really needed to hear and see what a positive workplace could look like.  I am so glad that I could be apart of that.

The hardest part about my job was the negativity and criticism.  Their was bullying and everyone stepping on everyone else to try and get that next position posting.  Then their were the others who just accepted that this is their life and settled for mediocrity.  I think it saddened me and it was difficult for me to be around.  

Bringing positivity and a smile to any situation.  I am so thankful and grateful for having the many experiences that CRA gave me.  To this day, they invite me back yearly to give presentations/workshops to all of their employees throughout the mainland.  This is a great testimonial for the work I now do to help others.

Took a little over a year to hear back from application process. After hearing back, training was just about two weeks of very dry material. While training it was very difficult to understand what the job actually really entailed. They really just explain how to do it, not really what it is. After being on the phones for a little while, you understand your job just consists of taking inbound and making outbound calls dealing with taxpayers with outstanding amounts owing. This is a PERFORMANCE based position. Which means, you are heavily timed on how quick you are on the phone, after call work, breaks etc... Even if you are a couple seconds late coming back from your break, you will have to e-mail your team lead and let them know you were late or else it will go against you as everything is timed.  There is a lot of micromanagement in the office. If you even dare to take a UNSCHEDULED bathroom break or go for a sip of some water, you will be penalized on your stats if not on a scheduled break. Your time here really depends on how you perform. Team leads can really make or break your enjoyment to work. Operational hours are from 7am-11pm. You will need to be available to work ANYTIME between these hours. Having a dedicated schedule is very tough as everyone's schedule rotates every couple of weeks and alternates. You will sit in a cubicle for your entire shift and endlessly be on the phone. You have a 30 min lunch (unpaid) and two 15 minute breaks which are paid. This position really does affect your mental health. If accepted for a position, my best advice would be to applying to other government positions AS SOON as you start working and struggle the job out until you find another position. It is a really good food in the door and to move around within the government or CRA. Pay is good for the first 5 months. After 5 months, you pay decreases about a couple hundred dollars to make up for benefits. Benefits are good, but again, you do pay for them. Very draining job. You will hear everyone here complaining about the job all day long. It is not suitable for long-term.

What is the best part of working at the company?
How easy the work is. Easiest work for the pay I've ever done.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The lack of job security, and the lack of humanity when dealing with managers. It is very apparent that we are only numbers to the government.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic - People are afraid of losing their jobs, as the contracts are not very long. People will give you false information to make you look dumb and make themselves look good. Not a good place to work at all. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Wake up way too early, drive in, fight 100 people for the chance to park in 1 of the 40 available daily parking spots. Get yelled at by the impark guy. Walk 3 miles carrying 50 pounds of gear uphill. Walk in. Try and make small talk with old coworkers, no one acknowledges you since they don't remember what they had for dinner last night, let alone a coworker they last saw 6 months ago and never thought they would see again. Get to your assigned desk, try and log in before 7 am, it's 6:55 it should be plenty of time. Oh no! Update, well there goes 20 minutes, is the computer frozen? 7:20 I'm finally logged on and sorted out because the computer needs to update every time you turn it on or log in, or do anything. Now I have to answer e-mails and explain why I'm "late" to my boss who is at home. By 7:30 eyes glued to the screen and clackity clacking all day. Go for break, takes 20 minutes to walk outside, I guess I'll just sit on this chair and peruse my phone. Back to work. Lunch is uneventful, people gossip too much in the cafeteria so I avoid it and eat at my desk. Back to work until last break which is a repeat of the first break, a complete waste of time besides to rest the eyes barely. Back to work until quitting time, at which point it is a 3 mile race carrying 50lbs of gear to the car in order to get out of the lot within 30 minutes since it's a cluster**** thanks to the lack of planning when designing the parking lot.

My managers were a disaster:  they played favourites among the staff and prevented me from having adequate contact with clients. In  one case they plotted my failure in a specific assignment, but the plot backfired when the client instructed my manager and the one who participated in the plot to modify their work to match the quality of mine.  

Although I raised my complaints in writing to management, the latter ignored me utterly; yet when a colleague reported something  overheard--admitting that my comment was addressed to no one and that there was no context--management brought me in for questioning regarding a matter I was completely unaware of.

Unable to answer my grievances, the agency's management found a way to "silence" me.  

A typical work day:  reporting to my boss in the presence of my colleagues that I was available to take on more work and being overtly and embarrassingly ignored in front of my peers. Carrying out make-work projects and even being "assigned" work by a summer student, although I was at the highest administrative level, just below management. I alone in the Agency had to produce a daily report of the tasks I performed....every day!

The racism in CRA management was kept hidden from others but was effective in undermining my career and poisoning my experience in the Public Service.

My most enjoyable experience was serving clients.

I didn't believe the nightmare of bias that was present in Canada's Public Service...until I lived it!  I mention all of this only because you asked.

The lack of remote work is a big red flag since it used to be fully available but was taken away because of iron fist management. Managers cutting PPE and then the union needing to step in to mandate this is another massive red flag.

The people you do work with are some of the most considerate, kind, and empathetic coworkers you will find. Everyone is willing to help train new employees.

Management however initially trains people to focus on doing the job right the first time to only last moment flip and demand speed over accuracy. This is used as an excuse to perform massive job cuts however that is primarily caused by the Liberal government acting as a proxy for Conservative policy. Do not get upset at managers complying with their leaders.

The training was fairly long but several major components were skipped as Team Leaders had no idea what to do or say since they were not trained in those matters until those matters went live randomly. Temp Workers get punished for not being fast enough to understand the mechanics of a system the moment it is launched. Perm Workers are protected to a degree.

Due to the security clearance restrictions. The specifics of the work cannot be discussed. Keep this in mind that you have to keep everything 100% to yourself as you deal with very sensitive data.

Overall the day-to-day people you will work with are great!
The lack of a life/work balance (denial of remote access for remote work) and managers who are dazed and confused is awful. Like any other workplace.

A typical day at work involved providing a high degree of customer service to resolve client enquiries both by telephone and in person.
I maintained a database of Clearance Requests received for estates and processed them, obtained all documents and information required for auditors to perform their review to approve or deny the clearance certificate, then completed review process by analyzing account balances and after ensuring all balances were clear issued Clearance Certificates. Where amounts were owed I was responsible to collect them before the Certificate could be issued.

I also sorted and distributed incoming correspondence for the Estate Section. I performed Inventory control and created reports as required to management. Created letters to request missing information, advising of denials, advising of transfer of requests to other offices based on address of the executor(s).

I learned the most important requirements when dealing with people who have experienced personal loss were empathy and patience.

The hardest part of the job was having to limit time spent with those who were grieving their loss. But the most rewarding part was when I could help them through their difficult time. I often had verbal feedback thanking me for my patience and caring handling of their request.

I was part of an excellent team of professionals who

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